Videos of game testing
Comparing two games.
From the list of games that I have researched above, I have decided on two games that I am going to compair together. Doing this will show me how the roots of older and newer games are very similar to one another. The two games that I am going to be comparing together first will be 'Donkey Kong Arcade' and 'Abe's Oddysee New n Tasty'.
Donkey Kong Arcade is a 2D abstract platformer game. This game was first originally released in July 1981 for the arcade. The aim of Donkey Kong is to make your way up many different platforms by climbing ladders and lifts to save the princess captured by the monkey named donkey kong. The player will have to navigate through several levels avoiding barrels that donkey kong is throwing down towards you. The player will have 3 lives through out all levels, if the player gets hits once they will be reset in the current level until they are out of lives.
Abe's oddysee New n Tasty is a remake of the original game Abes oddesee, the main difference between these two are the graphical side. This game is an abstract, 3d, puzzle platformer, it was released July 22, 2014, at the mean time it is currently only for playstation 3 and will be released on other platforms in the near future. The aim of the game is to is to escape the facility and try to save as many people from you race as possible. This is because the the company that your work for ran out of a type of food source, so they change their recipe and include them as part of the meal. The player will have to make their way through the facility avoiding contact with the enemies and try to be as silent as possible while rescuing as many people as possible to save your race. Ignoring the graphical side of the game there are several similarities between them both. The objectives of both games are fairly similar, Abe's Oddysee maybe slightly more complex but overall the players goal is to rescue someone. The games may not seem very similar at first, but this is because its covered up by many things like the story and graphics. The main reason why I am ignoring the graphical side of the game is because of the time difference between them, this is 33 years. There would have been a huge graphical improvement over this time hiding the main similarities between them. What this time gap will also show is how one game is almost a replica of the other game in terms of the objective.
Next I will be look at the level design. In donkey kong, the players view is limited, the screen does not move, its frozen. The player will always start in the bottom part of the screen and will have to work there way a series of platforms to reach the top of the screen to where the main enemy is. After reaching the top you will then be placed in the next level. The stages throughout this game are fairly similar but slightly increasing in difficulty, there is also only a couple of levels in the game.
Comparing this to Abe's Oddysee, the game is completely different in the way the level design works. The screen its self will follow the player as they move from left to right making the player be always in the near center of the screen. Another difference is that this game is not just a platformer game, its also a puzzle game, so there is a lot of back travelling required to advance further in the story.
Just using the information above, you can easily see how games of a similar genera are an almost replica. The reason why its hard to see this is because of how the graphics and story over complicate things to make this less obvious and how the level design is slightly different.
Task 2 - Game Pitch + development (my contribution)
We completely changed up the overall idea of the game and I think we are happy with what we have now. The next step will be starting to produce a pitch, concept are of the characters and level design.
This is the first stage of the pitch that I developed. This will be developed a lot more then it already is, but I need to speak with my team to agree on an art style, and also just add more information to the pitch to make it longer.
We decided to change up the pitch slightly and remove the art style and explain our own roles instead. This will allow us to get more clips of us working in the pitch.
The next step after this will be to start filming the pitch. We will need to find the perfect lighting, and also find out what would be good to look at in the film. Whether it be people drawing or just recording them talking.
One big problem is that some of our group was not in during the filming, and they also did not produce work for the pitch. This causes other people to try and fill there parts, this caused us to lack in content for it.
This is the logo that we come up with for the game, we all contributed ideas of what would be cool for the logo to include. With this logo I am planning on creating some sort of introduction/animation to the pitch to make the logo look better.
Models that I have made for the game:
One of the first models that I made was a sword. This took me a while to make, I am very happy with the outcome. This will be used for two things. One, when I make the animation for the logo I will be using this sword, also this will be used for the king character. I think if I was to do it again, I would change the detail on the handle to make it look a lot better, apart from that I really like the look of it.
The next model that I made was a crown, similar to the sword this will be used for two things. The animation and the king in the game. However I was not so happy with the outcome with the crown. I don't think it looks very good, there needs to be more jewels around the crown, also I think it needs more shape to it. If I was to do it again I would make the gems around the crown look like gems, rather the a coloured object. I would also reduce how shiny it is, also give it more shape.
The next thing I started to work on was the text for the title this took a very long time to make, because I had to learn a lot of new things in the programme I was using. I am very happy with the outcome of the style and the effect applied to the text. If I was do make it again I would have to experiment with more font style to see what looks the best.
Next is going to be the animation for the introduction of the pitch. This took a long time to produce, and I could have made it a lot better if I would of had more time. I would of added sound effects to make it sound a lot better, change the way the text comes in and make the models do more things.
Overall I am happy with the outcome of the animation.
After this is done I then started to edit some of the pitch.
Initial pitch
This is the initial pitch. In this pitch we are lacking a lot of things. The first thing is that the intro is very bad, it does not entertain the viewer, it is just a black background with text over the top, it too plain. Next each titles of what the person is talking about is the same as the title, this needs to be changed to something like a little title over a part of the screen with the person talking behind it. The overall pitch is lacking a lot of content and only adding up to 1 minute and 10 seconds, this is way to short. It need to be between 3-5 minutes, this will get the overall idea of the game across more effective then it just being a minute long.
