This is what I expect to have done and when. This is a games design document that I made showcasing a game idea before the final major project was assigned. when my final major project is finished it will be quite aparent that I have taken some ideas from this and changed drastic other things like the camera from a first person shooter to a top down shooter and from a Realistic look to pixel art. I did this because the first game would have been too time consuming. a top down shooter gives the ability to make a small file size and less detail. I justify less detail with more levels less time consuming and better mechanics.
What is primary and secondary research? Examples include interview transcripts, statistical data, and works of art. A primary source gives you direct access to the subject of your research. Secondary sources provide second-hand information and commentary from other researchers. Examples include journal articles, reviews, and academic books.
Primary research:
I made a survey consisting of key questions that make a topdown shooter. I got six different responses giving their own uniqe opinions.The first question has a two way split between action and shooter. because of this I will lean more into the action side more than I was originally going to. I will do this by adding a melee weapon, for example a knife, bat or plank of wood. The game (pocket galaxy) was originally an action shooter so I will be sticking with this. The second question had a definitive result, this being an inventory system makes these type of games better. I will be keeping this in mind but an inventory system is an after thought when it comes to pocket galaxy. The third question is a split between yes and no showing that gore does not make this type of game but is nice to have. I will be adding a bloody explosion every-time an enemy is killed. The fourth question shows that a 2D pixel art style is preferred in these types of games. I will be sticking with a 2D pixel art style.The fifth question shows that power up drops are loved in these types of games. I will be adding more power ups for the player to find. The sixth question shows that players would prefer a variety in guns. I was going to keep one gun that the player would be able to upgrade as they progress, but because of the results I will be adding a shot gun and an smg type gun to add variety.
secondary research:
Enter the gungeon: https://youtu.be/0OJPyqiswp0 . This game takes on the same game genre that I have decided to aim for. The camera view is top down; The art style is pixel art and is an action/shooter. Enter the gungeon is both dark but very colourful, this gives the game an eerie feeling and keeps the player on edge because enemies could be hiding anywhere. I like the heads up display (hud) it’s set out clearly and doesn’t get in the way of gameplay. The mini map is almost perfect showing each room that the player has been in and also shows any items they can or will contain. There has to be variety in enemy types and enter the gungeon has that from trap enemies to bullet enemies that chase the player. all of the enemy types make the game very fast paced.
The binding of Isaac: https://youtu.be/uV-w-Zf-mc8 . The binding of Isaac shares the topdown view but is different in almost every other aspect. This game is more of a horror/shooter game than an action/shooter. most of the colours in this game are dark and enemies are anywhere between grotesque and just straight creepy/scary. The main character is no acceptation to this either because the more damage the player takes the more demonic the main character starts to look .The brightest colour comes from the players head light this seems to be the only thing that lights up a room other than fire. The heads up display (hud) is very minimalistic showing only things like health, coins, keys and bombs that the player has collected.
