This week was QA week. Our group was preparing to challenge for Stage One of our senior capstone. We planned to have two builds, each one demonstrating a different mechanic.Myself and my programmer went to QA testing which our school runs multiple times a week. Although the QA was very low on testers and high on people who needed testers, we were able to get all the feedback we needed.
We allowed the testers to play each game for about 15 minutes; after which they would give us feedback on a questionnaire we created. For anybody interested in this process it is best to give somewhat specific questions as to what you are asking in order to get more information about the experience. These answers are very important but what is most important is watching the testers. When they play your prototypes you need to be watching for what they find fun or aggravating; what their tendencies are in the prototype. Most importantly you need to listen to your testers. For the most part they want to see this awesome mechanic become something even better and there is nothing more useful than a fresh brain to pick.
In the end we found that our Blackhole game (more information to be revealed later) was most popular. we found that because our other prototype had such a poorly designed level, nobody could find the other players to interact with. It is these moments that show you what is strongest but not necessarily the best. It allows us to see what we need to work on and what we can make even better; even if a mechanic is enjoyable to play and interact with, it doesn't mean it can't be improved.
These testers helped us so much and I hope these Dev blogs help any readers out there.
Aaron
Monday, September 23, 2013
Hot on the trail!
Sorry everybody, I know I fell a little bit behind. After receiving some feedback from my capstone professors I decided it was time to do some more iteration; take a step back and start over again. This past week I decided to play some word games. My professor gave me feedback saying I needed to think more of the mechanic or theme we have and think hard about what defines that theme/mechanic. This past week I spent time doing that.
In my previous Creativity and conceptual development class we were taught to use word association as a method of coming up with new ideas. It is very simple to do but will help you come up with new and innovative mechanics or ideas that will help strengthen your current mechanic or maybe even allow you to find a new one. I sat for hours coming up with lists and lists of the first word I thought of or first phrase I thought of when I was thinking of my mechanic/theme. I did this for each idea we had; in the end I ended up with a bunch of lists with so many random words I couldn't even remember where some of these things came from.
From that point I went through each list narrowing down which ones seemed like something that could be conceivable whether it be in audio or a main gameplay mechanic. If it could somehow fit I kept it. I did this once again for each list and then narrowed them all down one more time. At that point I had three page long lists of ideas that could work for my mechanics/themes.
You can sit and sit trying to come up with ideas but once you write them down and really lay it all out, that is when the gems come to you. That is when the true iteration begins.
Talk to you soon gents!
In my previous Creativity and conceptual development class we were taught to use word association as a method of coming up with new ideas. It is very simple to do but will help you come up with new and innovative mechanics or ideas that will help strengthen your current mechanic or maybe even allow you to find a new one. I sat for hours coming up with lists and lists of the first word I thought of or first phrase I thought of when I was thinking of my mechanic/theme. I did this for each idea we had; in the end I ended up with a bunch of lists with so many random words I couldn't even remember where some of these things came from.
From that point I went through each list narrowing down which ones seemed like something that could be conceivable whether it be in audio or a main gameplay mechanic. If it could somehow fit I kept it. I did this once again for each list and then narrowed them all down one more time. At that point I had three page long lists of ideas that could work for my mechanics/themes.
You can sit and sit trying to come up with ideas but once you write them down and really lay it all out, that is when the gems come to you. That is when the true iteration begins.
Talk to you soon gents!
Monday, September 9, 2013
Lets get a move on
Hello everybody,
Here we are in week two of the Senior capstone project. Things have begun to heat up as we enter our first sprint. As of right now each of our sprints will consist of one week periods. We figure this will force us to make tighter deadlines to stick to and really help us iterate on our ideas while narrowing our focus.
Being that it is just the start of our projects I have been working on some very preliminary sketches for some level design and trap design. These designs aren't necessarily for where everything should be placed exactly; this is more so that we can get the players movement around the map correct and have them working towards/interacting with the right objects in the area.
For our games we are working with rather basic mechanics so the goal is to have a very dynamic experience while using these mechanics. Maybe push the boundaries and use them in ways that are considered unconventional to the average production team. By starting simple we are able to stay in scope yet constantly iterate on our ideas to flesh them out.
