Advanced Game design II – First Game

The theme for the first week games were “Every finger in the room is pointing at you” and we were asked to make a game based on this theme.  We had 20 hours/person for this assignment.

The game we made in my group was a board game inspired by the classic mix & match games, where you have different parts of characters and you try to match them together to create a complete character.

My thoughts about this theme was that either the people are pointing at you because you want them to or because you are different/bullied. So for our game we decided to go for both of these. We made a game about beauty surgery where the players try to get an operation for each part of their body first, while stopping the other players from finishing their operations.

The players start with 7 cards each and deal these cards between each other. The players try to collect cards of the same type and if they have three of the same at the turns end they can try to make an operation for that body part.

The player with 3 of the same bodycard then roll a dice to see how succesful the operation was. (1-2 = 1 point, 3-4 = 2 points, 5-6 = 3 points) If the player has collected a “Perfect operation card”, this will add 1 point to the result, unless the player haven’t already reched the maximum result (3 points). Other players, that have collected a “failed operation card” may use this on another player and this will instead reduce the result by 1 point. If the player roll 1 point and another player used this, the operation truly is failed and the player recives no bodypart.

(Cards made by Simon Öqvist)

The finished version of the body, once a player have all of the body parts including: large lips, big breasts, shiny blond hair, six pack, looong legs and strong arms. Finishing the game with an absurd looking creature.)

Once any of the players have operated all their body parts the game ends and the player with the most succesful body winns.

It was a interesting concept to work with, but if we had had more time, I would have added more different bodyparts. So that the points weren’t only a number, but visible on the different parts. Som if a player had a 1 point leg operation or 3 point leg operation, it would be visible on the body chart.

Alumni and future plans

Hi there!

It has been some moths since I last wrote here, so I figured it was time for an update.

Right now I’m taking a Game Design course where we are asked to make a game in one or two weeks depending on the assignment. We are divided in random groups, without any rules other then that there is 3 or 4 students in each group. This means that you might end up in a group with only graphical students or programmers. You might also end up working with people you haven’t worked with before and that you wouldn’t have choosen to work with if you were the one to decide the groups.

This course is great since we both learn to work quickly and also get to learn how to work with different kinds of groups. We have been divided in to random groups in previous courses too, but since this is our last year, it feels important to challenge ourselfs and also, this is our last chance to get to know eachother before we split up.

Each game in this course have different themes to it. I will make one post for each game soon, so that I can have the posts more focused on that.

(The guest lectures)

This week we had our Alumni days, meaning that we have different guest lectures, most of them held by former students that are now working in the gaming industry. We had great lectures with people from Blizzard, Might and Delight, A Sweet Studio and NETENT. We also had a mingle party tonight where we were able to discuss the industry, favorite games, future plans, but also our feelings about tv-shows, movies and other nerdy things. It was a great evening and me and my classmates reflected on how different it feelt to talk with industry people in our last year compared to our first. Tonight we actually feelt like we were their equals and fully realized that we actually might work among them soon.

Mechropolis Trailer

Here is the trailer for our new game, Mechropolis!

Explore a long gone civilization and fuse together the only inhabitants left, the robots, to solve puzzles and make your way through the cave!

I think Kenth made a great job with the trailer and it really captures the feeling of our game.

Particle effects

One week left until Gotland Game Conference! Since I had finished my assigned work, but we still needed particle effects, I took the responsibility to fix that. These are the effects I needed to do:

• Attack projectile
• Attack trail
• Attack when hitting target
• Robots when being Stunned
• Stun Idle for Robots
• Robots when being Fused
• Steam for the environment
• Dust cloud for environment

This is the first time that I have ever worked with particle effects and it was a bit tricky to get the hang of it. I have made all the effects above, but I am not sure if I like the result. The Steam turned out quite nice, but it was really hard to find tutorials and such for how to make other effects in Unity. I guess the effects I have made will work for the conference, but I wish I had had more time to really understand how to work with it or that some of the programmers would have had more time to explain it for me. They have a lot to do on their own though, so it is not their fault.

I am still happy that I was able to learn something new! Always such a pleasing feeling.

Will have a trailer soon and I will be sure to share it with you once it is finished! The game looks really good now and I hope we will be able to offer some really interesting gameplay experience too at GGC!

Rearranging the puzzles

Our main idea was to make two different levels. The one we started on was meant to be the second one,the factory level. The first one would work like a tutorial level to present the different robots and solutions for the player and would be a city area. Apart from makin meshes, I have spent the last weeks designing the different puzzles and rooms for this set up, but by the end of last week we realised that we wouldn’t be able to finish all of it. Or rather, we might have been able to finish it, but it would not look as stunning as if we choose to focus on a smaller area instead.

Because of this we decided to cut off some parts of the first level. We took away half of it and I redesigned the puzzles a bit so that the level still learns the player most of the things that she will need to know in the second level.

It feels a bit frustrating to skip some of the bigger puzzles I had designed, but I understand that it is a change that is necessary to get the most out of our game for the Gotland Game Conference (GGC).

