Playtesting Helps

With the Lightbox event coming up soon, we are trying to get our game polished as fast as we can. Luckily, we are currently at the playtesting stage and are trying to tweak the game so that it is as good as it can be. Some of the suggestions we had received hand to do with navigation, feedback and sound. There still seemed to be some parts of the levels that did not convey to the player where to go next. Some arrows were added to help guide the player though these parts. After a player finishes a level, the victory theme plays and the next level loads immediately. A suggestion we got was to congratulate the player more, to make them feel then just accomplished something. Currently, we have created a screen that will fade in that will not only congratulate the player, but will compare their time to the times of other players. 

        Lastly, we were given more suggestions about the sound of the game. Currently our games does have sound effects, but not that many of them. Currently, it is very difficult to find sounds as many online sources require money for their sound effects. Hopefully we will be able to find more sound effect and add them into the game to help the levels feel more alive. So are cracking noises have been added to the teeter totter and the AI’s give off a creepy computer sound when you get close to them. With about a week to go we will not be able to fix all the problems with our game, but we should be able to get it very close to fully complete.   

This now makes noise when you roll on it. 

            

Helping the Player

       For this week, we had met with our professors to get their option on our game. Besides a few suggestions with shaders, one of the biggest issues they found was that our game did not guide / teach the player enough. At times they felt lost and did not know where to go when navigating the levels. Some of their suggestions were to add a kind of arrow prompt that would tell the player where to go next. We felt this was helping the play too much as it would take away a large portion of the challenge. Instead we are going to use small cut-scene at key points to help show the player where to go. 

      We are also going to raise the height of the camera so the player gets more of a view of the level. This means they will be able to see obstacles ahead and make navigation easier. We will also add a few arrows in the geometry and textures to guide the player, but not be too explicit. Lastly we will create a type of tutorial level that will teach the player the basics in a controlled environment. We felt that the first level might a bit difficult for new players to get use to the game, so the tutorial level will ease them into it so they are conformable and gain confidence to get though the levels.      

An example of small arrows to show the player the way to go.

Paper Prototype

For this week I will explain how my group went about converting our game into a paper prototype. Unfortunately for us, our game was not the easiest one to try and convert into paper. Since it was physics based, we found in challenging to translate that mechanic into paper form. At first we were going to have some kind of formula for the player to figure out how many spaces they have moved based on the speed. This method was much too complicated for the paper prototype. Fortunately, I feel we have found a perfect mechanic for the paper game, that captures the physics based mechanic. For the game board, we drew an outline of a type of level that would be in our game. We include some hazards such as sharp curves, crushers, exploding rocks and moving platforms. The track was then divided up into different sections, placing each section into its own zone. This is similar to how we divided up the computer games levels for the respawning. Each section has its own attributes associated with it. The attributes will explain what the player needs to roll in order to get past that part of the level. The player can choose “fast”, “medium”, or “slow”. If it is a curved piece, the attributes might be “fast = 4”, “medium = 2” and “slow = 1”. This means if the player wished to pass that part going fast, they must roll a 4 or higher. Failing to do so, means they must restart that section over again. 

Furthermore, for every roll the player makes they gain “time tiles”. They get three if they roll slow, two if they roll medium and one if they roll fast. This will incline the player to risk going fast, hoping that they do not fail as they will have to gain more time tiles. The player who gets to the end of the track with the least amount of time titles wins. I feel this accurately reflects the strategy of the real game as player can risk going fast, meaning they might require multiple attempts, or go slow, but waste a lot of time. 

Respawning Breakdown

For this blog post I will explain the process of deciding where and how to include the different spawn points throughout the levels in our game. As you have previously read, the player is able to respawn as soon as they fall off the track. They are spawned at a certain point further back to where they had fallen off. When deciding where to place these points, I try to mentally divide the level into different sections. For example, in the cave level, the long bumpy part of the track in one section, the teeter totter would be another section and the rock with the buttons is also a separate section. This means that if the player dies on the teeter totter, they are respawned at the beginning of the teeter totter. This separates the level into smaller chunks for players to tackle. When choosing the actually place for the player to respawn, I must also take certain precautions. I am sure to choose a spot that is safe and sturdy, such as in the middle of a flat service. This is to ensure that the player does not immediately die after respawning, that they have a chance to take in their surroundings. Places that would be an inappropriate choice would be on top of the teeter totter, right in front of a cliff etc. If a player were to spawn in those places, they would not have enough time to react. I also try to choose a place that the player has past by before. This prevents them from getting disoriented of where they had spawned. Usually the spot will be a on the path they took in order to get to that part of the section. This will help them recognize where they are and continue on their way.   

