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.

PVP Fighting a review of the portal level Pew Pew by Sir Buttles

This is a review and my options of the portal level "Pew Pew" by the steam user name Sir Buttles. If you want to see the portal level that will be discussed in this blog you can check out the steam workshop page listed here http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=184209323&searchtext= and download the map for yourself.

To start this off lets talk about my first impressions of the level. My first play though did not take me much time at all to complete and i found it rather easy to complete. I completed the level in a couple of minutes and did not find that i was challenged in anyway. To me the puzzles were laid out to you in a straight forward manner and did not make me stop and think about how I was going to solve it. Now I would call myself a good portal player and I am good at "Thinking with portals". Here in lies some of the problems that i found with this level. I found that you barley needed to use portals at all to solve the puzzles and if you did the portal positions were presented in front of you instead of having to go and look for them. The total portable tiles in the level amount to four, and this is further broken up in half for separate puzzles. Playing through the level you will only have to place two portal sets and they are given to you instead of you having to figure out the correct on by thinking with portals. For me this does not play to the style of a portal level.

With all of this said if there was a person that was new to portal this would be a great level for them to start off with as you can get used to using the other mechanics of portal like laser emitters, fizzlers, and tractor beams. If this level was placed in the campaign of portal it would be near the beginning of the game as a  training level.

To improve on the level design and make the level a little more challenging i would suggest adding elements to the puzzle even if they are not required to solve the puzzle. adding portable tiles even though they will not help solve the puzzle will help to hide the ones that are important. The player will have to figure out that what portable tiles are required to solved the puzzle. If you only have two portable panels then it is obvious to the player that they need to place portals there. Also the ending of puzzle where you have to place a reflector cube into a tractor beam and let it float to reflect the beam to make it to the end, needs to change as it is trial and error to make the reflector cube line up. I would change that part entirely as it is frustrating if it doesn't aim it properly.

These are my thoughs on the portal level. Try it out and see for yourself. The level is on the easy side so it should not take long. Once you are dong go to the community section and leave a reply and tell the creator what you thought and help with the next one.

Halo A Universe All Its Own

Is there a story in a game that left you with something? That something could have moved you emotional, or had you on the edge of your seat. It could have gripped you or sparked your imagination. What ever it was the story left you with something after it happened. This story does not have to be just a story in a particular game but the universe itself. Do you have one in mind? Well here is mine.

Halo

Now I hope that you are familiar with this universe because in my opinion it is one of the best game universes out there. If you haven't played the game or read any of the novels then I highly recommended it. NOTE if you are unfamiliar with the universe and what goes on then there may be spoilers and I can not do that to anyone, you have been warned.

What makes this story so special to me? Not just that Halo Combat evolved was one of my first shooters on the PC and has sentimental value coming from an fps player now. If I was to describe the story in one word it would be epic. The story is about a interstellar war between humanity and other forms of life. It is about the struggle of humanity to survive in a galactic universe. More importantly my favorite part of this story is the relationship between the John and Cortana. You as the player play and Master Chief Petty Officer John 117 with his AI companion Cortana. In the first game Halo Combat Evolved, the player start off the game by waking up from a cryochamber as the ship is getting boarded. The first time you as the player meets Cortana you can already tell that John and Cortana know each other well as they have witty banter. From there john and Cortana work as a well oiled machine killing the bad guys and doing what they can to fight the Covenant. There have been some times that the Cheif and Cortana are separated but john always comes and saves her. Now this relationship was not hte main focus for most of the games, but in Halo 4 Chief's relationship with Cortana is one of the main focuses of the game. Cortana has been operating past her 7 year life span and is showing signs of strange behavior, irritability and glitches. Although she is becoming "Rampant" (a state of knowledge overload making AI's think to death) she still fights with the chief and tries to still relay tactical information to him. Mater Chief keeps her save from the captain of the infinity, who wants to delete her. the ending scene of the game left me emotional and speechless. I have invested alto into these two characters and the ending got to me in a way I was not expecting. Here is the ending scene as it left me with things what cant be explained by words alone.

When Cortana walks up and touches John for the first time and says, "I have waited so long to do that." I cant explain how I felt at that moment as there are no words for it. That ending scene left me with something that no other game has before. Now that you know mine what is your game?