fmpreece-blog

[fmpreece-blog]

FINAL EVALUATION

When i was told that the FMP was going to be based on Survive/Thrive my attention immediately went to a rogue like game. Because of their mechanics, they always tend to be a fight for survival in the beginning and as you get further into the game and you get more items it becomes more of a thrive situation and you can coast through the game enjoying the run you have built. I wanted to create this kind of atmosphere in my game but i never got to add in abilities into the game, instead i went for a game demo and the player feels like they need to survive from the beginning and as they get more comfortable with the controls they can have fun with it and thrive.

The research i have done in my project has been semi-consistent throughout the project, sometimes i would focus my efforts on developing the game and then the research posts would begin to lack but i feel that i have done sufficient research to back up my design choices and to show why i made these decisions, as they heavily influenced the game. Because most top down rogue likes control in the same manner, researching three of the most popular ones has given me insight onto what the players are looking for in that type of game, generally its difficulty and having to be persistent through a seemingly impossible task and so i wanted to portray this in my game but without being completely unforgiving, i wanted to allow progression at a slowed rate to keep the players playing the game once they have given it a try. 

The primary research i did into playtesting my game was conducted through a questionnaire, i chose this method because it is a quick way to get immediate feedback from your audience to be put to use as soon as you find a general consensus within each answer. Using this method i did find out a lot about my game from a different perspective and i hadn’t really considered things that were suggested to me until i performed the research. I could have chose a different method such as a focus group and in that i could pitch ideas to the group and get them to bounce ideas between each other and back to me but i feel i made the right decision, but i could have possibly done both.

For secondary research i looked at similar products, what those games do that i can use as influence on my own game and how these features/aspects communicate with the player. For general game mechanics i looked at three of the most popular game in the rogue like community and explained their mechanics and what they did that was unique. I also looked at how the games similarities made each game more user friendly for the audience and how the unique features of each game gave the player something new when playing each game, and then from this i explain how i can use this information when developing my game by using mechanics that the community know and love and adding my own unique mechanics to give players a fresh feel and something new to play. I also looked at a similar product outside the rogue like genre in Dark Souls (FromSoftware, 2011)

During pre production i first created a Gantt chart so i could organise the work that i was going to do by order, so that I knew when i was going to what work. I believe that i had created the Gantt chart effectively and realistically but unfortunately, I seemed to neglect using it for the most part as i found that i wanted to be more flexible when i was doing my work and focusing on what needed doing because i felt that the Gantt chart didn’t have enough time for creating the game. Because of this i feel that i didn’t use the Gantt chart properly and ended up ignoring it altogether even after a halfway evaluation but i can understand its importance when creating a game because it keeps you to a schedule and focuses you throughout the development of the game.

Another part of pre production was completing the GDD and the proposal. As i am working in a group and am focusing on the coding element of development, I am limited to the sections mechanics and gameplay. This means that i will have to be really detailed so that i hit the grading criteria as i don’t have all of the sections to complete. For gameplay i talked about the console that the game will be played on, the controls that will be used and if there will be controller support, i also talked about the style of the game in terms of controls and how it is a classic twin-stick shooter in homage to the rogue like genre. For the mechanics i explained how the game is going to feature different elements for the player to interact with, for example an ability or going into buildings. I actually had a little trouble with this section and had to rewrite it because, originally, i wrote about mechanics in terms of code but i was told this was incorrect and that i should look into a book called level up by Scott Rogers where he explains what the term mechanics actually means and using this i rewrote the section. I am pretty happy with pre production as a whole but the only thing i would want to improve if i did the FMP again would be not to rush through the pre production just to get to production as i feel that has had a negative impact on the product as a whole because i didn’t properly plan out how i was going to make the game, i just started making it without making a proper plan aside from the research plan and Gantt chart.

