Filed under: MDDN243

Playtesting feedback and changes

So today I took the prototype into school to get other students to play it and give me feedback.

A few things get popping up from the feedback:

- I should remove the random explosion element of the nuclear rocket. This isn't 'fun' it's just annoying.

- The camera rotating around with the rocket could get very confusing very quickly and it could spin very fast, which could put off some people.

- I need to relook at my power ups and change how they work and the symbols on them.

- Perhaps since the sun is always around (removing annoying factors such as going behind planets) the solar ship should have unlimited fuel, this also give an incentive to choose this ship over others.

 

So to fix these flaws I have

- Removed the random explosion from the nuclear rocket and replaced it with a special rule where the rocket has no 'health' and if it touches anything at anytime it will explode. Paired with the fact that it is really fast this rocket should be quite the challange to operate.

- Let the solar ship have unlimited fuel.

- Fixed the camera to the environment. So the space ship will rotate around the middle of the screen and the screen will pan along with it.

I will look into changing the icons of my power ups during the game development if my game is chosen to be made.

Game choice and initial development

I chose to pursue my spaceship game. It is relatively unique and offers an interesting challenge in the physics and gameplay whilst also offering a chance for really awesome visuals.

I have decided that instead of making the environment harder to increase the difficulty I can just have different spaceships. This is good as they can be implemented as the same object with differnet parameters, rather than having to make the already difficult environment more difficult to build.

My ideas for these 4 ships will be:

Nuclear Fusion - Fastest, Fuel is very limited, Subject to random explosions.

Rocket Fuel - Fast, Fuel is limited.

Electric - Average Speed, Fuel is easy to manage.

Solar - Very Slow, Hard to turn, unlimited fuel but hard to use.

Some rough sketches at the moment:

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I have also created some 'power ups' These will be implemented last as part of my "polish" for the game if time allows:

Shield - Protects from damage for 20 seconds

Fuel - Refuel ship

Repairs - Repair all damage taken

Boost - Temporary speed boost.

Some sketches of planets and power up tokens:

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In terms of gameplay, players will fly through a generating field of planets and asteroids try to use the fuel to power them through to safety. However players have only a small amount of fuel so have to conserve and use wisely. Planets will provide gravity to pull the ship towards them or use them to curve through space. Ships can take a certain amount of damage before exploding and ending the game. Damage is caused through hitting planets and asteroids.

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243 Project 2 Concepts

Here are my three concepts for my protoype game.

1. A spaceship game similar to Yeti Sports where you have to try and fly as far as possible before crashing. The only change is that its 2D instead of effectively 1D. Players only have a certain amount of rocket fuel and therefore have to conserve it to get further in the game.

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2. A similar game where playes have to get their dolphin as far as possible by avoiding rubbish and jumping through hoops. Players would move left or right to avoid and the game would automatically generate the oncoming environment, getting harder as the game progresses.

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3. Simply put. Recycling Bejewelled. Pretty self explanatory. Players have to group recyclables together and then put them all into the right bin.

 

243 Final SWF Game

(download)

In this project we were asked to design a character and simple level for an educational children's game. These games were to promote sustainability. I chose to look at the idea of children turning on lots of power sources and leaving them on all day. My idea was to create a character that powered devices, but could only power a few at a time, so players would have to return to previous power sources and turn the power off to continue in the game. My character would be made of raw power and then place a part of itself into lights to give them energy. I decided to represent this in silhouette form, basing my aesthetic loosly on the game Limbo.

I decided that I wanted to study the movement of an animal in detail and create a realistic character. I chose to use a rabbit as they have a very interesting sillhouette and run cycle. I read some biology textbooks to learn how a rabbit runs and created a realistic sprite sheet of movements. I drew all the frames by hand and manipulated them using photoshop to give the end result. 

For my background I chose to use a very dark run down alley way. One of my initial concepts was to have a post apocalyptic world where humans are all gone. I combined some of this idea with my energy puzzle. The pictures were taken in Wellington using an iPhone and were Photoshopped to derive the end images. The lamps were drawn in by me and everything was given many adjustments to get the lights to work.

My level is very simple. Players can control the rabbit and move left or right using the LEFT/RIGHT keys on the keyboard. If they are below a lamp (can be a little tricky, try to position the rabbit directly below the ligthbulb), energy can be transfered into the lamp by using the Z key. Energy can be retracted in the same way, again with the Z key. Players are free to run about the street as they wish and turn lamps on and off. I focused more on the aesthetics of the environment and getting the character to interact smoothly than the gameplay. Only two lights can be turned on at any time which returns to my original idea about turning power off to continue to use it elsewhere.

Controls are:

Move - LEFT + RIGHT

Power Light / Remove Power - Z