There isn't enough time left to code in everything we intended, therefore I'll write it out here for future reference.
I intend for the player to have dialogue at the different crashed space pods scattered around the map. Examples are: "Whats this? Are there any survivors?" "I hope whoever was in here made it out like i did..." "The others are out there? I need to find them..." I also intended for there to be another person in the boss room who is barely alive as the player reaches him. Dialogue would be as follows: "Get out of here... It'll kill you..." "The others... they didn't make it..." There could also be other people fighting the boss as the player arrives and the player would witness the boss killing the others. Filled with rage, the player would avenge his friends. Sounds very generic, but I also intend to include some sort of higher power on the planet that could threaten the lives of much more. The player would find out that everything he has been killing so far is actually under the influence of this power. Hence, as the player progresses, there would be more clues as to what this power is. Some SFX and Music is missing from the game. SFX such as the thrusters, monster SFX, and some atmospheric music for certain portions perhaps. We actually included the Metroid Music for the main menu but forgot to code it in... Much more cleaning could also be done to code, quite sure that some of the values, attributes or scripts could be shortened and made more efficient, but as of now, this marks the end of the assignment.
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Took the time to clean up the different bugs that I found while play testing the game. Some bugs include missing variables, assigning certain values to variables for ease of use.
I also started searching for SFX and Music to be used in the game. This should add atmosphere to the game. We chose not to include music as the player plays through the game as it would make the player feel alone. The story of the game was that the player crash landed on a planet so atmosphere is important. The only music I added was for the boss to set the mood for the boss. The boss was designed to keep players on their feets, hence I chose a rather fast paced song that would keep the adrenaline pumping as the player fights the boss. I now moved on to the next major part in the game, the story telling aspect of the game. This includes event triggers, the tutorial etc. I coded a PDA Object which would serve as a mini tutorial to the player. When walking near the PDA, text would appear teaching the player the controls of the game. The player spawns with missing HP and a healthpack is spawned nearby the player to teach the player what healthpacks do. The player will encounter his first enemy in the tutorial room and would exclaim something. Rather tired now so I'm going to take a break... I begun coding the different rooms that the player would progress through. Each room should feel different in its one way, the way the room is laid out, the type of enemies in the room etc.
The first Trap room the player has access to rewards the player with a shotgun. Hence, the first combat room is mainly close quarters which should encourage the use of the shotgun. The second Trap room the player can enter would reward the player with a Laser. Therefore the next combat room includes ranged enemies that the player would otherwise find it difficult to approach safely. I also started coding the Boss for the final room. The boss is heavily inspired by the Eye of Cthulhu from Terraria. The boss would have a first phase where it spawns enemies to attack the player. The second phase is where the boss begins to charge at the player repeatedly trying to damage the player. I modified the boss based on the concept above. In the first phase, the boss also fires projectiles while spawning enemies and moves around the room. The second phase also includes the boss following the player on top of charging occasionally. Suggestions from others were made for our game and they are as follows.
1. Branching paths for the player to choose from 2. Implement a way to recover HP in the game 3. A story-line could be included The first suggestion was solved by implementing crossroads into our map. Each crossroad would have 3 paths that branch out into different rooms. One path would lead to a Trap Room which would reward the players with a certain power up. One Path would lead to a Extra Room which require players to fight enemies to acquire the healthpacks located somewhere in the room. The last path leading to a combat room which must be cleared in order for the player to progress. After a combat area, the player would reach another crossroad and the above would repeat again. This allows players to explore the map and gain advantages for doing so, encouraging them to continue doing so as the game progresses. The second suggestion was solved by implementing a health pack system in the game. They would be located in Extra Rooms as stated above. Initially we wanted to implement Health Regeneration I tested on the weapons in the initial testing room I had created to get a feel for how the weapons felt.
