After getting a new job in software development on pension systems, it has really made me miss the days where all I had to worry about was how the design of my games would afffect someone or how good the environmental assets I created were... It sucks. So, starting today, I am re downloading the latest version of all my old games software and getting back into it. I want to develop some apps too but my main focus is going to be making an awesome game. This inspiration kick came from playing a little game called 'RIME' (picture below). This game really rekindled the spark in me that was passionate about games development. The way the story, gameplay and environments came together really spoke to me- "Hey, get off your ass and make something as beautiful as this" it said.
You know that feeling you get when you've been working on something that's taken up a couple weeks of your life, and then you have to show the world? Well that feeling has dawned upon me once more in my Dev life as I polish my little game in preparation for alpha testers to brake the ever-living shit out of it. Oh the joy! The past week I've been working on some basic effects and second iteration art. Below is a screenshot of what the game looks like from the creator's point of view: I've also been playing around with difficulty values and I think I've found a pretty balanced Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (DDA). The only testing I've done with the new DDA is on my brother, who is in my target demographic which is awesome, and it worked really well- not too tough, but not too easy. I've also changed the backdrop from a dark to light which really makes the character's silhouette pop, making it easier to keep track of the game objects and see the funny animations.
My first release will be on Android, and then on iOS roughly a week or two later. Alpha testing will be closed to only a small group of trusted developers, the beta testing will be open for the world! So keep your eyes open for the name 'HopR', you can get unique characters by signing up for beta testing! I'll let you all know how alpha and beta testing goes! I'll be posting the link for the open beta testing once it starts, so don't miss out! Bye! Since I've been developing my first solo mobile title I thought I might let you guys know what I'm up to and what to expect for the upcoming release of the game. The games name is HopR and is an arcade style, highscore based, rage inducing jumper that pushes your twitch reflexes and timing to the extreme.
I've been making the game for just under a month now and its just about read to go! Since I'm keen on getting this out as soon as possible, I'll share some character sprites with you all and head back to work! Be sure to play when it's released!!! NOTE: These sprites are subjected to copyright. Due to resolution, they will appear blurry and/or distorted. Level DesignsThe time the team had from basic systems setup to publishing date was very very short. Therefore many of the assets and designs were completed in what we referred to as "Death Nights"- a night in which sleep didn't occur, which were almost always followed up by full days of hard work, thus the name.
I took some screenshots of the game's levels for you to have a look at, bare in mind, that most the levels are dynamic and look very boring as screenshots. These are the 3 levels that I was responsible for: Complex Feelings in Game DesignIt can be argued that the emotion or idea of 'trust' is a complex one when compared to more simplistic conceptions such as anger, annoyance or joy. This was the first game I made that aimed to tackle this level of complexity, and sad to say; I failed. Trust by by definition is: "Firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something." Due to the mechanical prompt of 'praising' I interpreted this as putting trust in a God of some sort. This was fine in my head however the way I carried it out in the game turned out to be a deviation from my original ideas (Which in reality would have taken 3 times as long to complete than the game we ended up making). My Idea was to have the players putting their lives in the hands of these Gods while putting trust in them to keep them safe. This main mechanic I planned turned out to be our downfall. By critically assessing the requirements of the brief I was able to see the huge reason that I failed to meet the deliverable, this was due to the fact that the mechanic of praising wasn't clear and was used incorrectly. Sure we taught players how to praise the shrines and showed them that they actually did something in the tutorial area, but this didn't make up for the fact that it was a weak portrayal of trust (if it can be called trust it all). It was more of a 'faith' mechanic, and not so much trust. The unclear distinguished between the different types of shrines was also a key factor in the failure. It wasn't clear what the shrines even were in the first place, then adding another layer of complexity to them with the mechanics made players unable to comprehend their purpose. In hindsight I wish I had more time to tweak design flaws and improve the game in the direction that the brief required. Something we were discussing in the planning phase was the possibility of networking and having a each of the players viewing a different thing on their respective screen. This would open the possibility of feeding each player different information in life or death circumstances. eg: One person would enter a puzzle while the other waited at a door with the fog approaching them. The player in the worse situation would trust in their counterpart to finish the puzzle in time and let them into safety, knowing that the game could be finished by a single player this would make players in trouble even more trusting due to the newly opened possibility of abandonment. The only problem with this is that networking was far beyond the potential of our skills at the point in time. This also played a part in how we failed to make the fog the menace and antagonist it was supposed to be. The fog was instead a nuisance to the game play feel and wasn't communicated efficiently resulting in players being confused and unaware of its presence. In the end we got cooperation mixed up with trust. They do work together, but they are not the same, and this was the final design pathway that lead us down the wrong track and ultimately