Hello again!
So we have recently be given quite a bit of feedback for our game. From our audiences perspective we aren't showing everything that our game is supposed to demonstrate. Making snap decisions to repair faults that we have been told seems to have been our downfall. Along with some miscommunication with what our Professors wanted from us. Like the title said we decided to back to basics. We needed to take a step back and trim the fat and take off all the band-aids we've been adding and look at why we have been struggling.
As part of stage two we are supposed to see where we are now and then look into the future of where we want to be. The issue is what we see ourselves doing now isn't what we are actually getting across to our viewers and our players. Level layouts aren't right and the game just doesn't have the same feel. Part of this may be just due to the fact that our artist designed a level without consulting other first, but this was necessary at the time. What i as a designer did was basically write out how our game was supposed to play. Going way back to what the original intention was. This is where our game was now and why we weren't seeing this in the game play. Ultimately I ended up building out a few small levels to demonstrate the concept to myself, my professors and my colleagues in order to create an environment which could cater to this kind of game play. From there I began to sketch out what this level should look like and all the things we wanted to incorporate. The nice thing about this game is that it can be very easily implemented into any setting so making a level isn't as time consuming assuming you can use Unity well.
What do we expect for the future from this point forward, many more meetings. In all seriousness the communication has to just ramp up as we go., being this early in the process we are all submerged i8nto each others roles and we need to realize this and use this to our advantage. Four creative minds will make a much better future then one designer and one artist. What we plan for the future is some more game modes. Being a competitive multiplayer we plan on having this game be a casual pick up and play so we need a variety of levels and game modes to play on these levels. this is where iteration can get fun because going back over old levels you can upgrade them and retro fit new levels to the older style; mixing and matching is in our future.
We plan to challenge stage two tomorrow and give our full plans for the future towards the class. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they can finally see what we are intending. This isn't just a "pushing and Pulling game (Joe Manley). This is a game that is unlike any other. When can you come into a game with the same map but really each match plays out so wildly different than the last. RPG's have been promising it for years but what about a game like this, never before.
Aaron
Monday, October 21, 2013
The Workshop Post
I think that the game “Contrast”
really can show us a lot in relation to our game. The entire semester we have
been calling everything Black Holes and Pulsars and because of this we take a
very realistic view on everything. The crazy part is, we don’t have a realistic
thing happening in this game. Nobody can create Black Holes or Pulsars in the
real world; we aren’t even going for a realistic art style. One of the major
things the Prof. Manley and Prof. Wright have both harped on the fact that we
don’t need to stay in reality; a video game can have its own rules as long as
you create your own universe. This is something that “Contrast” did very well;
they took an idea from reality and made it into something that heavily breaks
the laws of physics. They even set it in a realistic world; of course some of
the properties are different but the basic atmosphere makes you assume it takes
place on earth.
This is
why games are so amazing. People are will to suspend disbelief in a video game
because that is why they play them. You come to a video game to escape so why
not, when creating a game, do whatever you want. Of course keep it within scope
and make sure it connects to your game but do what you want, it’s your game,
your world. I originally intended this to be mostly about how we could improve
our game with this knowledge and while we have done a lot with it (starting by
removing the misnomer of black holes and pulsars) my focus is on the industry
now.
One of
the big things we find in the current game industry is repetition. Once they
find a way to make a First Person Shooter and it sells they just keep making it
that way with sequels just adding the bare minimum they can so they can string
the series as long as possible. What my group ended up doing was find a concept
that maybe hasn’t been done but something similar was done. We took that idea (Portal) and flipped it on
its back. We took it apart and said: “what could we possibly do with this.” In
terms our class could understand, the game industry isn’t spending enough time
on Stage One anymore. Games are losing
that reality breaking cool spin because they find something that works and push
it down people’s throats as hard as possible. Thankfully Indie developers have
been making some crazy games lately and pushing those Triple A companies to
react. What we want to see is more of “Contrast” we want games that push the
possibilities, a 2D game inside a 3D game. This is something that is simply not
done. “Contrast” said why not and did it. In their universe that they created
it works, seamless entrance between dimensions. The words “can’t be done” or “not
possible in this world” shouldn’t be used anymore. The strange and unique
should be embarrassed. Let us push away from carbon copy and adopt the strange
and special.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Moving on....
