Game Design Document

                                                         
                                                                    GDD screenshot
GDD Link

When first making a game design document with the example template given on Dundoc, I didn't have a clue what to do at first. After some time, I realized what I had to do. I have done document with some early ideas I have for my game. There was some sections I hadn't even thought of yet like sounds for my game and I'm not sure what I will do for sound right now.

There is still a long way to go. More things will be needed for my game idea and I'll work more on Dundoc.

Enjoyed this task and look forward to the next.

                                                         
                                                                       

Game Vision Statement

 This is my vision statement for the game I would like to make.
Article Link

Introduction: A working title I have for now is "The Hunt". You will play as a bounty hunter character who is hunting the most wanted person in this game world. The game will be made through Unity and will be a 2D based platform action shooter game. The age rating may be 12 but most people will be able to play it.

Description: You play as "Wolf" who is one of the best and most feared bounty hunters in this game world. He is tasked with capturing or killing the most wanted criminal in this game world. Through the game you play through multiple stages with different designs like a city and jungle design. Each stage will have different enemy types each with their own abilities. Along the way you may run into other characters like different bounty hunters who may help or try to stop you.

Features:

• Run/jumping/movement
• Enemies jump, fly, and attack you.
• Moving platforms
• Player boosts
• Score
• Timed gameplay
• Secondary targets

Genre: The game will be a 2D platform action shooter game. It will have sci-fi look and feeling to it.

Gameplay: It will be shooter game and the player's main weapon will be a laser rifle but will be to earn more weapons and abilities through progression. You will be able to run and jump. There will be platforms that may stay still or move and you will jump to them if they are below or above you. A score will be displayed through each stage and you will earn a grade when completing a stage and the game. Each stage may have hidden locations were you can extra score by taking out secondary bounty targets. A timer will also be display to see how fast you can beat each stage and will effect your grade. There will be boosts through the game that may assist you like regenerating health or you may not lose any health for a certain amount of time like 30 seconds.

Platform: I would like for this game to be played on a computer. I feel this platform may be best suited for this game.

Target Market: This game would be for players who may want to test themselves and see how good they can be this platform game.

Resources: I feel the main resources I need is planning my times for working on this game and prototyping to make sure everything works.

                                                              
                                                                           Image Link
                                                  Metroid is one of the inspirations for my game.

Unity 04 Tutorial

For this week's Unity tutorial, I worked on a dynamic hud and weapons. I missed Unity tutorial 1-3 during the weeks they were due but I've worked through them. This week I've had three video tutorials to watch and work on Unity.

The first video focused on dynamic hud. Here I worked on the text and extra cursor for the gem. It wasn't a very exciting tutorial in my opinion and I problems. Again like last week I had problems with the script. When I would drag the script to the gem, I would get an error. I was working beside a friend who finished this tutorial fine but even he didn't know what the problem was.

The second video, I worked on adding a weapon with animation. It was very interesting to work on animating the axe to work the way I needed it to be. It was good to have something in first person instead of just only walking.

For the third and final video tutorial this week, I worked on stopping my axe from clipping into objects using layers and add a sound effect to my weapon. A script was needed to swing the axe and give it sound. Still was having trouble again with the script as this time, the sound of the axe swinging wasn't working. I've copied the script I need from the tutorials and used them in visual studio but still I am having problems.

I've enjoyed working on Unity even if the scripts are annoying me and look forward to doing more work on it.

                                             Error I receive when trying to add the script

Game GDD

For this week's reading, I looked into stages in the design process and what I should consider when designing my game. I've read about generating ideas. There are many different starting points I must consider when making my game. Some of these are starting with core aesthetics (what do I want the player to feel?), start with technology ( what platform is this going to be on) and start with materials like art and game mechanics.
https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-5-dot-0-generating-ideas?module_item_id=44545

I've read about prototyping which is going to be very important as I will need to test my game a lot before it is finished to make sure everything is working properly.
https://learn.canvas.net/courses/3/pages/level-5-dot-1-prototyping?module_item_id=44546

An article I read was Design Considerations by Greg Aleknevicus. Components for a game is talked about. I've learned that using highly contrasting/distinguishable colours should be used for different characters. This would make characters different from one another like knowing who a player's enemies are. Use different components for different functions. Make sure icons are distinct from one another. Icons would be used to summarize something important that can help the player or cause problems for the player in a easy to read format. Example of this may be we see an icon that is green which we would assume would help us like it may heel our game character or if we see an icon that may be red, this may be dangerous to the player. Don't use a lots of icons, as some may not be distinguishable from each other which may cause confusion to the player.
Design Considerations by Greg Aleknevicus

Enjoyed the reading this week and I look forward to the next.

                                                                     Image Link

Unity Tutorial 3

I enjoyed doing this tutorial for Unity this week. For the last two weeks I didn't blog about the first two tutorials but now I've caught back up in Unity. This tutorial involved making a clock that works in Unity. The notes given helped me work through the tutorial and it seemed like a lot at first but it actually didn't take that long to get what I needed in Unity which I really liked. The notes were very helpful as it also showed images of where I would need to place things in Unity and I was able to easily place the contents for the script in Unity.