ASSET CREATION:
This is the start of my main character Craig. I have decided to use pixel art. https://www.pixilart.com . I am using pixel art because it is one of the best software’s for this art style. This is the because this software is very straight forward and easy to use. I can manipulate and fill in each and every pixel giving me creative freedom. I first started with my main character. I started by making Craig’s head. I did this by using the pencil tool to map out an out line of 17×14 pixels for his hair/ head to give a more rectangle shape rather than just as square. I then used the bucket tool to fill in the centre. I then used the same method for Craig’s left arm. I positioned Craig’s left arm a little more to the left rather than to the centre of his head so it gives the player a bit more of an indication to where the character is facing.I then used the select tool to select Craig’s left arm so I can then copy and paste it to the other side of him to save a little bit of time. For the gun I again used the pencil tool to fill in the pixels on Craig’s left arm because this is where I wanted the gun to be. The gun being in the left arm fleshes out the main character a little bit by showing that he is left handed. finally I used the light and dark tool to add a parting to Craig’s hair for a little more detail. I then added some stripes to the main characters t-shirt to make the asset look better over all. This is my med kit asset. I also used the same software to create this. I upped the pixel size and made a horizontal and vertical red line to create the cross. I then when around the outline and added a black out line to segregate the white and red because it looked off without it, the colours didn’t blend well but the black outline helped with this. I used the fill tool on each corner of the med kit to add a white background other wise it would be transparent and only show the red cross, so this keeps it looking like a more authentic med kit in these types of games.This is frame one of my spider enemy.This is my main enemy for pocket galaxy. I have decided to go for an alien spider race that the higher beings in the game use to stump humanities progress. to create this asset I started with the enemies head. I outlined the head and body shade. I then filled the head in brown and the body in black, This gave me a nice base to add detail. I moved forward by adding eight red eyes to the assets head because this is the average number of eyes a real spider would have and this also fills out the head quite well. I decided to make the eyes red because this indicates that the character is an enemy or that it is evil, this seems to be a universal thing in media as a whole, With blue, green or normal eyes being depicted as good. These are called connotation’s. I then added pincers to the front of the asset to keep it looking like as spider. I did this by making the left one then using the select tool to copy and paste the right pincer in. The pincer was facing the wrong way so i used the flip tool to make it face the opposite way and fit the asset better. The legs were made by creating two different leg types consisting of the top and back legs and the inner legs as separate. I used the copy and paste tool to make eight legs. I then used the flip tool when necessary and positioned the legs where needed. The asset still felt basic and bare so I added a pattern of the spiders back that I could make connection lines to from the legs. when the enemy is still they will pulsate. They will do this by switching between frame 1 and this one (frame 2)This is frame 3. This looks terrible but the look is intended. it gives this blur effect to the enemy while it moves. I stumbled across this because I rotated the first frame slightly and it gave me this affect. knowing how simple some animations can be in games. I ran this through the software construct two along side frame four to see how the walking animation looks and I was pleasantly surprised with the final result. This is frame 4 and also looks terrible but this is intended again to gain a blurred movement effect to the enemy walk. the enemy animation is frames are frame 1 then 3 then 4 and this will be enough animation to make the movement of the spider look decent. This is the default base ship wall. To save time and keep the wall assets flexible I kept them as simple as I could. This made It so much easier to move and stretch the walls as I needed without needing a whole separate asset for certain walls. This also kept the main focus on the level design/ layout. I repeated this concept on all the doors in the game also. This is the colour of the first door on all levels. Blue indicates that this door wont take many enemies to kill before opening. This is a yellow door and yellow indicates that this door requires the player to collect a key to open.
LEVEL 1
This is a screen shot of the whole of level 1. Level 1 is set on the main characters ship as he has his first encounter with pocket galaxy’s enemies/species (spinderlers) This is a screen shot of the core game events. Every level has the exact same first ten lines of construct 2’s version of code. Event one deals with the direction of the main character. The event ensures that the sprite follows the mouse and flips when the mouse goes behind and around the player. Event two makes the player shoot and at what fire rate, in this case the players fire rate is 0.5 so the player can shoot two bullets every second. Event 3 explains that if the players bullet hits the enemy then it takes x amount of health of the enemy, in this case it takes fifty health each bullet. Event four makes the enemy die and be destroyed after the enemy has been hit by two bullets. Event five deals with the players health and if the players health goes to zero or bellow the character is destroyed. Event six deals with enemy damage. Every time the player is touched it takes twenty-five health off the player out of a health pool of one-hundred. Event seven deals with how often enemies are spawned and where. Event eight deals with opening the main end door that the player will have to acquire a key to open. Event nine ensures that the door will open when the player picks up the key. Event ten destroys the players bullets as soon as they touch the walls. Event eleven fixes and prevents enemies glitching through walls. Event twelve says that when the player kills eight enemies or more the first door is destroyed giving the player access to the next room. Event thirteen and fourteen deals with the mechanics of the bonus door. The player is required to shoot this door to destroy it. Event Fifteen creates a second enemy spawn after the second room is accessible. Event six-teen destroys the next few doors giving access to the rest of the level. Event seventeen deals with health pick ups for the player. Event eighteen allows the player to pick up the level key. Event nineteen allows the player to collect a part at the end of the level and move on to the next level (level two). Event twenty destroys the door that prevents the player moving onto the next level. Event twenty one makes it so when the player picks up the level key it destroys the yellow door straight away. Event twenty-two dictates the amount off kills needed to destroy the second door in the level. Event twenty-three ensures that the level restarts when the player is killed. Event twenty-four deals with the third enemy spawn. Event twenty-five is a bonus door counter keeping track of how many the player has destroyed.
