Week 13 - Early Planning & Game Documentation ... - 27/4/15 & 28/4/15

Week 13

For this assessment we are required to make another game, this time instead of it being an individual game we will be making it as a group of three. Each member will be required to contribute to the game making process evenly, and different roles will be assigned to each member so that the game, and the criteria that we will be marked on, will be completed to the standard required to pass.

Restrictions:

• Game must be done in 3D.
• An objective/result is needed.
•  AI/Enemy in the game.
• At least one level.

After some group brainstorming, we decided to come up with a few ideas and expand each of them, and then decide which idea to pursue.

Group Game Idea 1 – Fishing Game

Our first idea is to create a fishing game, where the player has to catch a bag limit of fish to complete the level.

Conceptualising the Game:

•  A camera system needs to be decided upon, and this is a big part of the game, whether some models will need to be created for the game.
• 3D models of Fish, a boat, fishing equipment etc need to be drawn or if time is unavailable downloaded from the asset store.
• The UI and menu’s need to be drawn and fit in with how the game levels look.
• Objective – The objective of the game is to catch a certain amount of fish. This could be expanded to include that the player would need to catch a certain amount of fish and need to get to a certain length limit to pass the level.
• Layout – The game will need a terrain in it, which will mostly consist of a water particle system, and the fish will swim around in this water. The area for fishing can be a number of different places, such as the ocean or a lake. If the ocean, a mountainous terrain may be included in the background of one of the views, and if it is a lake then a grassy terrain will need to be included around all the edges on all the axis.

Group Game Idea 2 – Flying Survival Game

Our second idea is to make a flying game, where the player has to fly a plane to an objective to complete the level. This idea had different paths that we could expand town, and after deliberation between us members we decided upon a flying survival game, where the player has to fly through a tunnel and avoid the pillars/obstacles

Conceptualising the Game:

• A camera system, either 1^st person or 3^rd person needs to be decided upon, as like the previous idea, is an integral part of the game development process.
• 3D models of the plane and terrain need to be developed and textured, with the models needing to complement each other.
• The UI and menu systems need to be developed and suit with how the game looks.
• Objective – the objective of the game is to get fly as far as possible without hitting the objectives and blowing up. The score the player obtains will then be stored in a high score system in which different players can look to see who has the highest score.
• Layout – The game will consist of a plane/flying object travelling through a tunnel that has pillars/walls with holes/obstacles that the player will need to avoid in order to achieve a high score. This means that there will only be a small amount of objects in the scene, as different parts of the tunnel can be created and spawned in at random to create an endless flying game.

After examining both ideas and expanding how each game will be made, we decided that our group will make the game based on our second idea, the flying survival game. We believe that we can create this game as a group and achieve the necessary results to pass the assessment. 

Week 12.2 - Medieval Game Handed In - 21/4/15

Week 12
So the submission date for the game was on Tuesday for the coding aspect, and today (Thursday) for the visual side of the game. Mark, our coding teacher, gave us some leeway to handing in, which is also today. So this allowed me to have a few days to finish the game off fully.

Where I left this blog off on Monday i was preparing to deal with the mad pressure of booking tickets to AC/DC. I achieved this successfully, after much hassle and site crashing. After that i had completed most of the coding and Tuesday had finished off the last remaining factors that were the camera and AI/NavMesh aspects, I handed in the coding part fully completed, yet all i needed to finish off was the AI character.

And after today I have completed the AI character, also giving him an audio source that makes him scream when he is spawned in, which is when one of the torches hits the hut. Mad. This fully completes the game and now i can hand it in both for the coding and visual submissions.

There is only one known problem that i know, which is when loading the second game level after the loading screen. If it is running off the desktop or a USB, basically somewhere where it will be slow and laggy, it'll glitch out. Yet if it is run off a drive it will perform fine. I don't know how to fix this. I'm not good enough.

So that now this game is handed in, there will be one more post that will show the visuals of the game. I forgot to capture screenshots while the game was in production, so i'll try my best to replicate this with the finished game, otherwise I will show different aspects.

Now we move on to the final assessment for both the Programming and Game Design classes, which is the group game. This game is to be designed and made as a group of 3. The other members in my group that we picked are known as the "Brothers of Swole", James and Stevo. We should get along quite well in the production of the final game, and we should have a good game created by the due date in week 16.

Watch this space.

