Games

During this semester, I learned a lot in my game studies class. Throughout the semester, I got to see the different games my classmates created and the unique ideas everyone has. The material all connected and built up to our final project, which for my group was a video game. Everything I learned in this class, we were able to apply to our video game, and also, I can take some of the critical thinking skills into the outside world as well (it’s all I think about when playing games now lol!).

I learned so much about all types of games and I really did love coming out of every class with new information. learning about different MDA frameworks, it was what stuck with me the most!

Play our game here -> monster-rush

We recently took on a bigger challenge, of further developing our game, Monster Rush. We added two additional members to our team, both programmers, giving us an even number of both artists and programmers! Our current team members are Maria Pena, Ethan Le, Noah Jones, and Andrea Arellano.

We have taken all the notes and suggestions from our play testers, and are close to getting an improved version of our game up. So far, we have added a home screen, level selection menu, tutorial level, and made edits to the currently available level.

We have upgraded the art, which is something we are excited to present. The characters are keeping their original designs, but are now more rendered and detailed. There has been an addition of three new weapons as well: an ice hammer, a fire wand, and a healing shield

We will be pushing out these updates soon!

Sound effects, as requested by players, will also be available. (Music as well.....? cross your fingers). These are being produced with GarageBand.

The upgrades we have made so far have significantly improved the quality of the game and made it more engaging than the previous available version (aside from current bugs). Having multiple play testers has let us learn and move forward with improvements, and we are hoping the new version is more enjoyable.

Last week, I played a couple of Jackbox games for the first time with some classmates!

It was quite an interesting experience, but so engaging and so fun. It is very much challenge-based, you have to utilize your own knowledge/memory to answer questions quick. You also need to utilize critical thinking at some points to get out of elimination. Sometimes a little bit of teamwork is required as well for certain challenges in the game, and for a little bit, just a few seconds, you stop full-on competing with everybody, which was quite interesting. I think playing with an audience made this feel 10x more competitive and risky because the audience's votes sometimes determined our fate, but I liked it.

We ended up also playing a quick round of Dodo Re Mi, which involved more teamwork and challenge. You essentially have to trust that your teammates will perform their best during the challenge, so that in the end, everyone can defeat the enemy. It does not matter how well you perform on your own if the other players struggle and perform badly.

Artist/Designer: Maria Pena

Programmer/Producer: Andrea Arellano

Cursor was utilized to assist in creating the code

Recently, we worked on our prototype, Monster Rush.

It is a 2d platformer game we created using Unity.

You play as a green guy fighting monsters, current ones being a ghost and green aliens. The goal currently is to reach the top right platform and start all over again. Players can use either A and D to move left and right, or the arrow keys, and space to jump.

It was a challenge we took on, with neither one of us having programming experience. We utilized AI to assist with the code of the game; all artwork is original. Our goal right now is to have real programmers work on it for our next update. Some issues we encountered were that the jumps are sometimes a bit delayed or not high enough, and the opponents are too easy to defeat. Something else of concern is that the player begins off-screen, so the dimensions of the window need to be adjusted to remove any confusion. Players have also suggested having more ghost opponents added as well.

The controls all seem to be functioning, except the jump, which sometimes does not work as expected. The attack control also works quite well; we just need to improve the fights so they are not too easy but not impossible to win.

Recently, I worked on a game with a partner. I was the programmer and producer for the game, and my partner was the artist and designer! Our game is called Monster Rush, it's a 2d platformer with a little green guy who's avoiding monsters while trying to get to the top of the platforms..

We did a playtest with some classmates, and we got some good feedback. Besides the fact that the game was incomplete, players saw the vision/potential and gave suggestions; making the objective clearer, and giving our character the ability to attack were the ones I got the most. The objective is not very clear in the game, so that is the #1 goal with the final prototype we are working on.

During one of our play test sessions, the player told me that making all the art in the game have the same resolution would make it more consistent and visually pleasing, which I agree with. The other thing they said was making sure we give the player the ability to attack, which was something I struggled with when programming and did not have ready at the time, but will be added. During my other play test session, I was told to make the objective clearer and make it known what the end goal for the player is, so we do plan on making that appear somewhere in the beginning.

Last week, I played multiple games available on itch.io

There were three games specifically that I enjoyed most, though!

