#gdev

After our group was decided and we discussed our strengths and availabilities,  We went through Jase’s prototype and discussed where we could potentially improve the content and add content. Jase had a well thought out concept and storyline already so we decided to stick firmly to that but clarify and refine what our goals were with the next iteration.

Fullerton said in chapter 13 that “a developer’s goal is to produce the highest quality game within the limits of its resources and budget.” When choosing what things we wanted to change/improve/add to the original prototype, we had to consider many things that may affect the final version. This was things such as time, skills, and the engine gdevelop. After making 3+ prototypes I felt pretty confident with making a solid prototype in a few days if I worked really hard. For the video and documenting and analysing part of the report, I was a little more hesitant, however I knew I could rely on my team to help out when I needed it.

The original prototype was entertaining and intriguing for players, however it lacked enough content to really show players what the game was about. This was a narrative styled game with very little narrative context for players. We knew this was something we wanted to achieve with our new version. In the original prototype, players weren’t given firm objectives which left the players unsure of what to do and where to go. This was to be worked into the in game script so that players felt like they had a purpose and a task to fulfil. One major flaw in the original prototype was that when you fell, nothing was there to catch you, you just fell until someone restarted the game. Though this is an easy fix, without it, it can be detrimental to a play-through. The art style was already good, however we wanted to incorporate a more animated feeling to the game, so we wanted to change/add some art designs. We also wanted to add music to further develop the immersion and entertainment for the player. After going over what we thought would be good changes/additions to the game, we asked Jase to write the vision of the game as he understood the most what he wanted to see from the game after the first prototype. We then began to construct our gannt chart, deciding who was to do what parts and a guesstimate of the appropriate amount of time to be spent on each task. When making this, we had to keep in mind the deadline given to us. We had to ensure that all time was allocated wisely and we were not going to be rushed at the end due to the lack of organisation. 

Then we began.

The first thing we wanted to get sorted before actually implementing anything into the prototype, was writing a script. This script would help me understand the storyline Jase had in mind and would allow me to easily replicate statements written on the script into the game. This script took a number of days to be made, however once everything was settled we were then able to crack down on the prototype.

Initially it was planned that Jase, Sienna C and I would divide working on the prototype fairly evenly and same with the playtesting report. However, we realised that perhaps this wasn't the most strategic thing to do, so I decided that I would make the prototype on my own, playing at my strengths. This would work well for Sienna C and Jase anyways as Jase would work on art and music and Sienna C could do a fair amount of the report. The video would be made afterwards so we weren’t too worried about that for the time being. Jase quickly made up a few images of files using the new animated art style so I could begin. I started with the start up (Menu) screen which had a few different buttons that you could interact with, as it can be seen below. 

In the settings scene, I made volume, brightness and difficulty options. The volume was reasonably easy to make with a pre-made function in gDevelop made ready to go, so it was only a matter of linking it up to the buttons and moving the slider along the bar. I added the difficulty option with a coming soon sticker over the top just to entice players with potential further iterations in future, however nothing has been planned at this stage. I did struggle with the brightness however as I was unsure how to create this. I found different effects that were interesting to play around with but none of these worked with the brightness filter I had in mind. I figured I would leave it until I finished working on other parts and I could come back. Unfortunately although I figured out a way I could create the brightness, I didn’t have time to implement this before playtesting. I was going to put a global pitch black layer over the game and depending on the percentage of brightness the players wanted, the opacity of the layer would change. This can be included in future iterations. I also created a basic back button taking the player back to the main menu scene. I added a little robot running off the page an aesthetic little touch to the game.

The next page I made was the load game scene, this was pretty straight forward also, with button sprites and text numbering each saved button. I had the buttons change animation when pressed to show the players which button is selected. The continue button when pressed would take you to the loading scene just for the sake of this prototype. In future iterations, a saved progress file would need to be selected in order to proceed. Although the little red cross in the corner would be the way you would exit a textbox like this in real life, for the game I decided to make it so that players could press anywhere outside of the box for it to close. 

Next I made the new game scene, which required a little more coding than the others. This included hiding/showing text on a timer, the buttons that would change text depending on what is selected and what is written into the input, and the little animated sprites on the side. So, how this would work is that players would interact with the flashing text that would say ‘INSERT NAME’ and this would take you to the input name scene. I made this scene by duplicating the new game scene but changed the box in front so that players were entering a name into a new box on top of the new game box. When writing the input, this would save to a global variable so I can display it in the new game page. So once the player press continue after inputting the name would change to ‘NAME’ and the flashing would stop. Then when selecting what number save button they wanted, the button animation would change to the pressed down (like in load game) and the text would change to the global variable. This worked effectively in my opinion and I was more than happy with the results. 