Production is the section where i am equally proud of my work but also feel like ive let myself down because i wanted to create this huge project within the short space of time we had and created too much of an idea in my head without actually making all of it so i feel that its all gone to waste, but at the same time i am really happy with the way the game turned out in its current state because i only used GML to make the game without using any pre made attributes of game maker, i learned alot for future use and also got to put into practice some skills i learned previously. I documented every part of the games creation with skeleton code and screenshots in a production diary that also explains what each part of the code does to prove i know what i have created. There are some bugs that would really get on my nerves and i would spend alot of time trying to fix them with no avail and this would set me back in terms of the games development and i think this is why i didnt get alot more done than i wanted as i didnt account for bug fixing in my pre production, and would definately add a section into the gantt chart exclusively for that element in the future.

To conclude my final evaluation i think that, on a whole, i am proud of the work that i have done all things considered and i feel like i worked hard in everything from the research to the game itself and am throughly pleased with the way it turned out, but of course there are things that wish i had done differently or things that i wanted to do but never did as ive highlighted previously. I am particularly happy with my research because i actually really enjoyed carrying it out, it was really interesting to look more in depth at games ive played for years and find out things about them i never even considered, i also liked letting people play test the game and getting their feedback because i never really realised how satisfying it is to communicate well with the players of the game, in the sense that you make something you hope the players will understand and connect with and when you see it happen first hand it really drives you to keep working with the game and the players.

[fmpreece-blog]

Production Diary: Making Enemies Shoot at me

1) (in enemy object step code)

cooldown-=1; if(distance_to_object(Player_obj)<=coolrange) if(cooldown<=0) {    cooldown = coolmax    dir = point_direction(x,y,Player_obj.x,Player_obj.y);    i = instance_create(x,y,Enemybullet_obj);    i.direction = dir };

2) (Enemy object variables)

cooldown=0; coolmax=30; coolrange=300;

3) (in enemy bullet object)

move_towards_point(Player_obj, Player_obj, 5)

1. The first section of code detects if the player is within 300 of itself, if it is then it will create a bullet object and it will shoot at the player, it then resets the cooldown to 30 frames and shoots again if the player is within range and if the cooldown is back to 0.

2. These are the variables used in the code above.

3. This is what makes the bullet go towards the player once it has been created.

[fmpreece-blog]

Reflection on Gantt Chart

I haven't used my Gantt chart to its full effect from the beginning of this project, the primary reason for this is because we didn't have much restraint when it comes to plotting out our ideas. Whenever one of us had an idea we would immediately act upon it and start producing it and adding it to our game, and while this means we could make more stuff, it also means we will most likely miss some important aspects of the project and we have no planning to show for everything we make.

I plan to counter this by checking my Gantt chart before i start work and referencing what i should be working on an if i feel that it isnt applicable to be working on what ive put down i will write in my evaluation why i chose not to follow the chart 

[fmpreece-blog]

Questionnaire Results

I carried out primary research in the form of a questionnaire to find out what people that are in my target audience think about the game.

The first thing i asked about was the movement, if it was too fast or slow and if it was clunky or if they liked it. The general consensus was that the movement was responsive and was a good pace, but some people wanted to see more variety of movement, such as a dodge mechanic or a teleport,knowing this i have been researching into implementing mechanics into our game and hope to have finished putting in at least one by the end of the project.

Secondly, i asked about the shooting. Most people said that the players shooting mechanic was near perfect, the fire rate and shot speed was great and they loved using the mouse over the arrow keys, however it was clear that everyone thought the player should be limited to an ammo clip, which is something I am going to look into alongside looking into creating ammo pickups for replenishing spent ammunition.

Next, i wanted to ask specifically about the enemies respawn rate because i was playing around with different speeds and couldn’t decide on one, i didn’t want to make it too fast and swarm the player or too slow and bore the player. The results were 50/50 some said it was good as it is because it allowed to player time to prepare but some said it was too slow because they are also easy to kill. This made me think that when i add in a new enemy type that rushes the player down, i will need to alter the respawn rate again to ensure the player isn’t overwhelmed, so this is something i will constantly need to keep in mind and keep getting play testers to give feedback on the balancing.

I then asked about the enemies generally, to see what the players thought of them. All said they needed improvement, because they are too easy, some also said they lack variety. To fix this issue, im not going to change the existing enemies yet, i want to add in an enemy that rushes the player down without shooting so that the player has more to think about. Then i will ask people to play my game again and ask if the original enemy needs to be changed in conjunction with the new enemies.