to failing the brief. After this project I can confidently say that If I were to design a game based on the same brief, I would succeed. Other Games and How They Affected My DesignJourney's emotional design: If you know me you know that I tend to always 'recreate' really bad versions of journey in my games. Obviously the game has had an impact on me as a designer and how I view the realm of gaming, it has changed my perspective of what a game should be. However in reflection on my previous games I have realized why I failed in recreating this feelings and emotional undertones. It is because journey exists. Instantly attempting to make a game that reflects on journey puts the players in a mindset of "This is a shitty version of Journey", instead of thinking that my game is unique and awesome. Journey is an awesome game and has amazing design at its core, however I need to deviate from the path of recreating it and instead discover my own type of design and my own idea of what a game should be. Dark Souls' environment design: This game is always something I refer to when it comes to designing my environments for games. I was watching a design interview with the environment artists and team leads of From Software (The developers of the souls series) and one thing that they mentioned was having a clear idea of what the game should be right from the beginning. Setting a theme and desired outcome is very important when it comes to designing worlds and games as a whole. Another thing I wanted to do however failed with 2 of my 3 games. Atl and Ollin was a mixture of Journey and Aztecs, Happiness in Layers was just a mess, Bad Egg was the only game where I used the theme to actually design the feel of the game, and it turned out really good. Thomas was alone's character design: This game really extenuates the point that the different blocks have different personalities and abilities. I tried to do this with my most recent game (Atl and Ollin) however failed to appropriately balance their abilities thus resulting in a shallow puzzle design and weak character design. I wanted the duo to be opposites: maturity and childish. However the fact that we deviated from the human appearance midway through production without taking it into account made it rather hard to convey this to the players. What games should be:I was currently watching a YouTube gaming video and the player of the game made a remark that resonated with me and will most likely influence my future design goals. He said "Opinionated game designers make the best games". Basically he went on to elaborate that if the designer has a clear idea of what games should be, there is a higher chance that they will make much better games compared to if their design mind was malleable to the point that everything affected them. This is very relevant to me, my design mind in like play-dough instead of steel, sure I should still always be open to new ideas and design related inspiration, but the fact that I don't have a clear image of what a game SHOULD be isn't acceptable in my eyes. I still need to focus on this aspect and will most likely 'evolve' as a designer in the coming weeks. My design inspirations (which will definitely effect my future design mind) are; Jenova Chen, Fumito Ueda and Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Collaboration StrategiesTo manage the team, as well as collaborators, I used the following programs/ systems:
Artist Statement (it's long so click the "Read More" to see it)Gallery ReflectionThe gallery was actually not what I was expecting at all. I was planning on a night full of embarrassment and disappointment as people played the buggy game, but instead it turned out to be a pretty fun and insightful eye opener to the world of design. Talking to industry professionals about my game really made me feel better about it as they gave constructive criticism which on a whole was rather a rather positive thing. As the night concluded I walked away with more knowledge about my game and the realm of design. I would consider the game a small success as I overheard one of the many players say "I don't trust that one" (referring to the shrines of course). My main goal was to make players feel trust in the shrines, so to hear someone say that makes me feel like a did what I set out to do, maybe not to the extent that I wanted, but still. Game ReflectionThe reason trust didn't make a full appearance in my game is due to - in my opinion- the fog lacking the fear it was meant to bring, the camera being very unreliable, and the actual game being very brief in the sense that I didn't build the story or the bond between the characters enough. The fog was intended to be this malevolent, demonic thing looming behind you trying to kill you, it was meant to be scary. A huge inspiration for the design of the game and the fog was Steven King's "The Mist". The fog instead took the form of a shallow, almost comical 'wall' that was chasing you very very very slowly. It didn't invoke fear in the slightest. I was reading an article on psychology of fear and what creates it with a focus on the films industry. Something interesting was that a main reason people embark on journeys of fear is due to the social factor; being scared with friends is appealing whereas being alone and scared is something we tend to avoid. Atl and Ollin was a multiplayer game and thus contained this social interaction, the only problem - as I said before- was that the factor of fear was too weak. If I had more time I would have definitely refined the way I thought the players, even putting instructions in clear text was not enough to teach some people who played. On thing I need to keep in mind is that when people play, it is their first time ever experiencing my game. In hindsight, I wish I made the game way simpler than what it was; in terms of workload and complexity as a whole. If you look at the title of my 7th post it perfectly sums up what I mean. I often get caught up in adding as much as I can to the game instead of focusing on communicating as much as I can, I tend to drown out meaning with visuals. Unfortunately I fell down the same rabbit hole with Atl & Ollin. Who Manages the Manager? *space-time violently rips in half* |
What is this BLOG about?This is basically my thoughts and whatnot as I improve as a Developer. Archives
June 2017
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