#assignment 2

Platformer:

Classic arcade horizontal run'n'gun similar to Metal Slug, Cup Head, etc. It would have set stages (assuming I get that far into development).

Bouncy ball platformer where you can only roll, or "slingshot" yourself but you will continue bouncing after you hit the ground/wall.

Racing:

Racing on the Z-axis similar to Subway Surfer, AB Cop, Outrun, etc. - Sprite based with the player staying in the center while the environment moves toward the camera or left/right for turning.

Combine with a shooter. Possibly a Spy Car race with various classic gadgets (oil slick, machine gun headlights, etc. Could also be based loosely on Wacky Races (1968) by Hanna-Barbera.

Chariot racing including weapons. The rules should be based on the Wikipedia page for chariot racing.

A puzzle racer where you place the road/obstacles down in order to get the fastest time through a number of pre-placed checkpoints (see: trackmania puzzle events). Alternatively, being able to draw the road like Mini Motorways could be another interesting way of doing it but harder to balance.

Asteroids:

Physics based movement (side thrusters + main thruster)

Resource management/ rogue-like where you decide what systems to focus on keeping online while letting others fail so that you can survive until a rescue team can arrive. - Letting things fail may provide other benefits, and repairing/improving other systems may create new problems (i.e. Adding additional shielding my slow your ship down making it harder to dodge, letting life support fail will give you an oxygen resource bar you need to keep up by breaking icy asteroids otherwise you'll faint/die.

Content warnings: Islamophobia, racism, shootings, sexual hygiene.

What Follows.: Assignment 2 - Updated

The main issue for my first version of my Assignment 2's One Sheet and One Page was the size of the text and, as a result, it's readability. To fix this I resized the test to make the document more readable without the need to zoom in.

One Sheet:

One Page:

Assignment 2: What Follows.

For my Assignment 2 we had to choose a base idea to further develop and pitch by making it a One Page and One Sheet. I decided to expand upon my racing game idea: "What Follows.".

One Sheet:

The purpose of a One Sheet (Sell Sheet) is to sell the game to its potential audience. It only displays key information, such as: the game's title, an X statement, the developer's contact details, and a brief description and the game's core mechanics, features and selling points.

One Page:

I finally completed the concept for my game Shadowy Friend. It is a puzzle platformer focusing on placing and swapping with a Shadow of the player.

I hand drew all the game elements in this assignment, mainly because I had a specific style in mind and I wanted to keep the design to it. I chose a quiet, dark color palette with soft gradients. It still took me some time to do the arts though it isn’t a complicated art style, but in the end, I liked how it supports the game’s lonely, dreamlike atmosphere.

I have included a sample level with labeled mechanics in my one sheet. In the final design, the player can leave behind a Shadow and swap positions with it at any time. I have added some more features to enrich the mechanics of both characters. There will be enemy ghosts that can only detect the player and spikes that only harm the player. The Shadow can pass through them unharmed and it can also walk through thin walls. It however cannot interact with objects, like boxes and levers. There are lamps that can be used to cast shadows, which can be used as portals for the Shadow, if there is an object blocking their light, like a wall for example. In the later levels, the player will need to rotate the lamp to create shadow portals at the correct locations in order to reach them. I also introduced a blue flower that acts as a tutorial guide to give information and hints to the player and help them understand new mechanics in each level.

For this assignment, we were asked to come up with a game concept and make a one sheet and one page for it. My understanding is the one sheet is basically a poster for advertising the game, and the one page is like a design blueprint. When I brainstormed ideas for the game, I considered the three types of games we explored in this unit, which are platformers, asteroids shooters and top-down racers, however, I don’t usually play any of them. But then I thought about a type of platformers that I used to like a lot. Back in the Flash game era, I’ve played my share of 2D webpage puzzle platformer games, so I just decided to explore this idea.

One game that immediately came to my mind was a very old game called The Company of Myself. At the beginning of this semester, I thought of it in one of the in class discussions. It is a game I really liked. The art is very simple, the mechanics look very straightforward, yet as the game progresses, it is presented in a very profound and interesting way that really blew my mind when I first played it. In that game, the player can leave behind copies of himself that will repeat his exact actions in the previous loop when pressed a restart button, and the player can move on. These copies have a physical collision and can be interacted with by standing on them, etc. The player then needs to use this mechanic to solve time-based puzzles. I found this mechanic extremely smart and was amazed by how well it reflects the story.

I was inspired by this game and wanted to design a game with this kind of shadow-based mechanic, and thus came the idea of Shadowy Friend. Its mechanics are a lot simpler though, instead of recording past actions, I just let the player create one Shadow at a time. The player can swap places with the Shadow and also switch to its perspective. Each of them has distinct interactions with different objects and respective obstacles. For example, there will be platforms only the Shadow can step on and only the player can use a lever, etc. The two will collaborate to solve puzzles.

It does sound much less exciting, to be honest, and I’m not even sure if this mechanic will be possible to implement in GDevelop, but since the assignment is only about the concept, I just wanted to do it as my heart desires. Visually, I intend to use dark tone, minimalistic cartoon style. I’ve started drawing a sample level layout for the one page so that I can show how all the mechanics work. Hopefully I can refine this idea by next week.

Racing Game Post Mortem:

The Game Design Workshop by David Conroy helped influence my game design process. The chapters 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 helped me think about what I should add to my Racing game prototype. I started to develop my prototype in the workshop by following the simple tutorial as a basis for my game, then to start developing this into my own i looked for sprites that i could implement into my game, like asteroids as obstacles, energy lights as the outline of the edge of the track and a space themed raceway to implement the feeling of the game being set in space. I then made the asteroids that spawn several different sizes and they can spawn anywhere on the top part of the track to make the game harder and less predictable as the original prototype I had had the cars spawning in lanes making the game very predictable and easy to survive for extended periods of time. Then I also made a mechanic where if the player were to fall off the map by going past the energy lights they would also immediately lose and the same would go for if they hit an asteroid. I decided to keep the point system of the game as I believed for a prototype this would be the best way to portray the style and visuals of my games the best.

If I had to change the design of my prototype I would first design a space themed racing car that would fit the genre of the game instead of just a standard car. Then following this I would implement different spawning obstacles like small sections of the tracks on the right side and left side being cut out so the player can't sit on one side of the track forcing them to attempt to dodge the asteroids instead of staying in one corner.

If I had to redesign the prototype I would first make the game a full track and make it a time trial that kept all of the time scores in a leader board that would be portrayed in a menu screen that would have settings for sounds, a start button, and high scores. Regarding the full track I would make it so that it would have bends and turns and it would have stationary objects like holes in the road and asteroids shooting across the map at a certain section that would blow your car up and stop force you to respawn, and finally I would make it so that the player had to complete 3 laps before they win and their total time is recorded. 

Assessment 2 Final Design

My assignment two final design is as follows:

The one sheet is the A4 portrait image and I decided to add the descriptions at the bottom to inform the player about what type of game it is without directly explaining everything in the game to increase their curiosity, making them want to read the one sheet (A3 Landscape Image). I also added on both pages my contact information and the version of the prototype to the bottom of each page.