michael-igb220

[michael-igb220]

Week 13 - Assignment 3 Postmortem

Throughout working on the final project for IGB220, I learned a lot about fundamental game design principles as well as how important it is to playt and iterate designs.

The textbook chapters that helped me the most during assignment three were chapter 7, 9, and 10. These chapters were escpecially important for this final assignment as they covered topics such as prototyping, playtesting, and functionality, completeness and balance. Reading chapter 7 gave me and the team good insight into what prototyping really is as well as how we can use it to our advantage. We prototyped many ideas throughout the development process such as level layouts, player attack methods, and enemy types. Prototyping allowed us to test our individual concepts and designs to see whether they fit the style/theme of the game as well as whether they were enjoyable features. Reading chapter 9 was vital for our halloween playtesting session as it provided us with the basic information around why we playtest and how we can use playtesting to better our game. We got five playtesters to playteste our game throughout the session and recorded there opinions/feedback. From this feedback provided to us from our playtesters, we were able to move swiftly onto chapter 10 in the textbook as this chapter focuses more so on completeness, functionality, and balancing. Although we didn’t have enough time to polish of the game completely, we were still able to look into some of the minor issues that were noted during playtesting.

If I had to change one thing about the development of assignment three, I would change the way the group communicated throughout the assignment. Besides scheduled workshop and meeting times, the group struggled to keep in contact as we were each dealing with various other subjects and assignments. In a perfect world we would have been able to dedicate weeks and weeks to polishing the game. However, this was just not the case. Although I am generally happy with the outcome of the game, I would have liked to see it grow with all of our ideas. Below is the final design for the one page. It still contains coming soon boxes as these are areas that are greatly needed but were never added.

[michael-igb220]

Week 12 - Assignment 3 Iteration and Changes

[michael-igb220]

Week 11 - Assignment 3 Playtesting

During the workshop this week we had a chance to conduct some basic playtesting which provided us with the following information:

- The melee attack was a bit clunky and didn’t quite look refined enough.

- Our overall scope was getting too big for the time that we had left.

From the initial feedback, we decided that by combining our first level with the tutorial level we could shorten the games development time in order to ensure that we had a fully interactive and playable game to playtest later on.

Additional playtester feedback provided us with the following:

Sword issues - 

Unrefined animations and low quality sprites

Repetitive and annoying sword sound effects

Game balance issues (sword is too powerful and makes the game too easy)

Uncomfortable key bind position for sword attack

Game content issues - 

The version of the game in which we playtested contained just one level with one enemy type and one player ability. From the playtesting it was clear that there was a lack of content. It was noted that additional levels would have greatly improved the overall game experience. It was also mentioned that having one single enemy type was slightly boring as it did not provide the player with much of a challenge. Finally, it was noticed that the player had just one ability which was the sword.

Bug issues - 

Although there weren’t too many bugs within the game, there were a few minor bugs that didn’t necessarily hurt the gaming experience but were still noticable. These bugs were:

The sword swing sound effect can still be played/heard after the player has died

The camera suddenly changes place when the player dies

The camera jitters around as the player traverses the world

The parallax scrolling backgorund continues to move when the player runs into a wall

Survey results - 

Overall, the playtesters enjoyed the visuals/graphics and audio within the game, however some found that the prototype was too short and easy. Both of these issues directly relate to the lack of content in the game. Fortunately, the playtesters found our game enjoyable and said that they would play the game again.

[michael-igb220]

Week 10 - Group Formation and Team Discussion

During this weeks workshop I walked around showcasing my game concept to others as well as listened to their pitches to see what game I might end up developing for assignment 3. I chose to showcase the platformer game as this was the game I enjoyed the most. Fortunately I was able to find two classmates who enjoyed my idea. From here we setup a discord server for easy communication and started work by brainstorming some features that we believed would fit the game.

[michael-igb220]

Week 10 - Assignment 3 Development Progress

As the main artist/art designer for the game, I created some basic mood boards that could help inspire us in terms of the game’s overall aesthetic. I created one mood board for each supposed level that would be in the final game. These levels being: 

1. Plains

2. Suburbs

3. Shopping centre

4. Neon city

5. Hell

After designing these mood boards I moved on to creating a simple menu screen for the game.

[michael-igb220]

Week 9 - Assignment 2 Final Design

After finishing up with the design of my one sheet, I moved on to designing the one page which which will be used to showcase my game to others for assignment 3. I decided to minimilse the overall design for the one page compared to the one sheet as I hoped that this would make it clearer for others to understand the game world. I briefly explained each of the core mechanics within the game and also provided some blank spaces for additional information to be added to.