Overall, I am rather happy with how each weapon turned out. I had to tune some of the weapons in terms of it's damage, or mechanic but other than that I believe that each weapon is fine as is. I begun designing the first combat room that the player would be fighting in. This room would be the close quarters room with tight corners to encourage the use of the Shotgun. Again, I tested out the room I had just designed and made adjustments accordingly and made sure the room was beatable. We then decided that combat alone in the game would be rather dry for the player. Hence, we decided to draw some inspiration from Half-Life which incorporated both puzzle solving and combat. We wanted to implement some puzzles in our game and reward the player for completing the puzzle. Since I had watched the Laser Beam tutorial previously, I decided to use the knowledge I gained there to make a Laser Beam Trap room. It consists of constantly spinning Laser Traps that would damage the player if the player comes into contact with the laser. The player will need to navigate through the room without dying by using the cover I had added into the room. If the player reaches in the end of the room, the player would then obtain the Laser weapon as a reward for clearing the puzzle. We paced the game similarly to Half-Life where there would be an alternation between puzzle solving and combat sections. Each puzzle room would contain a weapon that will be very useful for the next combat room. Hence players would be more inclined to complete the puzzle and obtain the weapon which would be very helpful to them in the next combat section. I looked up a tutorial on how to create a laser attack that the player could use. The idea of having the laser attack was to incorporate it as a spell attack for the player to use. These are the guides I used to create the laser effect for the player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oSoDyKNv_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snidU0Jc9e0&t=567s However, after watching the videos, we decided that switching the concept of the game to a Sci-Fi themed game would be more appropriate as the laser looked futuristic. I started coding 3 more attacks for the player as well. In total, the player would have 4 weapons that would function differently so there would be incentive to use each weapon. -Rifle: Basic projectile firing weapon with High Fire Rate and Med Damage -Shotgun: Spread Projectiles with High Damage but Low Fire Rate and Low Range -Laser: An attack that can be held down which increases its damage over time as the player holds down. Slows the player as the player is firing the Laser. -Sniper: Extremely fast travelling projectile with High Damage that increases with range. It has Low fire Rate but has High range. The Rifle is intended to be the starting weapon for the player, hence it should be balanced well. Not too much damage and not too little either, or else the Rifle would outclass the other weapons or fair so poorly that it wasn't worth using. Rooms would be created specifically to fit the play style of each weapon. For example, a room with tight corners would be designed so players would use the shotgun. Another Room which is very open and has ranged enemies would mean that the Sniper will be the most effective in that room. For the Laser, I want to design a specific enemy that has very High HP values but is dangerous to approach. Hence, players would benefit from using the Laser as it provides Good Range and Good Single-Target Damage. I went on YouTube to search for some instructional videos to get started. Heres the playlist if you're interested!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUQ0xH2XyXgHWa-wC1X1q2sG8lzEuqzGe The playlist contains guides on how to code simple movement, collision, shooting, basic AI and much more. I followed the guide and managed to improve the initial testing room to a room with walls and enemies to shoot at. I also implemented basic AI for the enemies so they would only aggro against the player should there not be a Wall in the line of sight. The player object could now also fire basic projectiles and damage the enemy objects I had spawned in. We settled on the idea of a top down shooter as we felt that messing around with game physics may consume too much of our time.
The game is going to be fantasy-based, with a character wielding weapons and magic to defeat different enemies. The setting would either be a forest or a dungeon/castle area. Enemies such as Goblins, Mimics and Dragons would likely be chosen as enemies. I begun coding a small room to test out Game Maker. I created a few walls and a player to be controlled. I also managed to code basic collision with walls. I now have a new-found respect for Game Designers. Balancing a game is no easy feat at all, fixing one problem can lead to MANY more problems. Changing my game concept about 5 times taught me this the hard way.
All I used to do was complain about how broken or how weak something is when an update came out. But after this, I think I'll try to complain more politely next time... This experience has taught me to look at balancing a game in a different way. Instead of just buffing or nerfing something to compensate for a bad point, look closer. Figure out WHY it doesn't work before dropping the nerf hammer on it. Does it not work thematically? Or is it bad because something else is TOO good? Theres a chance you can change a weakness into a strength! Play-testing also turned out to be SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than I made it out to be. If the idea sounds good on paper, TEST IT, it may not be as fun as you make it out to be once you finally start playing the game. Also, find out WHY you find games similar to your idea fun. Make sure your game fulfills those requirements and this should help ensure a game doesn't turn out boring during play-testing. I'm really glad my group managed to pull through. Hope we score well... *hint* *hint* The new idea started with the my group sitting down and discussing why we found other board games fun.
We pinpointed 3 Reasons:
After coming up with these reasons, we compared them with every iteration of or previous game and realised that none of them fulfilled any of the above 3 reasons. We went online to find a list of Board Game Mechanics we liked and narrowed it down to a few which we used to make the new game. The new game has these main mechanics
(Risk vs Reward) Students must risk placing certain cards down to create conditions and the riskier the condition is to set up, the more we rewarded the students. Similarly for the Teacher, he must risk opening a card that will not benefit him but will gain information and suspicion as a reward. (Meaningful Decision-Making) The Students must also work together to make the right call and play the right cards in order to give the teacher as little information as possible while also being able to complete their own goals. The Teacher must then decide with the information available, which cards to eliminate and which of his own cards he wants to play to foil the student's plans. (Always a way to win) We took turns as a team to play as the Teacher and Student. Each player had their own strategy when playing as either side. Even when each player played using their own strategy, there was a rather equal chance for either side to win. There were times when the Teacher was horribly behind in the first few rounds but still won and there were also rounds where the Teacher was lucky in the beginning but the Students still pulled through by a little to win. There was obviously some problems with this version as well but we managed to fix them. Examples would be:
This is our final iteration of the game before submission. |
Ryan TanI'll list down my Game Projects here!. ArchivesCategories |