Since the Conference is hold within 2 weeks, we have to fix the last meshes, textures and effects for the game. The programmers also have a big to-do-list, so there will be some crunching these last weeks.

I’m making alot of meshes for the environment. We’ll have a market place in the city level and I’ve made some different decorations for this area since I think it’s a great opportunity to show the player some parts of the caves civilian culture. Ylva is decorating the level as I’m modeling meshes and I think we have a good work flow. If she realizes that she needs some new meshes, she’ll just add them to our to-do-list. I’m then able to check what’s next on the list and mark the different meshes once they are done and ready to be textured.

Right now Petra has started to make textures too and Frida in making meshes with me and some textures. Since my Wacom is broken, I’m not able to help with the textures and I also feel like I’ll get more done when making meshes, so I’m pretty satisfied with that.

 

Props, puzzles and Playtesting

Since I finished my work on the robots last week, I’ve moved on to modelling props for the environment. As you might recall, I made some cogwheel stations last week and I have now added alot more props to the list. I find it quite fun and easy to work with props, but I want a long list of things that needs to be modelled, otherwise I find that it’s easy to lose track of time. If I have a full to-do-list infront of me while I work, I’ll work more effectively and also find it more fun to see how much I will be able to create in one day.

Here follows some new screenshots from our game:

Last week we playtested our game. We let our classmates try out one of our levels and explore the puzzles. It was alot of fun watching others play our game and also very rewarding since you always notice things you had not thought about before. Most of the people I watched while playing thought that the robots were cute and fun, but since the level they tried out isn’t supposed to be the first level in the game, we had to explain to everyone what the game was about in the beginning. They also wanted more feedback and some had problems with figuring out the goals in the level.

Right now we have our sound designer, Roland, who is working on sound effects for the game. We already have some of the sounds we have not implemented sound yet. Once that is implemented I don’t think people will have the same problems with the feedback. We will also add highlights to all the interactive objects in the surrondings to make sure that the player knows what she has to work with in the puzzles.

We have also had some design discussions. Simon and I discussed the different robots and the thought of what would happen incase we decided to remove the Controller robot. Why we even started this discussion was because the Controller robot means alot of extra work since the player will be able to control it and every fusion with it. We also discussed how the player would be able to see anything while controlling the different fusions, since the player, in the current design, is placed right behind the robot. The camera would only show the back of the robot and if the player took controll over a Controller + Thrower, which is able to pick up boulders, she would never be able to see where she put down the boulder.

Once we continued this discussion we realized that we could not remove the Controller. If we would do such a thing, the whole game would have to focus on fusions with the Stationary. Since the Stationary robot is placed in a specific spot by the level designer and the player is not able to move it, this would mean that we would always have to put a Stationary exactly where the player should put a fusion. This would make out game alot easier. It might have worked as a different concept, but then we would have had to design every puzzles for those rules from the beginning. We came to the conclusion that such a big change was not possible this late in the project. We also really liked the Controller and the different fusions with it, so if we could only fix the problem with the camera while controlling robots, we really wanted to keep it.

To fix the camera problem, we decided that once the player takes controll over a robot, she will see everything through the robots eyes instead. This solves everything and makes if alot more easier to work with.

Today I have worked on some more puzzles for the next level. I try to come up with different solutions for every puzzle, but this leads to soem problems. If I make a puzzle that the player can solve by either using a Controller + Grabber fusion or a Controller + Shield fusion, I have given the player a choice to have to finish the puzzle. Then when I am about to start designing the puzzle in the next room, I have no idea which of the two different solutions the player used. Depending on what solution the player used, I don’t want to make the next puzzle into something that can be solved in the same way. So depending on how many solutions I offered the player in the previously puzzle, the less solutions I can choose from for the next room. It’s a bit tricky but alot of fun once I come up with something good. It will be interesting to playtest the different puzzles later to see which solutions are the most popular once.

Cogwheels, Design and UVs

This week I’ve continued with the UVs for the different robots. They are now finished for every robot, except the Controller. The player will be able to controll different robots when they fuse them with the Controller. We’ve discussed how this will be handled ingame and what it will look like for the player. At first we had the idea that the player would stand behind the robot and have a view from the robots back. This turned out quite messy, since the  player wasn’t able to see exactly was she was doning while controlling the robot.

Instead we will change the view once the player controlls the fusion in such a way that the player sees the world through the robots eyes. Because of this change, I will have to add some kind of device to the controller that explains this or atleast gives a hint to how the machine works. Since this device have not been design yet, I have not been able to add it to the mesh. Once we have decided what the device will look like, I will add it to the mesh, make a UV-map and then Ylva will be able to finish all of the textures for the robots.

I have also made two meshes for the level. I made two different setups of cogwheels that will be used as decoration in the Factory area. We work mainly with low poly meshes. Most of the details on the meshes will be added with the textures. I like to work with 3D but it is a bit tricky to keep oneself from adding details. I always get ideas of how to polish the designs and give them more character, but I then realise that smaller details is not important in the mesh making for this game.

Big Cogwheel Station.

Small Cogwheel Station.