LEVEL 2
This is planet titan. All events are the same as level one but are tweaked to best fit the level design and balance the difficulty of each level. Some tweaks to the events also help prevent glitches.
LEVEL 3
This is planet skiptop.
All events are the same as level one but are tweaked to best fit the level design and balance the difficulty of each level. Some tweaks to the events also help prevent glitches.
LEVEL 4
This is planet glipglup. This planet was the intended location for a boss fight. There would have been a fifth level that was also set on this planet where the Spinderlers queen nested. All events are the same as level one but are tweaked to best fit the level design and balance the difficulty of each level. Some tweaks to the events also help prevent glitches.
This is the latest gameplay from pocket galaxy. I have fixed the enemy A.I clipping through the walls and I have added two more levels. I encountered a big issue that has stumped the production of pocket galaxy. I am using a free version of construct 2 and I wasn’t aware until I finished level four that there is an event cap of 100. Events are construct 2’s version of coding. To get around this I have deleted events that were not needed and simplified the game as much as possible to get as much as I could out of the free version of construct 2. moving forward into this last week I will be adding sounds effects (sfx). I will be doing this by foley, for example the gun shot sound will be made by hitting a plastic bottle off of a hard surface. I will then take the sound into garage band to edit the sound to fit the game, then I will be adding it to the game through construct two. If the cap gets in the way I will be adding more detail to the assets that are already there.
over all evaluation:
overall I have not been able to reach the amount and quality of game as I would have liked to. This was mainly due to the event cap of one-hundred events on construct 2. I could have researched the software that I used more, to know about things like free trial caps and all the limitations a software will have. I feel like this could have helped me deliver a higher quality game. To get around the event cap I simplified the game as much as I could to stretch the event cap across as many levels as I could. I intended to add five levels with one being a boss level However the one-hundred event cap prevented this. I intended to add sounds into the game by using Foley however the one-hundred event cap impeded on that as well. I would have used Foley to create any sound that I would have added in game, For example I would have used a plastic bottle to create the sound of a gun shot by hitting it off of a hard surface. I will be using unreal engine for any production in the future to avoid limitations like event caps and graphic styles. I will be using unreal engine because this software does not have any caps, so I can make as much of a game as I need. This software also gives me the option to use first and third person camera views, this would make it possible to make a first person or third person shooter. I could also move into the horror genre a little. An example of things I could have done better is In level two the boarder is a pre made asset from pixel art.https://www.pixilart.com I feel like if I created the boarder my self it would have looked a lot more authentic. I will be making all assets from scratch in the future. creating my assets was the easiest part of making the game. I kept everything simple to concentrate on level design and enemy animation. I could have added animation to my main character put I wasn’t sure how to animate blocks effectively, so I decided to have one consistent frame where his legs are not visible. I could have added more frames to the arm animations. The free version of construct 2 does not allow the user to export a project. Because of this I cant send it as a link but it can be played on any computer with construct 2 downloaded.
This was a group activity talking about equality and diversity in digital media and how everyone can be involved. my comments was ‘the non-binary character’ s; ‘There can be a script in Braille that they can follow while watching a tv show or movie, for those who are deaf’ and ‘Equal opportunities for everyone regardless of race, beliefs or hobbies’ . I believe it is important to think about the whole potential audience not only because it’s the fair and right thing to do but also because, they bring another niche audience. This means a bigger product.