Lastly, i asked what the players overall opinion of the game is, pros and cons style, a lot of people were pleased with the overall position of the game but would like more variety, such as more enemies, guns and abilities. The smoothness of the controls is seemingly its biggest selling point, as it was brought up on nearly all of the questionnaires, so it is good to know i dont have to edit the players movement much, if at all.

This questionnaire has been extremely useful for me, because it has highlighted a lot of areas that i need to improve on and add new things to make the game more engaging for the player, but it has also told me that a lot of people are enjoying how are game works and the direction its going in and their feedback has ensured that it keeps going in the same direction. Implementing the changes outlined above will allow me to effectively communicate with my audience through our game.

[fmpreece-blog]

Production Diary: Writing my Questionnaire

When writing my questionnaire I had alot to conisder and didnt want to write long and convoluted questions that bore the player, equally i didnt want lots of short questions that doesn’t really help me, so i needed to find a balance. The way i did this was by asking about specific parts of the game such as the enemy, the player, the map and asking a general question about them. For example, my first question about the enemies was “What is your opinion of the enemies in terms of mechanics” I put in terms of mechanics so that i didn’t get any feedback on the visuals as they aren’t my area, also to make sure i get the answers im looking for i added some extra information at the end “(The movement, their shooting) to give the player a prompt on what to write about incase they arent sure what the question is asking for.

The way i layed out the questions was important too as i wanted to make it so the questions are asked in the order that the player encounters them in the game. So i asked about the players movement and shooting first then i asked about the enemies and to end it i asked about the game as a whole and their opinions on it, so i know what i need to look at in each aspect of the game.

Of course I gave the questionnaire to peers that are in the target audience range of my game but i wanted to see what would happen if i gave the questionnaire to someone outside, so i kept one spare for our teacher to fill out and as expected the results were completely different to the ones from our target audience, the anomaly Q. had answers such as difficult to control and not friendly to new gamers, but i expected this as our game is aimed at people who have previous experience in this genre of game.

I feel that all of this has been critically important in our game development as it has shown me what the players do and dont like and what i need to look at and i also think that the work into designing the questionnaire has proved its worth as it has provided me with useful and detailed answers, and all of this will lead to me making a game that the players enjoy as they influenced its development.

[fmpreece-blog]

Research into Similar Products: Titan Souls

Once i had finished looking at Dark Souls (FromSoftware, 2011) i immediately thought about Titan Souls (Devolver Digital, 2015), a game that mixes together perfectly the Dark Souls difficulty scheme and rogue like game play but instead of just referencing in that post i decided to research into it properly.

Titan souls is a completely different kind of rogue like, because it isn’t just a run based twin stick shooter. It actually plays similar to dark souls, but without any enemies other than bosses, you have to progress through the game with a bow and a single arrow by defeating each of the bosses. The game could be considered to have similar level design to Shadow of the Colossus (Team ICO, 2005) because the only enemies in the game are boss’s. 

I really like this game from a research standpoint because its completely unique in its genre, there isn’t many other games that have the same or similar mechanics to this game. This gives me an opportunity to look into another rogue like that has completely different mechanics to see how i can implement new things into my game without losing the touch with the genre we are going for.

Because there are no general enemies, the general idea of the game is to progress through each boss and collecting their souls. There isnt any upgrade system, you cant get new equipment, but all the bosses die in one hit from your bow and arrow. Its highly likely you have to fight a boss more than once and each time you die you will have learned something about its attack and defence, meaning you are more prepared than the last time you attempted it. It could be said that the only character improvement the player can do is improving their own knowledge of the games mechanics and their ability at manipulating them, directly opposing general rogue like mechanics of improving the playable character. This also means that the player can never steamroll the game by getting overpower unless they themselves know the game so well they can beat each boss first try.

This kind of direct connection with the player is incredible because the game is entirely dependant on the players ability and each boss is designed to catch you out so its almost as if the player is fighting against the developers themselves in code form, which is amazing to me and is a huge inspiration when it comes to making my own game as i would love to implement that kind of connection to the player.