I have also discussed the design of the next level with Mathias and redesigned some of the puzzels. I feel like our group have made alot of progress this week and I hope that we will be able to show off a good Alpha this Friday! I’m also very excited to see what the other groups have done.

Puzzle design and UV-map

This week I was supposed to continue on the UV-mapping of the different robots. I had a meeting with our graphic teacher, Jonatan this tuesday and he gave me some advice on how to make the UVs in such a way that I could use them for both the fusion and the base version of the robots.

Instead of making an extra UV-map with the added details in the fusions, I UV-map the fused version of the robots. I also make sure to add any details that might only be visible on the unfused version in this UV. Then I can apply the UV for both the fusion and base version.

On wednesday I was asked to design new puzzles instead since we feelt that the UV-maping wasn’t as urgent as the puzzles. Our producer, Mathias, is also our level designer and makes the different levels in Unity. Now that it’s almost time to start on the next level, he needs some new challenges to use in the design of the level. Therefor, I spent the rest of the week designing different challanges for the player and figuring out how to use our differnt robot combinations in such interesting ways as possible.

Design for the last room in the first level.

Sketch of a city area.

Sketch of extra challanges for the factory area.

I made some different sketches. It was a bit tricky to come up with new puzzles, since we only have five different robots and three different fusions, but we also want to have different solutions to every puzzle. If I were to add all the different robots in a room, the game would be too easy, but if I add too few, there won’t be different solutions, which is one of our goals with the game; to have a different solutions for every puzzle.

While designing these puzzles I came to the conclusion that we won’t be able to keep that goal in every challenge. In the beginning of the game the player need to learn about the different robots to make sure that the player has enough knowledge about the different robots before reaching the more difficult challanges. Therefore, I designed some puzzles with only one or two different solutions, to give the player a moment to learn about the different ways to use the robot combinations.

Mathias will start to build the new level next week, so I think we’ll discuss my different designs then!

Shield, Grabber and more Fusions

This week as been…MORE ROBOTS! Yey!

We had our Alpha this friday, so my goal was to have at least all the base robots finished and hopefully the fusions too. When we talked about it in the middle of the week, after I finished the shiled and only had the grabber left of the base robots, we decided tahta it was more important to have some of the fusions for the alpha. Therefore, I finished the fusions between Stationary + Shield and Stationary + Grabber, before finishing the Grabber.

Also, I’ve put the UV-maping on hold while maing the modells, since it was more important to have the modells done for the Alpha. I also want to make sure that I make the UV-maps as good as possible. Would be nice if we could reuse the UV-maps to the base robots for the fusion versions, but I’m not completely sure how to do that. I’ll talk to one of our teachers about it next week!

Here’s some quick pictures of the fusions I mentioned earlier; Stationary + Shield and Stationary + Thrower.

The fusion Stationary + Thrower will throw away the player and other robots if they stand upon the scope of the grabber. This will make it possible for the player to travel across different gaps and traps.

The Stationary + Shiled fusion will protect itself from any incoming projectiles and bounce them on the shield. This gives the player the possibility to reach certain points that was unreachable otherwise.

Our lead artist, Ylva,  has started on the textures for the Controller and the Thrower and it looks really good. It will be great to see these guys with textures and movement. Hopefully we’ll be able to see some of that in one or two weeks.

I finished the modell for the Grabber too, so now all the base robots are finished. So for next week I’ll finish all the fusions and fix the UV- maps for the different robots.

But first it’s time for easter which brings candy and family! I think we’ll do great after this break! Very excited to see our final version Mechropolis, which will bee finished next by the end of next month!

Stationary and Fusion

Hi!

So the first Sprint is over and I’ve almost finished all my tasks this week. I had decided to make the Controller, Thrower, a fusion version of these two and also the Stationary robot. As you can see in my priviously post, I finished the Controller and the Thrower quite quickly and I thought that it would go even quicker to finish the fusion version, since I only had to build it from the two earlier meshes. I was a fool.

The finsihed version of the fusion of a Controller and a Thrower.

It was rather tricky to find a good solution for how the fusion would work and once I had made the changes for the fused version, I had to UV- map the new versions, which just didn’t go as fast as I had thought. Now that I’ve finally finished the UV I feel like I could have worked with it in another way. I think I could have used the UV for the normal versions to make the new UV more readable and I think I’ll remake the UV after the Alpha.

We’ve set our Alpha for next Friday. Since it’s easter next weekend, I’ll visit my family in Uppsala, so I’ll try to finish my sprint by the end of thursday next week. For the Alpha I want to have a finished modell for all the robots. I there for have to finish the UV-maping for the Statonary robot and then make the Shield and the Grabber, before I can make the different fusions. Hopefully it will go alot quicker to make the other fusions now. Every fusion consists of either a Controller or a Stationary Robot as base. Therefore, once I’ve made the fusion version of the Controller and the Stationary, I’ll be able to use these meshes for all of the different fusion combinations.

I’ve already finsihed the Controller version for this, and I’ll make the Stationary next week.

Working on the UV for the Sationary robot.