Well we finally did it! We managed to push past Stage One. Although our group feels we are receiving extra pressure from our Professors due to our concept, in the end we believe it will help us. Being set back we decided that we would take a week to further develop out what we have already. The task of stage 2 is to build out and flesh out your current game mechanics. To truly find the direction we are going for. At this point yes, while we do know we want a head to head team Co-Op game, we still aren't 100% sure on everything we will have in there.
After having been pressed multiple times by our professor to explore and alternate dimension where our boxes go we finally went into it. We are very cautious though because having a whole new world in a game like this with a competitive style will either cause imbalance on the sides or a large over scope. Our goal was to simply create a game using the mechanics in place. Much easier said than done though. We all sat for hours trying to figure out how to go about this. No matter how we would slice it, either somebody would leave with too many boxes or would be able to remove every other players boxes and just be able to "cherry pick" in the other world.
In the end we decided to spend around 2 hours playing around in the alternate world. The game spawns boxes into the world based on how many are sucked into a players black hole. This fills the room rapidly creating lots of zero gravity boxes. Immediately i thought of jumping back and forth to escape this world. using the boxes to climb your way out. This of course is impossible with the current setup so we had to think of something different. Then the idea hit me, use the pulsars to project the player to the top. this can be interrupted by other players, is foolish but wont distract so much from the main game that people will want to die in order to do this. From here on we iterate on this idea and prepare to challenge in a week.
Until then
After having been pressed multiple times by our professor to explore and alternate dimension where our boxes go we finally went into it. We are very cautious though because having a whole new world in a game like this with a competitive style will either cause imbalance on the sides or a large over scope. Our goal was to simply create a game using the mechanics in place. Much easier said than done though. We all sat for hours trying to figure out how to go about this. No matter how we would slice it, either somebody would leave with too many boxes or would be able to remove every other players boxes and just be able to "cherry pick" in the other world.
In the end we decided to spend around 2 hours playing around in the alternate world. The game spawns boxes into the world based on how many are sucked into a players black hole. This fills the room rapidly creating lots of zero gravity boxes. Immediately i thought of jumping back and forth to escape this world. using the boxes to climb your way out. This of course is impossible with the current setup so we had to think of something different. Then the idea hit me, use the pulsars to project the player to the top. this can be interrupted by other players, is foolish but wont distract so much from the main game that people will want to die in order to do this. From here on we iterate on this idea and prepare to challenge in a week.
Until then
Monday, October 7, 2013
Keep fighting
We challenged.
Unfortunately it didn't go as well as we planned. With a presentation that hadn't had enough time to be practiced we went in somewhat blind as to what we would say. It seemed to be going alright until group members began to contradict one another. There are words that people should say in presentations about their work and some things to stay away from. this week we planned for more practice which we will have. A potential script for those members who need something to read off of in order to stay on track. We do plan on challenging again this week though. This time it will be better than before.
Last week we were told that while we iterated on the one mechanic we didn't demonstrate why we made the decision for a head to head match. This seemed to be the biggest problem with what we had. There was nothing to show for as to why we made the decision to make the game competitive. Due to this immediately after the meeting with out professors we figured out what we wanted to do. We decided a capture the flag style game would serve our purposes well.
This week I came up with a level which contained two bases and a choke point with barricades. this level would have objects of many different sizes to demonstrate the power of the black holes. each base would have two players and would have to collect the other teams "Goal Cube" and bring it back to their own base. We also added destructible walls which get a health and armor which is directly connected to how much damage they take. This will create a dynamic field of battle which could change at any point in the match and make it difficult to make it back to your base without cover of walls.
We are hopeful for this challenge as we have pushed and gotten very far from where we had been in the past. I know we will pass this time.
Unfortunately it didn't go as well as we planned. With a presentation that hadn't had enough time to be practiced we went in somewhat blind as to what we would say. It seemed to be going alright until group members began to contradict one another. There are words that people should say in presentations about their work and some things to stay away from. this week we planned for more practice which we will have. A potential script for those members who need something to read off of in order to stay on track. We do plan on challenging again this week though. This time it will be better than before.