[fmpreece-blog]

Production Diary: Creating a Respawning Enemy

1) (in enemy object)

hp = 100;

with(other) instance_destroy(); hp -= 50

if hp <= 0 {     instance_destroy();     global.score += 1; }

2) (in enemy_spawn controller)

spawn_rate = random_range(120, 600); alarm[0] = spawn_rate;

instance_create(random_range(32,view_wview),random_range(-32, view_hview),Enemy_obj) alarm[0] = spawn_rate

1. First I had to declare the hp variable for the enemy object and then I wrote what happens when the enemy object collides with the bullet sprite, what happens to the enemy also happens to the bullet, so when it is destroyed the bullet that hits it will be too. It also increments the score counter by 1 for every enemy destroyed.

2. This dictates the spawn point and time for the enemy objects, the random_range function makes it spawn between 120 and 600 frames, or 2 to 10 seconds, this adds variance and uncertainty meaning the player will have to be prepared to react. The instance_create function decides where to spawn the enemies, it chooses a random place on the room, but i’ve made it so that they stay within 32 pixels of the borders to stop them from spawning out of the room.

[fmpreece-blog]

Production Diary: Creating a Shooting Function

1) (when clicking in the left mouse button)

if(!firing) {    firing = true;    alarm[0] = 6    instance_create(x,y,Bullet_obj); }

2) (player variables)

firing = false; rateOfFire = 10

3) (in the bullet object)

move_towards_point(mouse_x, mouse_y, 10)

1. This part of the code finds out if the player is firing or not, if it isn’t then the variable for firing is changed to true for 6 frames before firing is changed to false again, it then creates the bullet object on the players position.

2. These are the variables for the players firing function, rateOfFire means that it fires once every 10 frames

3. This is what makes the bullet move toward the mouse once it has been spawned, it moves at a static rate of 10.

[fmpreece-blog]

Production Diary: Adding a Main Controller, and add a Score

The controller handles things like the score lives and health, to start i wanted it to display the score even if i haven’t got a mechanic to increment it yet, just getting it displayed is the first task

1) (main controller variables)

global.score = 0;

2) draw_set_colour(c_black);

3) draw_text(view_xview[0]+10, view_yview[0]+10, "Score: "+string(global.score));

1. This is setting the variable of score for the entire game and giving it the starting value of 0

2.I then made it so the score would appear on the screen in black

3. This is setting the text to be drawn at the top left of the screen, it will always stay at the top right regardless of where the camera moves, this is so the score always stays in the same place. Inside the brackets i set the x and y positions and what the function is writing.

[fmpreece-blog]

Research Into Similar Products: Souls games

Even though the dark souls (FromSoftware, 2011) games aren’t in the same genre as our game in terms of mechanics, i still believe it will be useful to research into this product for the psychological effects of a difficult game on players.

Being renowned for being relentless and unforgiving, dark souls brought back what classical gaming used to be like with difficult to master mechanics and incredibly hard game-play. The way the game is designed to test the players at every interval of the game and not just at the bosses removes the monotony from common everyday games, players have to be constantly aware as even the most common enemy can prove a worthy opponent if not approached properly. Of course this comes with its ups and downs, because of the difficulty and the fact that the player has to have a pretty good willpower to constantly get knocked down and keep getting back up, it alienates anyone that finds the game too difficult to play or doesnt enjoy a game that makes them have to work really hard to complete it. FromSoftware obviously knew that this would be the case and implemented in a feature to summon in other players and NPC’s to help you to, and to defeat, the boss. This allows less hardcore players to experience the game without the torment of being alone, of course the player will still need a little skill to get them through so you cant just get someone to complete the game for you, they will be able to experience some of what the solo game has to offer the way FromSoftware intended. 

- An example of someone not approaching the most basic enemies with the proper strategy resulting in an embarrassing death. 

I wanted to play about with this difficulty mechanic in a rogue like game because generally that is how they are layed out; you progress as far as you can unlocking new items and such and when you die you restart and try again. A little simpler than dark souls but in the same breadth. I need to think carefully about how i plan this though as i dont want players to feel like what they are playing is impossible to beat, and that is something dark souls does well, it gives the player all the necessary ingredients to beat an area/boss and all they have to do is put them together and win. In my game i need to give players items or develop the game in a way that entices the player to want to find out more about the game and if they die they are going to have to want to get back to that point or they just wont bother playing the game again.