Most recently I came up with several changes to one of our games which could potentially switch the entire play style of the game; however this is exactly what we were looking for. we needed a game to prototype that was a bit more of a different concept than one of the others. While I am not prepared to release information on these games I can say that they are multiplayer and one right now is a free for all and the other while we originally planned it being the same it may now be co-op.
This is the beauty of Scrum/Agile, we may say it is Co-op this week but who knows maybe next week you will be reading about a new single player game we developed. It is of the utmost import that people are willin to make such large changes during this stage of the development. It is when teams get stuck on one idea, one style of gameplay or one storyline that they struggle.
Now a little different from game play this weekend I went to the art Hop. It is an event I guess you could say where local artists hang and display there art all over Burlington. From random walls and streets to fancy restaurants and bagel shops. Different styles and different types of paintings in each place. What I found was so cool was the vast variation in style and color. Many people created art with texture while some wanted you to focus on the content more than the paint or acrylic itself. When connecting it all back I find that the art hop is similar to marketing your game on Christmas. You want to be the game that pushes some boundaries. Not the game that only a few users will play because it fits them and only them. That can be too far. What you are looking for is that unique touch that sets you apart from the others and makes someone want to own a piece of that.
Not everything has to be games my friends
Stay Creative
Aaron
Here we are in week two of the Senior capstone project. Things have begun to heat up as we enter our first sprint. As of right now each of our sprints will consist of one week periods. We figure this will force us to make tighter deadlines to stick to and really help us iterate on our ideas while narrowing our focus.
Being that it is just the start of our projects I have been working on some very preliminary sketches for some level design and trap design. These designs aren't necessarily for where everything should be placed exactly; this is more so that we can get the players movement around the map correct and have them working towards/interacting with the right objects in the area.
For our games we are working with rather basic mechanics so the goal is to have a very dynamic experience while using these mechanics. Maybe push the boundaries and use them in ways that are considered unconventional to the average production team. By starting simple we are able to stay in scope yet constantly iterate on our ideas to flesh them out.
Most recently I came up with several changes to one of our games which could potentially switch the entire play style of the game; however this is exactly what we were looking for. we needed a game to prototype that was a bit more of a different concept than one of the others. While I am not prepared to release information on these games I can say that they are multiplayer and one right now is a free for all and the other while we originally planned it being the same it may now be co-op.
This is the beauty of Scrum/Agile, we may say it is Co-op this week but who knows maybe next week you will be reading about a new single player game we developed. It is of the utmost import that people are willin to make such large changes during this stage of the development. It is when teams get stuck on one idea, one style of gameplay or one storyline that they struggle.
Now a little different from game play this weekend I went to the art Hop. It is an event I guess you could say where local artists hang and display there art all over Burlington. From random walls and streets to fancy restaurants and bagel shops. Different styles and different types of paintings in each place. What I found was so cool was the vast variation in style and color. Many people created art with texture while some wanted you to focus on the content more than the paint or acrylic itself. When connecting it all back I find that the art hop is similar to marketing your game on Christmas. You want to be the game that pushes some boundaries. Not the game that only a few users will play because it fits them and only them. That can be too far. What you are looking for is that unique touch that sets you apart from the others and makes someone want to own a piece of that.
Not everything has to be games my friends
Stay Creative
Aaron
Monday, September 2, 2013
Bang and a flash and you've returned home.
Hi everyone,
My name is Aaron Goldman and I am a senior Game Designer. More specifically my specialization is in narrative writing. Although that may be the name of the specialization I focus more so on giving the audience an experience from the narrative, not just reading dialogue.
Coming into this senior year my major focus was to supply my players with a narrative which can be told both through text but most importantly from the experience they receive from the game and the atmosphere they play in. Trying to break a norm is a big part of making a successful game in the industry. We find carbon copies of games dull unless they have a big name over them. Even then you can run a well dry eventually. We are stressed in our program to innovate and create new mechanics and challenges for a player to face and experience while playing.