                                                Bad place to spawn.                

Sub-games and rewards

This week I will be discussing some of the sub goals within our game. These goals are to lure the player from the standard “get to the end of the level” goal and to test very skilled players who are able to accomplish both tasks. Within the levels of our game are three objects that are hidden/very difficult to reach. Once they player has touch one of these objects, they will collect it. Collecting all the objects in a level will present the player with an unlockable. Most of the time to gain these objects is very difficult and requires the player to use a large amount of experimentation and exploration of the levels. Some involve the player to stray from the defined path to get to the end of the level. We feel that this mechanic will increase the life of the game as players can go back to previous levels in order to find all the hidden objects. This is a similar mechanic to what is used in Super Mario 3D Land with the star coins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHt5dOd7Gfs) and Batman Arkham Asylum with the Riddler Trophies. 

The type reward is unknown to the player, making it even more tantalizing to complete the challenge. This sub-game will also add a lot more depth to our game as the player must make the choice to either continue on their way through the level linearly or to try and acquire the objects. Some objects require the player to perform dangerous actions (such as rolling near the edge of the cliff) to be obtained. This will also add a sense of risk vs reward into the game, does they player risk possibly loosening a massive amount of time in order to gain the object to gain the reward?        

 Finding the trophies is a very fun sub game

Designing Mechanics in a Level

In this blog post I will try to describe one of the mechanics I am implementing in one of the levels of my groups game. The mechanic allows the player to access faster as well as safer part of the track if they are able to meet certain conditions. One path involves pressing a hidden button to gain access to a faster, safer way though a part of the level. The longer path is actually quite dangerous, making the faster path even more desirable. The faster path has been placed purposely so that it is visible when the player uses the slower one. This will entice the player to discover how to reach the path. This will allow experienced players to uses these paths instead of the slower ones. It is also a way for the more experienced players to show off as in an online race, they can use these paths to gain advantages over inexperienced players. But once an experienced player uses these paths, they will reveal the method of unlocking them to the inexperienced player, allowing them to use it in the next round. This is similar to the shortcuts in Mario Kart, how the shortcuts gives advantage to the players who know them, but will also teach them to the players who don’t.  

                                                    Two different paths

The next path involves more skill then knowledge. The marble is dropped into a sort of pachinko machine. One of the three openings at the bottom leads to a faster path. The one that does is considerably smaller than the other two. The other two openings leads to a slower path. As I playtested this portion, I found that I was constantly falling into the slower paths. Eventually I was able to come up with a strategy of what pegs to hit. With this strategy I was able to make it into the faster hole. Obviously it will need more playtesting and iterations, but it is already functioning in terms of needing strategy and experience to access the faster paths.   

Magic The Gathering Cards

For the Demon character, I made the cost only 1 black mana. That means he would get 2 from the black and 1 from the baseline, giving him a total of 3. I distributed it so he had 1 power and 2 toughness.  

Red Demon:

Black: 2

Card Baseline: 1

Total: 3

For the human solider character, I made his cost 2 white mana. First he receives a total of 4 points from the 2 whites, then 1 additional point from the baseline. Since his total is 5, he receives another point, making his total 6. I gave him 4 power and 2 toughness.    

Human Solider:

White: 2

White: 2

Card Baseline: 1

Cost of 5 or more: 1

Total: 6

The robot character receives 4 points from the black and green mana (2 points each). He also gets the 1 point from the baseline. Since he has reached 5 points he gets the additional bonus. Since he has a green mana, the bonus is 2 instead of 1. This makes his total 7. I allocated the points to give him 3 power and 4 toughness.   

Cyborg Killer:

Green: 2

Black: 2

Card Baseline: 1

Cost of 5 or more with green: 2

Total: 7