- The death screens for two completely different rogue like games, notice the similarities? Both say what character you played as, both say what section of the game you died in, both have the items you had upon death, both have what killed you and, most importantly, both have an easy way to restart the game and exit to the main menu. This clearly shows how games of this genre deal with dying, summarising the players journey in that run and giving them an easy way to start again making it so the player doesn't have to go to any effort going through menus to restart the game, insentivising continuous runs. This is something i will definitely look to implementing into my game as i want to clearly communicate to the audience that the aim of the game is to keep getting better as you play, it isn't trying to overcome an impossible task, and by showing the players progress every time they die they can see their progress and if a new strategy is working or not.

Another thing i have to consider is the level of player playing the game, some players are going to want to enjoy the game without having to struggle through it or maybe they want to struggle but not have their progress reset every time they die, so i thought about implementing a difficulty mechanic that alters things like enemy and player health and damage, and also a mechanic where the player can save their game or select a level once they have unlocked it, similar to the way Dark Souls lets you revisit levels by travelling to bonfires (once you unlock the teleport ability in the first game but it is standard in the later games) or how Enter The Gungeon has a button after every boss that lets you save and exit the game if you need a break.

- the bonfire (top) from Dark Souls, and the save button NPC (bottom) in Enter the Gungeon. It is interesting to note that the save button was added in late after release because the community recommended it as players found it difficult to put the game down and not receive a penalty for doing so, this is valuable information to use in our game as it is clear that players want a way to save their progress without fear of losing it so that they can leave and come back.

- A review of the game before the save function was added, adding in the save button effectively made this a flawless game in critics eyes.

[fmpreece-blog]

Production Diary: Creating a Player

Source code:

(1) walkingSpeed = 5;

(2) var xDirection, yDirection

(3) xDirection = keyboard_check(ord('D')) - keyboard_check(ord('A')); (3) yDirection = keyboard_check(ord('S')) - keyboard_check(ord('W'));

(4) x += xDirection * walkingSpeed; (4) y += yDirection * walkingSpeed;

1. A universal variable to define a walking speed so that if i wanted to edit the walking speed i wouldn’t have to go through the code and change them all individually

2. Creating the variable for storing what direction the player is moving so it can be called upon whenever the player wants to move

3. This is the process of assigning a value to the xDirection and yDirection variables, the keyboard_check is for checking if a specific key is being pressed, if it is, it returns a value of 1, if it isn’t it returns a value of 0. The equation is there because it takes the values given by the inputs and if the value equals 1, i.e D is pressed, the xDirection value will be 1 meaning the player will move upwards. If the equation equals -1 the player will move downwards, if both keys are pressed the equation will equal 0 so the player wont move.

4. This is what makes the player move, with the value returned from the process in (3) it works out that value times the walking speed variable and adds that value onto the y and x value increasing or decreasing the players y and x position on the room.

[fmpreece-blog]

How to Write the Bad Guys of Fiction

Morelle explains, in her book Bullies, Bastards and Bitches, that it is very easy to create a bad guy that can be recognised as a bad guy, but it is very difficult to create an original idea that doesn’t immediately get recognised for another notorious bad guy.

The example in the book is if you are creating a vampire character and everyone that sees it immediately thinks its dracula, then you have made a mistake.

However, its obvious that creating something completely new is almost impossible, so the book says the best way to create a character is to take inspiration from other existing characters and, naturally a bit of the creator will be put into their personality aswell.

Where there is 3 of us in our group, we should be able to come up with a really original idea with character inspirations from all over the place and little of our own personalities making the character almost completely unique.

(5)

[fmpreece-blog]

Target Audience Worksheet

The demographic of our game is widely centered in western countries, primarily the UK, Canada and the USA. After looking at several similar products, such as Enter the Gungeon (Dodge Roll, 2016) and Nuclear Throne (vlambeer, 2015), and seeing that their PEGI ratings are 7, looking at the PEGI websites and what makes a game a certain rating, we have decided that our PEGI rating will be 16 because our game features alcohol and smoking and we want to keep that gritty vibe whereas other similar games have a relaxed or fictitious setting.