The first game was Trick or Treat by Felix Tremblay. This game is definitely a challenge, as you must be careful who you open your door to, give them candy, or defend yourself. It has a very unsettling vibe to it, between the gameplay, music, and graphics.

The second game was Mole Mole.

As the name states, it's a Mole; you play as a mole, and you must get through the dirt. It's closer to an obstacle course/puzzle, and you must avoid blowing yourself up as you mine through each level.

The third game was Whimsical Flavors.

It was more narrative-based. You play as a chef, and your goal is to either poison the chef or not. It is your choice. Towards the end, it gets very dark story-wise if you choose to poison the chef via bad cooking decisions...

I recently worked on a board game. It's called "Mutual Predation". Unlike most scenarios where one person is the hunter and the other is prey, both players are hunters. The two of you will have the same tools and rules to hunt each other, neither one of you having an unfair advantage or disadvantage; you are on an even playing field.

Rules

(1) Players roll dice to determine who starts. (2) The dice determines which row you can place your bait in; however player gets to decide which column to place it in 

(3*) Hunters can move anywhere horizontally and vertically, however they cannot move beyond bait blocking the path. They can take the bait and its spot, but not go past it for that turn.  

(4*) If you roll a number that has a full row, you skip placing bait, and only move your hunter

(5*) Cannot take your own bait; it stays where you placed it

Play/creation Log

Creating with partner and first test:

We came up with some basic rules and shared ideas. He came up with the idea for the grid/layout, and we collectively came up with the rules on how to place pieces. We started a game; however, we could not finish it due to running out of time. During the game, we had problems/questions come up, such as how far the “king” can move and consume pieces, and how intentionally trying to lose should be an illegal move. It was very much a rough draft, but a good one. We ended up with a great start and concept to branch off from and alter. 

2. Play test with a friend

For the second playtest, I had a friend play with me to make sure the game is playable and functioning. She gave me a lot of good feedback, and we were able to improve the rules and create more effective rules. She suggested that having players surrounding their main piece with their traps be considered an automatic loss for themselves and win for their opponent.

3. Play test with a classmate

For this final playtest, I played with a classmate. It was a fun game, she gave lots of feedback that helped improve the game, and claimed to have enjoyed it, which was great to hear. She suggested that if you roll the dice and get a number for a row that is already full, rather than rolling again, you skip placing another piece (trap), and only move your hunter. suggested making the rules easier to understand/read.

Here is my session report for the game I recently played with a group of friends..There was a total of five players!

Round 1:

P1: 1 Ace

P2: 1 (2)

P3: 1 (3)

P4: 2 (4)

P5: 2 (5)

Round 2:

P1: 1 (6)

P2: 2 (7)

P3: 1 (8)

P4: 1 (9)

P5: 1 J

Round 3:

P1: 1 Q

P2: 1 K

P3: 1 A

P4: 1 (2)

P5: 1 (3)

Round 4:

P1: 1 (4)

P2: 1 (5) - P1 Doubt, Correct

P3: 2 (6)

P4: 1 (7)

P5: 1 (8)

Round 5:

P1: 1 (9)

P2: 1 (10)

P3: 1 J - P4 Doubt, Correct

P4: 1 Q

P5: 1 K

Round 6:

P1: 1 A

P2: 1 (2)

P3: 1 (3)

P4: 1 (4) - P2 Doubt, Correct

P5: 1 (5)

Round 7:

P1: 1 (6)

P2: 2 (7)

P3: 2 (8)

P4: 1 (9)

P5: 1 J

Round 8:

P1: 1 Q

P2: 1 K

P3: 1 A

P4: 1 (2) - P1 Doubt, Incorrect

P5: 1 (3)

Round 9:

P1: 2 (4) - P2 Doubt, Correct

P2: 1 (5)

P3: 2 (6)

P4: 1 (7)

P5: 1 (8) - Won!

I recently was looking through the games available on the internet arcade, and was drawn to Tetris. I have been playing a mobile game that's a tad bit similar, so I knew this was my sign that I had to play the original. I really liked how it included an "insert coin" button to start and different player options. It is a fun and simple game. I found it a bit difficult to play this using my keyboard, as I am not used to that, but it was still very fun. It took me a good minute to figure out which key was for rotating the pieces, and as a result, my games were very short at first, and it was frustrating, but besides that, there were no issues.