Game Dev Shenanigans

Overview

Genre(s)

4. Precision Platformer

Story

The player is trying to get the gold hoard, but the cave is covered traps, 3. which the player must avoid to survive.

9. The player wins if the touch the gold

10. The player loses if they touch lava, spikes, or other environmental dangers

8. The game ends when the player collects all of the gold.

Target Audience

6. platformer enjoyer

7. the game is pretty much a pure platformer with no extra fluff added onto it.

Core Gameplay

1.

Movement : A and D moves the player left and right.

Jumping : SPACE launches the player up.

5. The controls should be incredibly responsive (The frame that the player changes their input the in game character should immediately reflect that input)

Technical

Target Platform(s)

PC (WebGL, Windows)

User Interface

Timer

Pause Menu

Artwork (Design)

Characters

Player

The player is an adventurer who is looking for a paycheck

Levels

Tutorial

This area gets the player used to the controls

Level 1

this area is where the bulk of the game takes place, and ends in a timed chase.

Audio

Sound FX

MENU FX

button Click

Whenever the player interacts with a menu

CHARACTER FX

walking

When ever the player presses a movement key

jumping

whenever the player presses space

WORLD FX

general Ambience

Sound to make sure that there is something playing at all times

Touched a deadly thing

sound plays whenever the player dies

Music

Hype music

Played in intense moments of the game

SUMMARY

Role

Gameplay Programmer

Intention (SMART Goal) for the Session

By May 10, as part of TEAM 6 as a Gameplay Programmer, I will have evidence of a functioning card combat system by using the Unity Documentation for Session 5.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Exemplary Work

Mega Crit Games, The developers of Slay the Spire. The game is very similar to our game because it is a card based fighting game, as such it would be a good idea to look to this game to determine what would be a good direction to take the game.

Training Source

Unity Documentation

I will be referencing the unity documentation frequently during the production of the game

Project Timeline

March 11th through May 10th

Pre-Production Milestones

• Trello Board Filled
• Game Flow Chart Made
• Game Design Document Put Together

Production Milestones

• Functioning Combat
• Cards and shuffling
• Game Ending

Post Production Milestones

• Bug free
• Follows game prompt
• Reviews well

Proposed Budget

$6,230.00 for full game.

Evidence of Team Planning and Decisions

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The Game

Wizarduel

Skills Commentary

I worked on the code of the game, the evidence of this is in the credits menu of the game.

here is a link to the video demonstration.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I programmed without making use of step by step tutorials, and only building my own code.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

The team made a coordination style that worked well for each of us and allowed us to work without interruptions

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I read and asked questions on the Unity Documentation forum when I ran into issues.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I networked with people who are more in the industry than I am.

Reactions to the Final Version

Hunter (Advisor): way too minimalist main menu. If development is continued then make the characters animate when they are hit, or cast a spell. Good job having a lose and win screen.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I am pretty happy with how the game turned out, while it is a shame that we never got to implement the card shuffling system I think it didn’t damage the game all too much.

Grammar and Spelling

I used Grammarly spell check.

Editor

Odin

LOGLINE

The player is fighting a buggy AI to win a competition

PROTAGONIST 

The player is playing in a board game competition to win money.

Prompt Relation

The enemy AI has a bug in it that makes it stupid and copy the player’s actions.

GENRE

Strategy, puzzle

INFLUENCES and EXAMPLES

The game is similar to Buckshot Roulette, or Inscryption

Overview

Genre/ Setting/ Theme(s)

Genre(s)

how does this game feel to play

Setting

where does this game take place

Theme(s)

what is the game about in abstract terms

Story (Brief)

What is the goal of the player, how does the player win?

Target Audience

who is this game for

Core Gameplay (Brief)

• Gameplay Mechanic #1
• Gameplay Mechanic #2
• Etc…

Technical

Target Platform(s)

which platforms is this game made for

System Requirements

what systems are going to be able to run this game

User Interface

What UI pieces are in this game, eg: inventory menu, Health bar, ammo counter, etc…

Game Flow Chart

Include an image of the game flow chart

Artwork (Design)

Heads Up Display (HUD)

HUD DISPLAY 1

location: where on the hud is this display

information displayed: what does this display tell the player

Characters

CHARACTER 1

who: who is the character, and what is their history.

why: why is the character a player in the story.

images: include some concept art of the character.

Levels

LEVEL 1

what: what is the level’s purpose in the game.

where: At what point in the game does the player find this level?

images: include some concept art for what the level should look like.

Audio

Sound FX

MENU FX

audio clip

uses (when will this sound play?)d

SOUND 1

audio clip

uses (when will this sound play?)

CHARACTER FX

SOUND 1

audio clip

uses (when will this sound play?)

WORLD FX

SOUND 1

audio clip

uses (when will this sound play?)

Music

MUSIC PIECE 1

Music clip

uses (where will this music go?)

Story

how does the player progress through the game. Are there important character moments? how does the world change?

Proposed Budget

how much would the game cost to make?

Goal

I am going to create a loading system that does not have loading screens and is easily expandable.