Week 12 - Medieval Game Nearly Finished - 20/4/15

Week 12
So today is the day before the Medieval game is unoffically due tomorrow, with the official due date this Friday. Most of the game is complete, with only a few small aspects left to do. These aspects, however, are challenging to complete in code, and they're proving slightly harder than what i thought to finish. Usually through trail and error and looking up different tutorials online i can get them done.

But for now, the game has to be put on hold for a couple of hours, as a more important event has arisen. The legends that are AC/DC are touring Australia for the 1st time in more than 5 years, and tickets are released in an hour. So that takes priority.

Week 11.2 - Wasting Time.... 14/4/15

Week 11.2
Work is coming along on the game nicely, but there are many trivial activities and stupid, brain-dead actions on my part that I keep wasting time not working towards completing the game. One main thing is the recent release of Grand Theft Auto V on PC. That has taken at least one day in which all i did was play that instead of working on my game. It looks amazing at 1080p, 60fps, and the gameplay is so smooth. And the stupid action in leaving my game on the D drive of one of the computers at TAFE wasted quite a lot of time, in which i had to wait for a break in the class that was occuping the specific computer to go and get my files off it. Absolutely stupid.

But in saying that it allows me to focus on the other aspects on my assignment, such as creating my own designed models for the game instead of downloading them off the Asset Store.

Back off to work after this quick update.

Week 11 - Game Idea Change - 13/4/15

Week 11
After thinking about the game idea that i have chosen and deliberated upon, I have decided to change my original idea from doing a catapult game to creating a village assault style game, where the player has to throw flaming torches into a village and destroy it. The following aspects of the game will need to be changed in order to make the game work:

• Player - The player will now be a character that throws flaming torches instead of a catapult.
• Score - The score will now be a percentage based score, where the player has to gain a certain amount of damage to pass the level.
• Enemies - The enemies in the game will now be village huts, where the player has to burn down the huts to beat the level.
• Objectives - There will be a special hut for the player to destroy, and this will act as a special bonus.

We also have to include an AI element into the game, most simply to use a NavMesh and create something that travels along that NavMesh. There is a lot to do but it is achievable before the due date.

Week 10 - Game Two Documentation - 30/3/15 & 31/3/15

Week 10

So now we begin development of the second game that makes up part of the assessment. This game can be made a little differently from the first one, and also has to have a different theme, which is "Medieval". More about the game will be explained below.

Understanding the Project Brief: We are to create a web build of a game prototype with a theme of "Medieval". We will be creating all the aspects of the game in our Game Design 2 and Programming 2 classes. 

There are less restrictions involved with this game compared to the previous space related game. Firstly, the camera is allowed to move and character controller/s may be used in the construction and production of this game. This allows the game to be more dynamic and allows for larger landscapes to be developed. This game will be a 3D game, have two levels and needs to destroy/rescue something/someone.

Conceptualising the Game: So the theme of the game is "Medieval", and the game needs to include the player either destroying or rescuing someone, such as a kidnapped character, or something, such as destroying a castle or village. This gives me a range of different ideas that I could develop into a game, with the one that the teachers promoted was a catapult game. Some other ideas are:

• A search and rescue style, where the player has to navigate a game level and rescue a hostage/recover a prized possession.
• A search and destroy style, where the player has to kill a boss player at the end of navigating a level.
• An assault/siege style, where the player plays as an army/squadron/player and has to destroy a village. Not a catapult game but similar to its style.

After much deliberation, I decided that a catapult game will be the easiest and quickest game to create. It still offers a challenge to make the game but will be simpler than creating one of the other styles, so therefore a medieval catapult game will be made.

Beginning Development: To create the game, the following gameplay mechanics will need to be developed to make the game successful:

• Player - A catapult and controller will need to be designed, animated and textured.
• Enemy - 2 castles will need to be created and textured, one fore each level and one which is slightly harder than the other.
• Score - A points/rating system, where the player will need to beat a certain score to pass the level, will need to be designed.
• Objective - An objective/target in the level needs to be designed for both levels, such as a flag/enemy character. This objective will need to be destroyed/killed for the level to be passed and completed.
• Audio - Audio needs to be made for the menu's and in-game, whether it be SFX for the levels and a tune for the menu screens.
• Once again a menu system needs to be designed, including a main menu, credits, in-game, win/lose and button help screen.

Along with the Space game, this game will need models for most to all of the objects in the game scene, and we can once again gather some models from the Unity Asset Store, however some assets can be created.

More posts will be added to this blog with updates regarding the progress of this medieval catapult game.