After showing the pitch to the class we had retrieved some feedback.
Good points-
The pitch felt natural
Bad points-
Needs to be a lot longer.
People did not understand the idea of the game
Overal I feel that the initial pitch was very bad, it could be improved a lot more. I will need to make an better introduction for the pitch, and also record more footage to include into it. I have agreed with my team that I will be making the inro and someone else will be editing. This will spread out the work more.
Developed Pitch.
Feedback
Evaluation of the pitch
From the feedback we have received, I agree strongly with what they have to say. I think that we need to move the animation at the end to the start of the pitch. I also understand why the game did not sound very unique, we should explain a verity of stuff and what makes the game different from others of its genera. We will also need to cut down the pitch in length to give it more impact. Overall I can see how we could improve our pitch a lot more and this gives me an overall idea of what I could do in the future when making another pitch.
I felt like the overall process of the pitch did not go so well, my team its self was lacking in members at a lot of the development stages, so we had to alter what we were doing to try to accomplish what our overall goal was. If I was to do it next time I will set my self more time to achieve each target, I would also comunicate throughout my team a lot more so even if they are not available to turn up they would have a basic understanding of what is expected of them. Apart from that, I am looking forward to see how the game actually turns out when we start to create it.
My contribution to the 10 page detailed document.
GAMEPLAY
The game is going to be a 2.5D plaformer, sidescrolling hack ‘n’ slash game. Meaning you will be working you way through 3D environments, but you will only be able to travel from left to right on the screen. However as you progress through the level the screen will rotate at certain points revealing more of the stage while fighting your way through level unique enemies and bosses.
Throughout the game there will be several different areas you visit throughout the world. Within each area there is going to be five unique levels. In each of the levels you will be traveling through the zone exploring each place. The first area is going to be inside the castle of where the king and queen live. This area is going to be split down into five different zones, as you progress you will slowly start making you way towards the next area and out of the castle, which is the village. The first zone in this area is going to be the castle grounds, whiling passing through the grounds you will be fighting you way across the beautiful landscape clearing out the fleeing enemies to recover the stolen jewels. After exploring the zones of this area you will eventually hit the final place, this is the boss fight. The boss fight is set on a drawbridge and you will have to defeat the big armoured goblin brute.
The next area that you will come across is going to be the village. This area is just outside the castle, separated by water. These zones will progressively get harder the more you advance through unlike the castle. While traveling through the village you will have to watch where you step or otherwise you will anger the farm animals making the area even more difficult. Through out the village you will be passing things like markets and huts. Each section of the town will be split down into zones, e.g. the first zone will be huts, then it will moved to something like the market, until you reach the outskirts. The outskirts will include the farm and some animals like a sheep. Also the boss fight will take place here. The boss is going to be a fat farmer goblin.
After clearing the previous area you will advance to the forest. This area will be right in the centre of the goblin fortress and the castle. This area is the most unique from the playable areas, this is because you wont be able to see to see the obstacle directly. There could be traps set up within the floor that trigger as you pass over them causing environmental things to happen. It could be like bear traps, or falling trees, also there will be wild animal that attack you if you disrupt them. However all of the obstacles are avoidable if you can find a route around it. When you progress through the level, the forest slowly starts die, starting off as a dark greens and brown, fading to darker colours. Towards the end of the zone you will come across the hunter goblin. He will be following you throughout the zone but stop you before you enter the next zone causing the boss fight to start.
Coming closer to the end the next zone is the cave. This environment is similar in places to the forest, where environmental things happen but there will also be enemies, but you will not be able to avoid anything. Some of the environmental obstacles are like falling Stalagmites and holes. The boss at the end of this zone is called batgob, from the start of the game to this point; the difficulty would have increased a lot causing the fight to be very hard.
The final zone/areas of this game is going to be the goblin fortress. You will start of by making your way in through a dungeon in the bottom of the castle, eventually making your way towards the top of the castle to fight the final boss, the goblin king.
Throughout the game you will have a choice in the pathways you take, each of the pathways are specified in different things. For example one pathway will consist of a lot of enemies, or another pathway will consist of a jump puzzle. This allows the game to have a variety while playing through; also this will increase the replay value of the game. You can come the different pathways partway through the level rather then right at the start of a stage. We are also planning on placing fake blocks in the game, this will allow the play have to search around to find the hidden items throughout the level. The hidden places will be secret level, and also allow the player to skip harder parts of the stage. Scattered throughout the levels there will be several crown pieces, once all of the pieces are collected the player will be rewarded with many jewels.
We have decided on the game being coop/multiplayer and you will be able to play alone or with up to three friends. The jewels that each player receives will be combined and given to every player to make it fair.
The game is going to be available to download and install online through marketplaces like steam. To be able to download this it will be very straightforward, there will be a button to download it straight to a selected location with a shortcut to launch the game inside.
GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
While playing throughout the game there will be a narrator explaining many things: controls, events happening and anything else that the player might be unsure of. The narrator will be with the player throughout the whole game to keep the player entertained. He will be a royal adviser and he will be giving witty comments on everything you do, from falling of an edge to setting off traps.