INFLUENCES and EXAMPLES

The primary influence is dark souls area loading system, because it runs pretty well and is easy to work with. A secondary influence is Quake because of how optimized the game’s loading system is. Thanks John Carmack

SUMMARY

Role

Solo Development

Smart Goal

By March 1st, as a solo developer, I will create a fleshed-out loading and de-loading system with help from this tutorial for my Session 3.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Exemplary Work

Primary Source

From Software’s Dark Souls

The way that Dark Souls loads and de-loads is very fast, and seamless, and creates a system similar to that could allow a developer to iterate on levels faster and with fewer roadblocks than other systems.

Secondary Source

• 0:00 – Intro
• 1:22 – Blighttown and the Great Hollow from Firelink Shrine
• 5:40 – The Other Burg
• 7:31 – Views from the Undead Burg
• 10:47 – The Duke’s Archives and Anor Londo
• 16:59 – Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith
• 20:50 – Ash Lake and the Ash Lake Expanse
• 26:03 – Oolacile and the Darkroot Garden
• 30:09 – New Londo Ruins
• 32:35 – The Catacombs
• 34:25 – The Kiln and Closing Thoughts

Analysis Method

I am going to be using DSMapStudio made by Katalash to figure out how From Software handles their data, then I am going to try to understand how I can make that system with C# in Unity.

Project Timeline

The First 5 hours of work will be dedicated to looking over Dark Souls using the previously mentioned method, and then I will spend some time writing down what I want to do with the loading and de-loading. Finally, the rest of the session will be dedicated to making the system and debugging.

Evidence of Planning and Decisions

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Slideshow

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I studied the work of other professionals and took what I learned to make something new.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I used a blog to learn how to translate a temperature to an RGB value.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I learned how to not copy and paste code.

Reactions to the Final Version

Nellie, who is the Design Director of Xbox Game Studios, said that having the skybox and lighting change when loading a new level looked good.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I am pretty happy with the final result, I completed all of what I wanted to get done, and it looks pretty good.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

Odin

SUMMARY

Role

Level Artist

Intention (SMART Goal) for the Session

By Jan. 12, as a solo dev, I will create a shader that mixes textures using the vertex colors and a tileable mask, by following a CatLikeCoding guide for my Session 3.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Chris Avellone

Chris Avellone worked on Fallout 2, and the art assets in it are incredibly good looking and clear.

Training Source(s)

CatLikeCoding

• Mixing Textures : The first texture is now modulated by the splat map. To complete the interpolation, we have to multiply the other texture with 1 – R.
• Gamma Space: Gamma space refers to gamma-corrected colors. Gamma correction is an adjustment of the intensity of light. The simplest approach is to raise the original value to some power, so value^gamma. A gamma of 1 means that there is no change. A gamma of 2 means that the original value is squared.

Evidence of Team Planning and Decisions

PRODUCTION – ACTION

Skills Commentary

Slideshow with the stuff I did

I made the texture mixer from the vertex shader and a mask.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I wrote the code myself, and tried to problem solve what came up by myself.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I found sites that contain definitions for CGPROGRAM that I can use in my code.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

In the industry it is important to be able to create things without the help of a guide, and this project helped me use critical thinking outside of someone else’s code.

Reactions to the Final Version

“The Texture Mixing Seems like a useful tool” – a student in the class.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

The texture mixing seems functional, but I worry about memory management as I create a bunch of unnecessary variables.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

Odin

Summary

My Goal for this week was to create a shader that could mix two Textures using the vertex colors to decide where the textures should be, and the texture’s height map to add more detail to the mixing

What I Did This Week

I have made the texture’s mix with the vertex colors and some influence from one of the texture’s height map.

How I Did It

I followed CatLikeCoding’s Tutorial until I thought I understood the concept, then went off on my own to figure the rest out, and only returned if I needed a refresher on the specifics of a function.

What I Learned

I learned how to better structure code for expand-ability.

Problems I Solved

Most of the functions that I tried would create a very blurry result, or would have the mixing effect be placed across the entire texture poorly. I resolved this by using the desmos graphing calculator to visualize how functions would affect the end result so that I could quickly iterate on the concept.

What Was the Result

How on/off Track Was I?

I am on track with what I intended to do this week

PROTAGONIST

The player character is a blank slate and will express only from what the player wants to express.

PROTAGONIST CORE WOUND / MOTIVATION 

The primary motivator is getting enough money to keep racing, the secondary motivator is not dying on the rally stage, and the tertiary motivator is getting first place.

GENRE

The genre is Racing in line with Dirt 2.0

Long Term Game Play Loop

At the start of the game the player will have very little money and will struggle to survive. At the end they will have the economic strength to win the Races.

Short Term Game Play Loop

The player creates their car and goes racing, if the car survives they fix and upgrade it, then go racing. If the car is destroyed they restart the loop.

INFLUENCES and EXAMPLES

The primary influence is Dirt Rally 2.0, because of the tuning mechanics and rally.

The secondary influence is FrostPunk because of the difficult economy and the long term negatives from early choices.

Session Number:	2
Week Number:	4
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week:	10 Hours
What is/was your overall goal for this week?	My goal is to start work on a good track that feels nice to play.

Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why?
11/13/23	Create the basic track view, then if there is time add some details to it.	90 min	This gave me some practice in level design, practicing a variety of skills is always good to prevent stalling while working on any project.
11/14/23	create the itch.io page, and work on the slideshow	60 min	This is required for the class
11/15/23	Fix some issues with revving, and made a torque curve so that the starts look less like a drag race	180 min	Asking for Help: The game would crash occasionally, and I needed to ask for help on the Godot forums