[michael-igb220]

Week 8 - Assignment 2 Progress

This week I began work on my one sheet and one page for assignment 2. I decided to base my work for assignment 2 around my platformer game as that was the game I was most interested in. I started developing my one sheet in photoshop and used many of the already created assets from the game itself. I added all of the relevant/required informaton and then spent some time arranging the layers to make a visually engaging one sheet.

[michael-igb220]

Week 5 - Platformer Postmortem

If I could go back and restart the development of my platformer, I would make sure that I focus more on some of the key ideas presented in Tracy Fullertons “The Game Design Workshop.” I would focus more on creating a fully fledged game with clear objectives that is enjoyable for all players. If I had spent less time developing all of my own art and animations I could have potentially created a more engaging and enjoyable experience for the players. Overall, I was relatively happy with my platformer as it encapsulated my ideas. However, I would have really liked to have polished off the game as I think it was a great concept that just wasn’t executed in the best way.

#postmortem

[michael-igb220]

Week 4 - Playtesting and Pitching Insights

This weeks goal was to get others to playtest my platformer prototype in order to gain an insight into whether the game is enjoyable or not.

In order to effectively playtest my platformer game, I sat down with two students and let them play around with the current build for two minutes each. After the playtesters had played around with the mechanics, I asked them the questions below.

Playtesting Questions:

1. What was the most enjoyable part of the game experience?

2. Did you enjoy the overall concept/theme of the game world?

3. What part of the game did you dislike the most?

4. Was there a level of difficulty to the game?

5. If you could personally change/implement one thing into the game, what would that be?

Playtester 1 Feedback:

1. The gameplay was similar to mario games which was good as it was easy to get the hang of.

2. Yes, it was different from the rest and funny.

3. Besides jumping on the Karen’s heads there wasn’t much gameplay. There was no end goal.

4. Not really. Unless you run straight into the enemies its pretty hard to die.

5. I would add an objective or end goal that the player could work towards.

Playtester 2 Feedback:

1. The aesthetic of the game was very cool and I really enjoyed the graphics.

2. Yes, definitely. The concept is very funny and a bit abstract but works well with the genre of game.

3. The mechanics of the game felt a bit clunky and basic.

4. There wasn’t too much of a challenge in the game apart from timing when to jump on the Karen’s heads.

5. I would either refine the player movement or add some more challenges into the level.

Feedback Takeaways:

From the feedback provided above from the playtesters, it is clear to see that there is a lack of challenge/difficulty within the game. The overall gameplay is relatively basic and maybe a bit boring. Alternatively, the graphics and theme seemed to receive some pretty positive feedback.

What Needs Improving?:

1. Overall game objective

2. Challenges throughout the level

3. Player movement

[michael-igb220]

Week 3 - Platformer Development

After getting quite comfortable designing my own art and implementing it into GDevelop, I moved on to adding some of the game features that were much needed. These included: an enemy sprite with walking animation, a new set of tile sprites for the platforms, and finally, a coin/score system with sfx.

After adding each of these features into the game, I then moved onto creating some basic events that would allow the player to kill the enemy when jumping on their head, as well as allowing the player to die when hit.

After implementing the core game mechanics, I played around with the placement of the platforms in order to create an engaging and fun game level.

#platformer #development #gdevelop

[michael-igb220]

Week 2 - GDevelop Experimentation

After learning a few of the basic mechanics and functions of GDevelop, I began designing my game. After brainstorming a few ideas I decided that I was going to try and create all of my own art for the game. I started with some simple character design and played around with shapes and colours in order to create a character that fit the overall theme and style of the game world. 

Following the finalisation of the design and aesthetic of the player character, I moved on to animating an idle and walk animation. 

I then created some simple tile sprites for both the ground and underground parts of the game. After a few attempts, I finally managed to get the tile sprites to match when connected to one another. 

After creating some basic ground tiles I moved onto designing a minimalistic background sprite that will be used in the first level.

To conclude my GDevelop experimentation, I added all of the artwork and implemented the animations along with a basic movement system.

#platformer #development #gdevelop

[michael-igb220]

Week 2 - Platformer Elevator Pitch

In this 2d platformer you take on the role of the Karenator. A cybernetically enhanced super soldier trained for the sole purpose of taking Karens down. You must battle your way through hordes of angry Karens and jump your way through various parkour elements in order to rescue the missing store managers and return them to safety. Throughout your quest you will come across power boosts that will temporarily give you god-like abilities such as: Super Speed, Super Strength, and Super Jump. These abilities will give you the much needed upper hand when fighting against the determined Karens.

#elevator pitch

[michael-igb220]

Week 1 - About me

Hey, my name is Michael and i am currently studying a double degree of Business and Game Design at QUT. My main interests in game development include writing and creating engaging game worlds as well as designing the overall look and feel of each world. My aim for this semester is to further expand my knowledge on game design in order to create more detailed and engaging games.

#about