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CYCLE 1: SHOOT EM UP

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), Week 1 (Studio Work)

Workshop Week 1: 27/2/17

Activity 1: Defining Player Experience Goals

Shoot Em' Up Game Videos Player Experience Goals identified:

From researching other shoot em' up style games we came up with our player experience goals:

Anticipation

Experimenting

Remembering

Anticipation: This one worked with our remembering goal. With remembering the placements of the bots and pickups the player can then anticipate them sparing in and how they move across the field.

Experimenting: The player has to experiment with the weapons to find out which weapon works best on which coloured enemy.

Remembering: Enemy bots and pick ups will spawn in the same time and place each time the player plays through the level.

These are the player experience goals that ass a studio we agreed on. Personally I would have likes to have different player experience goals that address different aspects of the game. For example;

Emotion

Have the game play through the players emotions to truly get them engaged in the game. That is make them feel joy, anger, frustrations etc

Visual

When playing the game I would like the player to be in 'awe' with the visuals. People judge things by how they look, if the game is visually pleasing the player is more likely to play.

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), Week 2 (Studio Work)

Workshop Week 2: 6/3/17

Activity 2: Game Objects and Rules

Brainstorming Game Objects and Rules:

Activity 3: Gameplay - Player Stories

Player Stories:

Verbs:

Moving

Dodging

Flying

Attacking

Defeating

Collecting

Shooting

Avoiding

Player Stories:

Playing as Avatar I will use the shoot Action to destroy oncoming enemies

Playing as a Spaceship I will use shoot red laser to blow up red enemy bots

As a player I will use space to shoot my laser

As a player I will use Enter to swap between my lasers

As a Spaceship I will use my controls to dodge oncoming enemies

As a Spaceship I will use my controls to navigate my way in the game

As a Spaceship I will use my controls to move into pick ups to give myself an advantage over the oncoming bots

Note: Most of the player stories will be repetitive; replacing some words with Red Bot, Blue Bot, Green Bot, Red Laser, Blue Laser etc,.

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), ACTIVITY 2: GAME OBJECTS AND RULES

In the following Sketches and Game Objects and Rules bellow display the initial ideas of Game Objects and Rules within the game. As these are the first ideas, they are all subjective to change late on in the development process due to personal look and feel of the game as well as feedback from future prototyping and the skill level possessed to accomplish these ideas.

Game Layout 1:

Game Layout Final:

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), Week 3 (Studio Work)

Workshop Week 3: 13/3/17

Activity 4: Interactivity and Choice

General Idea of my Interactivity and Choices:

Activity 5: Game Look and Feel

Game Look and Feel Brainstorming:

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), Week 4 (Studio Work)

Workshop Week 4: 20/3/17

Activity 6: Playtest Plan

This week we had to produce a play testing plan. Below is the initial process and thoughts for the playtest.

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), ACTIVITY 5: GAME LOOK AND FEEL

Mood Board:

Space. Futuristic. Bright

*All images were taken from Google Images under Space, Space Wormhole, Space Planet, Futuristic Spaceship and Stealth Movie EDI.

Spatial Dimensions: The visible Game World is a 2D Orthographic view. The playing field has a set screen size which the player can be in, disallowing them to move out of the screen out of sight. The playing field does not physically change other than the background image to signify proceeding to the next stage of the game. The game also has a scrolling skybox which gives off the illusion that the player is flying through space.

Style and Mood: Space. Futuristic. Bright. These are the main themes and look the game will have. Space refers to the background and setting. Futuristic refers to the look of the spaceships the player will be using and defeating. Bright refers to the colours, the game will have a bright colourful feel to it.

Period, Location: The game is set in futuristic times in Space. The player is travelling to a new planet when they are attacked by aliens.

Character: The player is displayed as a futuristic spaceship that is sleek and streamline looking. The enemies are also displayed as different coloured spaceships and are shaped visually different to the player.

Audio: Generally in this game I would like multiple actions to be accompanied by sounds. lasers will have a sound similar to a Star Wars Lightsaber when shot. When the lasers have come in contact with an enemy a small explosion noise should follow. When a bot is destroyed a larger explosion noise should follow to signify its destruction. When pickups are collected a spritely noise, similar to a xylophone, will accompany it. During the entire game a faint background noise should be playing to add an atmospheric feel to the game.

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), PLAYTESTING REPORT

When creating a game it is always important to playtest the prototype to get valuable feedback on the game that can help improve it for the future prototypes. Before starting the play tests, a Playtesting Plan was created. This Playtest Plan sets out the goals I want to gain from the playtest, what is being looked out, how it's being looked at and how it will all be analysed. Part of discovering what the participants really think of the game a set of Playtesting Questions were also done up to ask each participant once the play testing was completed.

NOTE: Some of these play testing questions can be a little different for each participant depending on how well they answer the questions. Also More questions were added after conducting the first playtest.