Next was the loading scene which was easier and just had a molly sprite running back and forth with the ‘loading...’ modifying on a timer. After 10 seconds the ‘loading...’ text would change to ‘Ready to play’ and a continue button would pop up. When specifically making this scene, I had to “keep in mind that you are not creating the design document for its own sake— your objective is communication, so do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal.” (Fullerton, 2018). Although nothing was actually loading in the scene I wanted to replicate and communicate to the player that this would be when the game would set up the gameplay before jumping in.

Then it would go onto the game play. Its worth mentioning that the text used was downloaded and I layered green and purple to match the glitchy/animated aesthetic. I also used the same colours as the main logo. With all of what I spoken about so far in the production in Gdevelop, I just had a bit of fun with it trying to simulate to a normal computer desktop but add small touches that made it unique to the game specifically.

At this stage I realised I was going to be making the whole prototype so I began the long haul. I got the background all set up with the art Jase sent and read through the script. After gaining an understand of what he wanted, I started making the game. I initially made it so that Larry was walking around talking and Molly was following him around the screen, but when I asked for feedback he knew I must’ve read the script wrong. So I had to start again :( which wasn’t fun but I just kept going. 

Fullerton mentioned in chapter 14 that “the goal in this stage is to execute on the functional vision established during preproduction.” I was starting to worry that I would run out of time to make the whole prototype within the time frame allocated. I did have to decide which parts of the narrative I would cut out, keeping in mind that I only had to give insight to the player of what our vision was rather than creating the whole game. I had to also make sure that what I did cut wouldn’t affect the overall story to the point where players felt that part of the narrative was missing. After some time of reading through the script, I cut out one whole scene after the introduction and before the Wordcount level. I feel this was wise and wouldn't hinder the experience for the player.

Once I figured out how I wanted to display everyone on the screen, I started making the first level scene introduction with Larry. This wasn’t too tricky, I just had a timer for the whole scene where Larry’s text box would modify throughout the time. This whole introduction level actually had 4 duplicated then edited scenes throughout because I didn’t think about hiding/showing objects depending on the scene timer, but if i were to do it again, I would make the level one large scene. 

Once the player was able to move and the instructions were apparent on screen, I also created an objective box at the top. The player was able to move around and and climb up ladders before entering the password files document.

The documents scene was split into only two scenes however I think I could've made it into one scene using the showing/hiding objects using a scene timer. So in this level, Larry and Molly meet Dr Menth, which means that a large narrative portion would occur. I decided to allow Molly’s character to move around in this level whilst the talking was happening so that players had the opportunity to explore. This meant that I had to create all of both Larry’s and Dr Menth’s textbox, text and sprite to be centred around molly’s character, staying in screen. This was a pain as I wanted to get the exact positions right and it took a lot of trial and error, but I got there in the end. Implementing the text with the timers didn’t take too long, but then I realised the script didn’t actually have any objective after the narrative portion. I knew players would want a taste of doing some sort of activity, after all, we were attempting to make a puzzle-solving narrative game, so I decided to create a new objective/challenge. A number of robots would spawn, swapping animations on a random range timer. Players would have to interact and press E to delete them, saving Dr Menth’s home and fitting in with the narrative. I created another box in the top right to show how many robots would be left using a scene variable for each time the robot was deleted, -1 from the variable. Once the variable went to 0, the end scene would come up thanking for playing the prototype.

In terms of the game music and sound fx, I downloaded royalty free lofi music to put in the beginning menu scenes. This took a little bit of time, finding a nicely fitting song and finding the setting that would allow it to play through multiple scenes but stop once gameplay would begin. All sound effects used were also free downloads. This also took a fair amount of time to find some fitting ones, however in future iterations I would try find less abrupt and repetitive sounds. I just used 2 for Larry and Dr Menth and rotated back and fourth between the sounds. The sound effects for deleting the robots was fitting and I think it worked well.

This was an exhausting but rewarding prototype as I learnt a lot about gDevelop and pushed its capabilities.

gdev mechanics for game:

GDevelop 5 -- Ultimate Beginner Game Engine?

GDevelop 5 is potentially one of the simplest game engines to start learning with. Naturally there are some limitations. The engine is only 2D but that said it's an excelent place to being gaining those game creation skills.

Mike at Gamesfromscratch, has does a closer look (and potentially might do an up coming tut series).