Unfortunately their was one problem I had which was actually getting the arms of the clock to move. For some reason I wasn't able to get them to move even though I followed the instructions but I must have missed something. Should spend more time looking closely at the instructions next time. The camera for Unity is annoying as I struggled to get a clear view of what my clock looked like at times.

This tutorial was very helpful as I feel I have learned more about Unity. Still have a lot more to learn in Unity and hopefully the next tutorials will help me more.

                                                               
                                                                       Tutorial 3 work

Game Idea Research

From the ideas I came up with in my game brainstorm ideas, I have chosen to do research on my platform game idea. The platform genre has been around for many years and has many mechanics that have given unique experiences in many platform games. Below are possible game mechanics I may implement in this game idea.

 Mechanic 1: The first mechanic I've research is probably the most important mechanic in a platform game which is jumping. I found some research on this mechanic from this link. In the link, it leads to a web page that contains a video that helps explain jumping in platform games and how they can make or break a game. What I like most about this video is how important fairness is to the player when jumping. It tells if a jump is hard, it's cheap or if a jump is easy, it's boring.

Mechanic 2: The second mechanic I may use is moving platforms. Basically the player would have to reach a platform that may be above or below them but the platform moves and the player may have to jump to reach them. With this, players will have to plan out how to reach the platform by timing their jumps.

Mechanic 3: The third mechanic I may add to this platform game is a speed boost mechanic. The idea of this is when a player collects an item like a gem for example, they will receive a boost in movement which makes the player move faster for a certain amount of time. This mechanic would help players reach the end goal of the mission/stage quicker in the game. I think this mechanic may be helpful if I added a feature where you may see how long you have spent on a mission so players may try do a speed run on the stages to see how quickly they can finish them.

                                                            Super Mario (Image Link)

Game Elements Reading

Article Link

For this week's reading, it was Formal Abstract Design Tools by Doug Church. Having read this article, I really enjoyed it as showcased designs that are used in games. The article talks about what makes us like and dislike a game.

Mario 64 is talked about in this article and the FADTs of this game are explained. In the game, players decide how to work out the right action that will help them progress through the game. The game designers create different ways an action can be done and players find out how to do the action. Example, when jumping a platform, maybe they can get to the platform by triple jumping and if they can't, they must figure out another way to reach the platform.

Sports games are also talked about and how FADTs are be used. If you make a free flowing sports game, the player's action decide how the game plays out so you can't make your own story.

Players being able to have control of what to do in games is what I feel attracts them to keep playing. I liked reading this article and feel it helped give me a better insight for creating my game.

Super Mario 64 Logo

Image Link

Feedback Thoughts

Below are my thoughts about the articles I read on feedback.

1. Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head
When first reading this, it focused on what most people do which is being critical to work we do. I am always critical of my work and a lot of the time I say its not good or no-one is going to like what I've done.What I like most about this article is that I feel we can relate to this. We may think about the negatives more than the positives of something we do and we are afraid it won't be good in people's eyes. If we are told something negative about some work we do, this is actually good as can learn from our mistakes and do better the next time. People may not want to say anything negative about some one's work face to face but it is important to know what we can improve on.
Link to article

2.Why It's So Hard To Hear Negative Feedback
I enjoyed reading this article a lot. When we hear negative feedback, it may put us down and make us feel negative about ourselves. In the article, the best solution to hearing negative feedback, is trust and honesty which I agree on. When giving or receiving feedback, we should be honest about the good and bad as this will lead to improving in the future. After reading this article I feel more confident in myself and shouldn't be afraid to take criticism on work I do as it will only fuel me and hopefully others to do better in the future.
Link to article

                                                              Feedback is good.

                                                                 Link to Image

                                                                       

Game Brainstorm Ideas

Below are ideas for a game I may make for my multimedia assignment.

1. My first game idea is a puzzle/riddles game. The idea I have in mind is a player takes control of a character and has to explore a open world and solve riddles to complete the game. Not only would you have to solve riddles, but there may be other dangers in this game that will try to stop you from completing this riddles like traps for example.

This game would test how smart you may be to able to solve these riddles. It may sound like a boring idea but I feel may encourage people to test themselves. I also feel this would actually test people's growth mindset to see if they like easy challenges but don't improve or challenges that get tougher but improve themselves along the way.
Puzzle Games

2. My next idea is an open world adventure game. The idea I have is for players to travel through an open world in order to get to a destination. They may travel through different parts of the world to explore. Inspiration for this game comes from the PS3/PS4 game Journey where players explore the game's world through its deserts and ruins while trying to reach their assigned destination.

The main objective of this game would not be too complicated as your only goal would be to reached your assigned destination. I would hope for this game to be a relaxing experience.
Open World Adventure Games
Journey

3. My next idea is a 2D platform game. In this game, players may control a character who may defend themselves with or without a weapon to get past NPCs through stages of the game. Each mission/stage through the game would look different and maybe have different NPCs with different abilities.

This idea would be for players that want to play a simple action platform games that may be similar to old classic games like Super Mario and Donkey Kong. I would hope it to be challenging but also fun.
2D Platform Games

4. My final idea would be an action arcade like game. My other ideas would probably focus on one player playing the game but I would like to make a game that multiple people can play. I would this game idea to be like old classic arcade games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men with cartoon visuals that I hope would look well today.
Action Arcade Games

                                                          Creating Games is Fun.
                                                                   Image Link