Over the summer my group and I pushed around a few ideas. At first we started with trying to make a game to fit a genre. Afterwards we realized that we were making mechanics and fitting them to genre's. Continuing with this idea we dumped the genre's and started from a raw mechanic. Ton of games are passed around, moving from basic to more complex mechanics. As we would add new ideas we would eliminate ideas which didn't seem logical for our time frame.
One very important thing to keep in mind during this first conceptual is scope. You must find the core of your concept and stick to just that very basic concept at first. Things can always be added later but when you promise and can;t deliver in time, well there is nothing worse. This also will help in the long run when you find that you simply don't have enough people to put enough hours in.
With our group we have been trying to come up with simple mechanics that will be easy to iterate on. We are using the Agile system (See: Scrum/Agile) which means that every week we will create a working prototype of what we have so far. From there we will slowly iterate and work on what we have each week as a sprint. This can help us prevent going out of scope and still allow us to build on what we have already.
My team and I are trying to have a very unique at the core of our concepts. For example one of our concepts will pit people against each other yet they cannot attack each other directly. This will force the player to think creatively in order to move ahead and defeat the other players.
On the opposite spectrum we have games that function similar to Snake merged with Mario where you build blocks and can jump on them. Instead we add a spin on a very simple concept like making it 3d and that one spin adds a whole new strategy to a game like that.
As we take our first steps into creating concepts for our Capstone we have to face many dangers and keep our eyes open. It isn't just simply to create a cool idea but to know it is something you and your group are capable of. I beg of all budding Game designers not to over iterate and blow scope out of proportion in this stage. It is very easy to get more excited about one concept over the other and to keep building and forget you forgot to even program in the camera.
As we press on through the year this blog will stay updated as to how our group is doing and what we go through as a full team of Senior Game Majors.
Keep Creating
Aaron
My name is Aaron Goldman and I am a senior Game Designer. More specifically my specialization is in narrative writing. Although that may be the name of the specialization I focus more so on giving the audience an experience from the narrative, not just reading dialogue.
Coming into this senior year my major focus was to supply my players with a narrative which can be told both through text but most importantly from the experience they receive from the game and the atmosphere they play in. Trying to break a norm is a big part of making a successful game in the industry. We find carbon copies of games dull unless they have a big name over them. Even then you can run a well dry eventually. We are stressed in our program to innovate and create new mechanics and challenges for a player to face and experience while playing.
Over the summer my group and I pushed around a few ideas. At first we started with trying to make a game to fit a genre. Afterwards we realized that we were making mechanics and fitting them to genre's. Continuing with this idea we dumped the genre's and started from a raw mechanic. Ton of games are passed around, moving from basic to more complex mechanics. As we would add new ideas we would eliminate ideas which didn't seem logical for our time frame.
One very important thing to keep in mind during this first conceptual is scope. You must find the core of your concept and stick to just that very basic concept at first. Things can always be added later but when you promise and can;t deliver in time, well there is nothing worse. This also will help in the long run when you find that you simply don't have enough people to put enough hours in.
With our group we have been trying to come up with simple mechanics that will be easy to iterate on. We are using the Agile system (See: Scrum/Agile) which means that every week we will create a working prototype of what we have so far. From there we will slowly iterate and work on what we have each week as a sprint. This can help us prevent going out of scope and still allow us to build on what we have already.
My team and I are trying to have a very unique at the core of our concepts. For example one of our concepts will pit people against each other yet they cannot attack each other directly. This will force the player to think creatively in order to move ahead and defeat the other players.
On the opposite spectrum we have games that function similar to Snake merged with Mario where you build blocks and can jump on them. Instead we add a spin on a very simple concept like making it 3d and that one spin adds a whole new strategy to a game like that.
As we take our first steps into creating concepts for our Capstone we have to face many dangers and keep our eyes open. It isn't just simply to create a cool idea but to know it is something you and your group are capable of. I beg of all budding Game designers not to over iterate and blow scope out of proportion in this stage. It is very easy to get more excited about one concept over the other and to keep building and forget you forgot to even program in the camera.
As we press on through the year this blog will stay updated as to how our group is doing and what we go through as a full team of Senior Game Majors.
Keep Creating
Aaron
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