The primary audience for our game will be people that are 16+, that are frequent internet users and are more introverted than extroverted, they will more than likely watch media content creators that play rogue likes already because the audience for this game is already an established community, that while it is pretty niche is still a great source of income for a well made game. The secondary audience would be the media content creators that make videos on the game to advertise and present new games into the community.

[fmpreece-blog]

Detailed Analysis of a Similar Product - Nuclear Throne

The next product i want to analyse is Nuclear Throne (Vlambeer, 2015), another community-renowned rogue-like that is a hit because of its unique mechanics and Dark Souls (FromSoftware, 2011) style difficulty.

The difficulty is first on the agenda as i wanted to look at this game for inspiration and how to implement it into our game. Some could argue that Enter the Gungeon (Dodge Roll, 2016) is just as difficult but the thing that this game does that is unique is that it never stops getting difficult as you can just keep looping runs making the game infinitely harder, and on Gungeon when you win thats it. Both games are difficult but in different ways, Gungeon tends to throw alot of bullets at you and try to mind flood you into making a mistake, but Nuclear Throne is much more fast paced and just relentlessly throws enemies, bullets and explosions at you and you have to react quickly. There is also alot less room to maneuver in Nuclear Throne compared to Gungeon.

The reason i want to look a nuclear throne for difficulty is because the setting is similar so the bounds that the player has to walk would also be similar, tight spaces, narrow corners and open rooms giving a range of fighting situations is how i wanted to layout the game. This will make the threat of enemies that run you down much more intimidating in the corridors and enemies can overwhelm in the wider rooms, and the player will constantly have to adapt to different situations. In nuclear throne the terrain can be changed with explosives to give more room for maneuverability, this is something i would like to implement into our game because its more engaging for the player if they can physically change the map to their advantage. This will make the player feel like they have little room for error but also can turn the tide in their favour with neat little tricks and techniques. 

Comparing the two environments. Gungeon (above) has a more open feel but floods you will bullets, Nuclear Throne (below) has narrower corners and enemies are more accurate and player orientated. Even though both games look very similar, they are in fact very different to play. And this directly affects the players experience of the game, and it is generally down to a players play style to which they prefer and because i want to add a unique feel to my game i’m going to add a hybrid of both, opens areas where many enemies can swarm you at once and then small corridors between buildings that enemies can easily back you into a corner to create an entirely new way to play altogether.

A unique mechanic that Nuclear Throne uses is the leveling system that grants abilities upon each level up, the abilities, in a way, dictate the sort of playstyle the player uses. For example there is an ability where arrows home in on enemies, so it incentivises using bows, this changes the playstyle of every run reducing the monotony of playing the same game over and over. We could add a levelling system into our game and instead of giving weapon specific abilities, we could give upgrades to players stats like health, speed, shot speed or damage, meaning players could make a general build or be stat specific like being low on health but super fast meaning each run would be unique to the players playstyle.

- A player levelling up on Nuclear Throne and picking a Melee Range ability, therefore incentivising use of melee weapons. Centering the run around a specific weapon type early so that they have time to build on it with future levels.

[fmpreece-blog]

Detailed Analysis of a Similar Product - Enter the Gungeon

(6)

Of all of the products we are looking at for inspiration, this is the biggest for me based on the mechanics of the game. I love every part of this game and naturally would take a heavy inspiration from it and am keeping myself well aware that i’m not mimicking the game and instead creating a game that is in the same breadth. 

Enter the Gungeon (Dodge Roll, 2015) is one of the biggest rogue like shooters on the market thanks to its unique features and smooth gameplay and because of its style, being a top down shooter, we are going to take heavy inspiration from this game

First off, the most useful mechanic in the game would be the ability to dodge roll, and seeing as its the name of the company this would make sense. The dodge roll allows the player to give them self brief invincibility and lose the ability to use items or weapons during the roll, this is a key mechanic because, with the fast paced gameplay, its not always possible to just move out of the way normally. However, you cannot change direction when you roll and therefore it takes a little skill to grasp and master. This is something i've paid close attention to because i would like to add a game mechanic to the game that is standard for all players, so they don't have to find it like a power up, that if used properly can give the player the edge in combat, bringing about the opportunity for a player to be bad with this mechanic and slowly improve with it so that they don't steamroll the whole game first try. This ties to replay ability well because the player may not advance through the game very far with their first couple of tries but the more they get used to the game the further they will get until they get to a point, depending on the pick ups they get, they can consistently beat the final boss.