Last week we were told that while we iterated on the one mechanic we didn't demonstrate why we made the decision for a head to head match. This seemed to be the biggest problem with what we had. There was nothing to show for as to why we made the decision to make the game competitive. Due to this immediately after the meeting with out professors we figured out what we wanted to do. We decided a capture the flag style game would serve our purposes well.
This week I came up with a level which contained two bases and a choke point with barricades. this level would have objects of many different sizes to demonstrate the power of the black holes. each base would have two players and would have to collect the other teams "Goal Cube" and bring it back to their own base. We also added destructible walls which get a health and armor which is directly connected to how much damage they take. This will create a dynamic field of battle which could change at any point in the match and make it difficult to make it back to your base without cover of walls.
We are hopeful for this challenge as we have pushed and gotten very far from where we had been in the past. I know we will pass this time.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Challenge Stage One
Hello!
This week has been a crazy week for my group. We decided early on that we wanted to challenge for Stage One. This basically means that we were having a crunch week trying to prepare for the challenge. Our programmer began by creating a new mechanic for our Black Hole Game. All players can shoot a Pulsar to expel any objects that were consumed by the Black Hole. This idea came upon us when we watched the boxes fly across the room and into the Black Hole. The idea of fighting using Black Holes, and Pulsars was very original and would push us away from that already "done" Deathmatch game play. Following this creation we made several other small iterations of the game. We made it so players can lob the Black Hole Bullet to give a different style of shot. We also made it so players cannot be affected by their own Black Hole. This was an important iteration because it means players will have to focus on other players more and can take some responsibility of themselves for keeping and eye open. We also made a charge mechanic which will make the Black Hole bigger and more [powerful depending on how long the shot is charged. We came upon this idea just by thinking of what other games had and the visual affect of most futuristic guns. The final iteration we made was only allowing players to create Black Holes in very specific areas. This was a test for a puzzle version of the game we were thinking of.
In the end watching these mechanics play out in QA testing really made us feel comfortable that the mechanics were fun and most of the iterations were. The only one that wasn' enjoyed was the allocated space for each Black Hole. It made the players feel too constrained to what they were able to do.
We will challenge this week and we are ready to show everything we have. From the feedback we got and the loads of work we put in we will be ready. In addition this week I whiteboxed out two potential levels. We hope to get them into QA soon so we can figure out what style level and what layout will provide the best gameplay for a mechanic like ours.
Until next time,
Aaron
This week has been a crazy week for my group. We decided early on that we wanted to challenge for Stage One. This basically means that we were having a crunch week trying to prepare for the challenge. Our programmer began by creating a new mechanic for our Black Hole Game. All players can shoot a Pulsar to expel any objects that were consumed by the Black Hole. This idea came upon us when we watched the boxes fly across the room and into the Black Hole. The idea of fighting using Black Holes, and Pulsars was very original and would push us away from that already "done" Deathmatch game play. Following this creation we made several other small iterations of the game. We made it so players can lob the Black Hole Bullet to give a different style of shot. We also made it so players cannot be affected by their own Black Hole. This was an important iteration because it means players will have to focus on other players more and can take some responsibility of themselves for keeping and eye open. We also made a charge mechanic which will make the Black Hole bigger and more [powerful depending on how long the shot is charged. We came upon this idea just by thinking of what other games had and the visual affect of most futuristic guns. The final iteration we made was only allowing players to create Black Holes in very specific areas. This was a test for a puzzle version of the game we were thinking of.
In the end watching these mechanics play out in QA testing really made us feel comfortable that the mechanics were fun and most of the iterations were. The only one that wasn' enjoyed was the allocated space for each Black Hole. It made the players feel too constrained to what they were able to do.
We will challenge this week and we are ready to show everything we have. From the feedback we got and the loads of work we put in we will be ready. In addition this week I whiteboxed out two potential levels. We hope to get them into QA soon so we can figure out what style level and what layout will provide the best gameplay for a mechanic like ours.
Until next time,
Aaron
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