Grinding Digital Prototype Feature Treatment

The basis of the blog comes from the blackboard quest guide. If you were to design a digital game prototype for your GDW, what concerns do you have about the gameplay, aesthetics, kinaesthetic, or technology in your original concept? Of these concerns, which is the highest priority? Which will kill the game if they don’t work? Write it up in your blog and decide where to focus your efforts for your digital GDW prototype.

In my game development workshop (GDW) I am currently the lead programmer in Any Key Entertainment. our original game concept for this years game came in the form of a genera of games. We wanted to make a twin stick shooter with waves of enemies. The closest game to this would be geometry wars. The game is an arcade, twin stick bullet hell, survival game set in space. The levels and enemies will be wave bases instead of continuous spawning. To make sure that the game is appealing to players we are focusing on gameplay as our models and colour scheme is simple. We want to make the gameplay interesting and entertaining to the player while adding ease of use with controls and menu systems. With this genera of games, tight controls and fluid gameplay will make or break the game. This is our main focus for out game.

The highest priority for the technical side of the game is making sure that the controls are as tight as possible and makes the game easy to play. With this game controls are king, so we want to make sure that there is every style of controls so that the player can chose the most comfortable one for them. With this stated we want to add support for controllers, keyboard and mouse and keyboard. There is a technical challenge here to make sure that all the controls play the same so you get the same experience no matter what style you play. Also on th e technical side we have to make sure that we have good hit detection as without it the feel of the game would decrease significantly. As our engine support Havok rigid bodies we will be making sure that we utilize them properly to make sure that the gameplay does not suffer. Finally making sure that there are different enemies and different enemy behaviors to make sure that the game does not get stale to quickly. Some enemies will try and flank you others will try and dodge you bullets. Adding different enemy AI will make sure that the gameplay is unique and exciting.

On the aesthetics  aspect of the game for a prototype this is not a concern as we can add "makeup" to the game later and make it look pretty. If the game does not handle and play well the the base for the game is not up to snuff. Our prototype will show off the games playability and gameplay mechanics and not the  aesthetics  of the game. On final release of the game the "makeup" will be applied and the game will be ready for a night on the town.

For kinaesthetics, controls takes center stage again. I can not harp on how important out controls are to our game, as a game that does not feel right and flow well will not be fun to play. We are calling this game a twin stick shooter so of course there has to be support for a controller for movement and aiming. As for implementing all controls that will fall to the input manager to make sure no matter what controls you use they will still do the game result.

There is one giant concern for this game prototype and that is making sure that the gameplay flows well and handles well. Gameplay is the word that best describes the game if it is not up to snuff then I feel the overall game will suffer.