The next thing i want to look at is the item drops, like weapons and passive power ups. One of the USP's of this game is the wide variety of guns it has ranging from a gun that shoots fish to a gun that shoots bones connected together by muscle tissue, and these guns are important because they sometimes decide how far into the game you get. Generally, it is down to the individuals skill at the game that decides how well they do but even the best soldier in the world couldn't do much with a water pistol, and this is interesting to me because the game has a mechanic which determines the players outcome based on their skill level and its out of their control, nothing can change the items that show up on the run and the player sometimes has to make the best of it with what they are given. Alternatively, the run could include some of the best guns in the game and make the game a little easier for the player, i like to see these runs as rewards for persevering through the tougher runs and i wouldn't be surprised if this is how the developers made it to be because, the tougher runs are to provide a challenge and that sense of victory when you beat it, the easier runs provide entertainment from being overpowered and slaughtering everything but wont give the player any pride for finishing the run. There is an interesting mechanic in the game where if you beat the boss of the floor without getting hit, you get a free health upgrade making the game a lot more interesting, as it incentivizes getting better at the game and also makes further floors alot easier, rewarding the player for their ability. The way I see player progression in these types of games is like this:

Player skill * Weapon and item loadout = Progress into run

This means that the player will need to improve on their own skill to get far in the game but they will also need to rely on the RNG to give them good items, and for the people that want to beat the final boss with starting equipment, that is still possible but the player skill will need to be huge to accomplish that feat. All of this information about item pickups is important because it could make or break our game depending on how we design this system, we want to make it so the player will struggle through the game more often or not at first so that they learn more about it and, it can be argued that this may drive away players but the community we are targeting our game at thrive off of these situations, wanting to get further than they did before. At the same time, we want to reward our players for completing objectives and getting better at the game, like how you are rewarded for beating a boss flawlessly in Gungeon, so that they keep playing our game. This is something i want to use to communicate with the players, i want them to get a little annoyed when they lose so that it drives them to play more and feel grateful, in the sense that they feel relief to get a good item.

[fmpreece-blog]

Trip to EGX

During our trip to EGX we had the opportunity to meet with lots of other game developers of all kinds of different games, ranging from up and coming producers to world renowned producers of games like Cities: Skylines (Paradox Interactive, 2015).

After listening to developers about their games and giving them our takes on their work, we asked them about what they think of our project and the first thing they would tell us is that we should be aware of how long it actually takes to create a game of the magnitude we were describing, especially without having access to a computer at home. One developer in particular told us that they really liked the idea of the game though, with the cross between post apocalyptic future and western and gave us handy tips for creating a game like not giving ourselves too much work to do in such a small amount of time and make sure all of the applicable research is done before diving into production, this was the developer for a game called Megaquarium (Positech Games, 2017).

All of this first hand experience of game development will be key in our own development as it has shown us how the mind of a game developer works and what we need to do to be successful in our FMP and as a developer in the future.

[fmpreece-blog]

PEGI Ratings

We had a bit of trouble deciding what the PEGI rating of our game would be, because of our art style we thought that the violence in the game could be looked over as the low detail pixel art would censor a lot of it, explaining why games such as Nuclear Throne (Vlambeer, 2015) and Enter the Gungeon (Devolver Digital, 2016) are rated PEGI 7 (PEGI, 2017).

However, the Binding of Isaac (Nicalis, 2014) is also a pixel art game but contains violence depicting religion and there is a lot of blood and gore and as such is rated as PEGI 16, in our game we would include humans and blood which could be considered as realistic violence because it is being used on humans and not a made up creature, so using this knowledge we decided that our game would also be 16 because it also depicts “Realistic looking violence” as it says on the PEGI website.

This doesn’t affect how we are going to make the game much because the target of our audience was going to be 16+ in age anyway so really it justifies our decision for the target audience.

(4)