There where 4 playtesting participants. Notes on each individual playtest can be found below:

Participant #1

Participant #2

Participant #3

Participant #4

Participant #5

From each of these playtests the main findings were collected together to give a better understanding on what needs improvement, what needs to go and what can be added. The main findings where that every participant that playtested the game had issues with the red bots and getting surrounded by them every time they played. Also, majority had issues with the enemy bot spacing. When playing the game they found that their spaceship couldn't fit between the oncoming enemy bots which made it difficult to avoid taking damaging and loosing health. Subsequently these where the main improvement suggestions given by the participants.

Another common answer between the participants was that they all found the game visually pleasing to a certain extent and liked different aspects of the game. In asking the questions it was clear that all participants thought the game was relatively easy and straight forward, the only issue, once again, was that the participants were getting surrounded by enemy bots if they did not kill them quick enough. This then made the game hard. After completing all the playtesting I was able to act upon those suggestions of improvement as they were simple enough to do. I was also able to add a start menu and game over screen to the game, however as of this moment the end screen does not work properly. I was also able to add in a life system which was in the initial game design.

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CYCLE 2 (FP), REFLECTION

What did you learn about professional development by going through the design process?

I learnt a lot about what professional development is like from creating my second mini-game. First thing I learned is that a lot of planning goes into the development. In creating my mini-game my team member and I had to go over many things - majority of it was the game objects and rules, how everything works within the game and to each other. We had to plan out all the rules, what would happen if the player did this, how it would effect other aspects of the game etc. I also learned that there is a lot of trial and error in the development process. That is, testing health and rules effects on other objects, and changing them accordingly. For example, in my mini-game trial and error was done on the health, stamina and speed to see how much of each would decrease when effected by the other. The development of my mini-game also showed me that although I have some experience from previous units on coding/programming, that I am not very good at it, but in developing a game it is useful to have experience in different areas like design, programming and animation, to successfully develop a game. Over the past 4 weeks in developing this mini-game I have learnt a lot about myself. That is I know what my strengths and weaknesses are, when I need help and to ask for it and when I can help others. I have learnt that I am definitely a designer type of person as I like and enjoy writing out rules, objects, the games story, and how it all looks. I like documenting the process rather than physically making the game.

What did you learn about the other majors in the degree by working in mixed teams?

Unfortunately in my studio group our 3rd member dropped the unit in week 4 so I wasn't able to learn much on what her major was. The second member was a Software Technology major student. From working with him I didn't learn a a great deal as we never really discussed what we did in our majors. However from working with him over the past 4 weeks I did learn that his major is more focused on the programming side compared to mine, which is design orientated. I learnt that some aspects are similar, as previous units we had done had similar assignments, that is designing/developing a game and documenting the process,playtesting etc., all the things we have to do for the current mini-game we are both creating. The main thing I learned is that by having different majors we are able to help each other with different parts, I am able to help him with the designing/documenting, and he is able to help me with the programming parts. It also taught me that we both have different ways of thinking which can sometimes be an issue. I have a more look and feel approach and way of thinking, whereas he has a more technical thinking - its all about how the mechanics work etc.

What did you implement in your own individual work that you found the most satisfying?

In my own individual work I based the process of off the previous assessment. I didn't really implement anything that i found satisfying.

So you think that there are any ethical issues attached to designing a First Person Experience inspired by recent events?

I believe that there can be some ethical issues that are minimal and mainly effect those that are very sensitive to this topic. One issue could be the the event the game is based off of could have a certain cultural background that the particular culture could find offensive to have a game inspired by said event. Another issue that could occur is that if the game is inspired by an event that happened with Asians for instance there is always the possibility of 'white washing' the game which can cause problems. Another similar issue could be about religion. If the event was a religious one, people of said religion may get offended and feel like there religion may be being disrespected. Personally I believe society is more accepting, understanding and respectful of different cultures, religions etc., and are careful with how they portray certain things that are based of events.

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), CONTRIBUTIONS

Assets: Two assets were taken from the Unity store:

The player spaceship

The Enemy spaceships

Player Health Bar HUD: The health bar HUD was created by watching a tutorial on the Unity site - Health HUD. When creating my player Health Bar HUD I wanted to add in my own heart like they did. I researched how to do this and followed the steps from the Unity Manual: Sprite Editor.

Player Health: The player's health code was researched and adapted from a tutorial on the Unity site - Player Health - as well as help from a fellow peer (unfortunately I did not know his name, kind student in s515 also working on the same unit assignment) and studio member.

Scoring System: Two scoring systems were implemented in my game. The first one "Score:" was taken directly from a tutorial on the Unity site - Scoring Points -  (All credit for that source of code goes to Unity). The second scoring system "Red Bots killed" was adapted from the same tutorial above.