The control of the game will be compatible to use with an Xbox controller and keyboard, listed below is the controls for the game:
While playing through, the player come across many hazards and obstacles that you will have to overcome, they will very depending on the area you are in. You will have the opportunity to avoid some obstacles or chooses a pathway depending on the decision you make. One of the main obstacles in this game is going to be the enemies; this will be in every area in the game ranging from difficulty the more you progress with the game. There is going to be a range of enemies you come across, from basic melee, to archers and bosses. Some of the unique hazards in a area is going to be in the village and forest. This will consist of wild animals attacking you and many environmental effects. The player throughout these areas will have to watch where they step, stepping in a bad place will anger the animals causing them to attack, adding another hazard to the list. As well as things like bear traps and pitfalls in the surrounding area. Some of the environmental obstacles that the player will come across is falling objects, like trees and rocks. Another big obstacle that will be throughout is the player making a decision on what pathway they wish to take. Depending on the player’s skills and what they prefer to do will change this. For example if the player prefers to avoid enemies there will be a pathway that they could take based around a jumping puzzle or traps.
While traveling throughout the world the player will start to stack up on the collectable jewels scattered around, rather then just letting the player have a useless stack of gems. We have allowed them to use them as a currency for upgrading their character. This will be based around skill trees. There will be three different trees for each character each based around certain things, one will be defensive, one will be aggressive and the other will be utility. Within these trees the player will be able to upgrade things like their total health, overall speed, different attacks and powers as well as many more. This causes the player to go out and find more of the gems to achieve the strongest possible character. The player will be able to obtain these jewels by traveling through each level with them being scattered around, at the end of the stage there will be a crown jewel which will give them a chunk of gems and to also symbol the end of the level.
BUDGET AND CASH FLOW
From our kickstarter, we hope to aim for
between £1,000-£3,000 as we feel that this would be suitable for the different
costs that could help sustain our project and help the team split the budget
evenly into different things.
With the funds we get, this will go towards
different things such as
·
A game engine license for the
engine we are using to be able to gain full access to the different tools available,
which will be Unity - £1,000.
·
Resources from external sources
if we need it such as sounds or textures - £500+.
·
Advertising to help gain
popularity for the game and help us be able to make the game a reality – 500+.
·
Any profit made from this will
go towards the team and if we want to port it to another platform.
We will spend time in three different stages,
which is alpha, beta and full release.
Pre-production and Alpha are the main
stages before a lot of development goes into the game and allows us to be able
to make small prototypes and receive feedback from the team and from testers,
this stage would spend around 2-3 months, this is due to the amount of
pre-production we will have to do before hand and will take quite a while for
us to develop a early alpha demo for people to test and give feedback.
The next stage will be production and beta
which we will start developing the game a lot more and adding in the features
we want such as the different characters and mechanics, this will allow us to
gain more feedback from testers and from the game industry in general, this
will be the longest stage of the project and will consist of roughly 3-5 months
due to the amount of development this stage takes as it won’t consist of us
going back to the drawing board and will consist of us doing our roles in the
group and making the game we want.
The final stage will be post production and
full release which will consist of the team polishing up the game and fixing
any small or major bugs in the game that can stop it from playing how it was
intended to be. This will be a quick stage to go through and would really
consist of a month or two. Once the game is released and we are in the full
release, this is when the profits will show and we can start either developing
our next game or making a port to another platform such as the Wii U or XBLA.
The game itself will be free to play as
this allows us to get noticed more easily and allows for a lot of feedback and
criticism to change some mechanics and see what people think of the game
overall. This will also allow our
company to get known also and for us to get recognized to be able to make games
in the future after this game. Profit
will be made through DLC, as this will help us be able to make profit after the
game and allows us to add extra content such as more characters, areas and more
development to the story. We will also display ads to help make profit from
displaying them. We may consider micro-transactions as an option if we choose
to but we most likely won’t consider it as we don’t want players to gain power but
we feel from feedback that people will not like this option and can make our
company look bad.
What we did next
After some time of searching we managed to find a good looking font. Overall I am very happy with how the template turnt out, all I now need to do is place the content that I produced above into this template then save it as a pdf.
THE 10 PAGE DOCUMENT
Evaluation(what have I done since the interim deadline)
Since the interim deadline I have developed my blog a lot further. The first thing that I added was the research, this was not even close to being complete before hand, so I added another game onto the list, explained both of them, then compared them both. I also added some more games to the list above, this to allow me to have a wider verity when choosing the games to compare. Next I added some more images to the pitch development and also developed the evaluation of the final pitch. After I added all of my content that I contributed towards the 10 page document, with the completed document below it.
My overall opinion of the unit is that I felt like it could have gone a lot better. The first part of the unit went well, when I produced the research etc. However the pitch its self did not turn out so well. We lacked content because of how certain team members communicated with each other and their overall attendance was poor. This cause the remaining members to try to fill their spot meaning more work for each person. Apart from that, I am looking forward to the actual designing process of the game.
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