Lives Countdown: The lives countdown was created by watching a tutorial on YouTube Lives System & Getting Extra Lives - Unity 2D Platformer Tutorial - Part 18 .

Game Over Screen: The game over screen was created by watching a tutorial on YouTube Lives System & Getting Extra Lives - Unity 2D Platformer Tutorial - Part 18 .

Main Menu: The main menu, and game over menu buttons was created by watching a tutorial on YouTube Creating a Start Menu in Unity 5.

Player Re-spawning: The player being able to re-spawn was researched over many sites and was finally created from adapting code on a Unity Forum.

Coding: Majority of the code in my game was taken and adapted from the practical videos, researched tutorials (mentioned above) and by working together with my other studio member to help fix each others code.

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CYCLE 1 (SHMUP), GAME PROTOTYPE

Here is my Cycle 1 (SHMUP), Game Prototype.

Cycle 1 Game

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CYCLE 2: FIRST PERSON

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CYCLE 2 (FP), ACTIVITY 3: GAMEPLAY AND PLAYER STORIES

During the design process of creating this mini-game, an agreement of our PX Goal had to be made. We came to the conclusion that we wanted the game to be a survival game and a PX Goal that would be fitting would be Exploring - We want the player to get a sense of exploration, that they will be required to explore the island that they are on to find resources that will help them within the game.

This week we were focusing on the Gameplay and Player Stories, creating the Game Concept Statement and 10 Player Stories.

In describing the gameplay of our game in a concept statement, it was vital that 4 questions where addressed.

Game Concept Statement Questions:

What is the goal of the game?

The goal of the game is to survive for as long as you can

How is the goal of the game accomplished? What does the player do?

The goal of survival is accomplished by the player completing certain tasks that help enable their survival.

These tasks can include:

Exploring the island

Collecting resources

Wood

Water

Food

Crafting Items

What are the challenges of the game?

Exploring the island

Finding resources

Crafting items

Hunting animals

Defending of dangerous animals

Where does the game take place?

On a deserted island in modern times

From these questions the Game Concept Statement was constructed.

Game Concept Statement:

In Survivalship Bias, you play as the sole survivor of a shipwreck thats been washed up on an island in the middle of the ocean. All alone with no sign of help in sight, the player must hone their skills in hunting and crafting to fend of wilds animals as well as creating life saving objects. The game challenges the player to leave their base camp and explore the island in order to find resources that are essential to their survival.

Once the Game Concept Statement had been constructed I was then able to go and create Player Stories. When creating these stories I came across the problem of each one sounding exactly the same with either one or two word variations.

Player Stories:

Playing as the Survivor I will explore the island to find a water source

Player as the Survivor I will use resources to craft a weapon

Using a weapon I will hunt animals to gain food

Using a weapon I will defend myself from dangerous animals

Playing as the Survivor I will explore the map to locate the varies resources needed to survive

Playing as the Survivor I will complete tasks to ensure I survive

Playing as the Survivor I will swing my axe that I crafted to cut wood

Playing as the Survivor I will use my shovel to dig holes to avoid contamination

Playing as the Survivor I will collect resources to build a base to protect me from exposure and ensure survival

Playing as the Survivor I will collect resources to craft a bag to carry more items

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CYCLE 2 (FP), Week 5 (Studio Work)

Workshop Week 5: 27/3/17

Activity 1: Player Experience Goals

Unfortunately I was sick and could not attend the Workshop however, Kieran emailed what he did and I wrote down a few PX goals that I was thinking of. The next week I went over the Player Experience goals with Kieran and we came to a decision.

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CYCLE 2 (FP), Week 6 (Studio Work)

Workshop Week 6: 3/04/17

Activity 2: Game Look and Feel

Activity 3: Gameplay - Player Stories

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CYCLE 2 (FP), ACTIVITY 6: PLAYTESTING PLAN

Once the game prototype has been completed it is always necessary to playtest the game to ensure that it works properly, hear possible improvements and if it would be played. Before playtesting begins a Playtesting Plan is constructed, noting who the participants are, what aspects of the game are being tested/looked at and how it will all be tested and analysed.

In the playtesting process, most of the notes will be taken from observing the participants reactions, think out loud responses and gameplay. However, this is not always accurate and can miss important pieces of information that you want to find out. Along with the observations notes, once the playtesting has been completed the participant will be asked to answer some Interview Questions regarding the game in general and the specific areas that we are testing and looking at.

Note: Not all questions will be asked depending on how much the prototype has been completed and how much information was gathered from the observations.

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CYCLE 2 (FP), Week 7 (Studio Work)

Workshop Week 7: 10/4/17

Activity 4: Game Objects and Rules

Game Objects and Rules:

Game Map and HUD Initial look:

Game Map and HUD final look (Hopefully):

Activity 5: Interactivity and Choice