Homework 14: Head of STATE

Well, this describes the two big states in the game.. Selecting to start, and what the character's actions are during the level. Top and bottom respectively.

Homework 11

A goal with no obstacles is not worth pursuing

I agree with this statement.  There isn't a any real reason to play a game if you aren't overcoming obstacles or beating something.

What is the relationship between the main character and the goal? Why does the character care about it?
Our hero wants to free his people from the clutches of the earthlings, killing them in a stylized manner is the best way to go about doing that

What are the obstacles between the character and the goal? 

Level hazards, Earthlings.

Do the obstacles gradually increase in difficulty? If yes, how?
We have a plan to make them more difficult but we are still throwing around a couple ideas

Great stories often involve the protagonist transforming to overcome the obstacle. Does your protagonist transform? 

No, there aren't any powerups or ways to increase the hero's stats or anything.

How is the game world simpler than the real world?
It's in 2D, and you can solve your problems with violence

What kind of transcendent power do you give to the player?
The player is able to pick up objects and look ahead, so they can decide the best course of actions

What is the weirdest element in the game story?
Probably the fact the earthlings are the bad guys, and you're killing them

How do you ensure that the weirdest thing does not confuse or alienate the player? 

We'll have flashing texts and an emotional scene where the earthlings kill the hero's parents.

Will the players be interested in the game story? Why? 

No, it isn't our intent to have a really good story. We're focusing on GAMEPLAY
Chapter 16

In what sense does the player have freedom of action? Does the player "feel" free at these times?
The player is free to choose what weapons they want to use, but the game is pretty restrictive in how you progress

What are the constraints imposed on the players? Do they feel constrained?
They are going to be constrained by the level design, the control schemes and the environment. They probably will feel a bit constrained but they won't care because of the nature of the gameplay

Ideally, what would you like your players to do (lens #72)
I want the players to pick up strange and somewhat pointless objects, and figure out how to use those objects to kill the earthlings in some sort of comedic manner

Can you set constraints to "kind of" force the player to do it? 

YES, the player can't go forward without committing righteous revenge killings

Can you design your interface to "force" the player to do what you (the designer) wish him/her to do? 

Thats the plan, our programmer is still working out the UI

Homework 8

1. Is the space in your game discrete or continuous?
2. How many dimensions does your space have? 
3. What are the boundaries of your space? 
4. How many verbs do your players (characters) have? What are they? 
5. How many objects can each verb act on? What are these objects? 
6. How many ways can players achieve their goals
7. How many subjects do the players control? What are these subjects? 
8. How do side effects change constraints. 
9. What are the operative actions in your game? 
10. What are the resultant actions in your game? 
11. What actions would you like your players to do that they cannot presently do? (based on your current knowledge of Blender)
12. What is the ultimate goal of your game? 
13. Are there short and long term goals? What are they? 
14. How do you plan to make the game goals known and understood by the player? 
15. What are the foundational rules of your game? 
16. How are these rules enforced? 
17. Does your game develop real skills? What are they? 
18. Does your game develop virtual skills? What are they? 

1. The game has continuous space and discrete space. You can go anywhere in the level, but each level is seperate from the rest of the game

2. It's in 2-d

3. The boundaries are the beginning and end of the level, the ground and the ceiling(which kills you if you float too far)

4. The PC can jump, walk, float, throw weapons, fire weapons and swing weapons.

5. player can act on the enviroment with certain weapons, and on the aliens with regular weapons

6. there are different ways to get around the level and hazards, but they ultimately lead to the same ending spot

7.  Just the main character

8. you can move forward by killing enemies.

9. Swinging and throwing weapons, moving and jumping, and picking up objects.

10. Killing enemies, rescuing captives, overcoming terrain hazards, not dying.

11. I would like the players to be able to chain together melee combos

12. Ultimate goal is to destroy the alien mothership with technology recovered from rescuing survivors

13. Short term: Kill all the aliens and beat the level. Long term: rescue survivors who'll help you destroy the mothership

14. With flashing text "KILL ALL THE ALIENS" "RESCUE THAT SURVIVOR" or "TRY NOT TO DIE"

15. You can move in 2-d across the level, can't move through solid objects, you have to rescue a certain amount of people before you successfully clear a level, and you die if you are shot or stabbed and have to start over

16. With Beta testing and solid programming

17. Not really

18. Nope

Homework 6

1.  For each of the four elements of the Tetrad, explain how it is addressed by your game. If one of the four elements is not used, please state this. 

Mechanics: Our game is going to be a 2d side scrolling action game done in a 3d engine. We went with 2d because the gameplay will feel much tighter and more precise for the player, and the platforming aspects of the game are going play a very important role in it.

Story: Our main character is tasked with rescuing people to help populate and maintain the space colony he lives on. The player will have to explore dangerous areas while rescuing engineers, scientists, and soldiers. 

Aesthetics: The player is going to expeience a lot of bright flashing and expansive gaps. The game takes place in space so there will be certain areas that feel very empty, to remind the player most of the game is taking place in the void of space. The player can also expect to see events and changes in the background based on whats going on in the mission.

Technology: We're using  all the tools Blender Engine has at it's disposal. We're going to be programming in a 2 player battle arena with massive amounts of obstacles and ways to fight. We'll be sure to take full advantage of Python programming and all the texture tools Blender has

2. Do the four (or less) elements work towards a current theme? 
Absolutely.  We're using all of them to try and give the player the best version of the game the group envisioned.

3. In your own words, describe the meaning of a "theme", and how does it differ from an "experience" (see book for examples in Chapters 2 and 5. 
I would say Theme is the idea and feel the developers intend for the game as the release it, and Experience is how the game actually feels and plays as experienced by the target audience

4. What is your game's theme?
I would say overcoming the fear of the unknown, but my group might have a different answer. 

5. What are the elements in your game that are meant to reinforce this theme? 
Exploring the dark recesses of space, the instant death of the player is they're struck or hurt by something. Drifting off into space and dying if you go outside the game's boundaries.  Part of the game should make the player feel a little nervous exploring new areas. 

6. What is it about your game that you feel makes it special and powerful?
I think space and the concept of how small humans are compared to the size of the known universe is a powerful thing in and of itself.  The fact that the player is going to be stressed from killing aliens, searching for survivors, maintaining a good supply of weapons and fuel should make the platforming aspects and victory all that more satisfying. 

Homework 5

For our game, we wanted to have a wide variety of weapons available to the player. I went ahead and put together the animation for the warhammer I made last week. Because of the nature of our game, we're only planning on having a single animation per weapon, since the weapons will have one attack each.


I took my Hammer and gave it the command to rotate in Y 10 degrees every time the A button is pressed, and I had it rotate Y -10 degrees whenever D is pressed. I had my weapon spinning but not in the way I intended. I had to change the center of the object to the bottom of the hilt, so it had that look of being swung by an actual person.

This use of the game engine is pretty important, because most of the game is going to be about killing monsters with different weapons that have unique animations. This animation is completely different compared to say a knife or a gun.

*more pictures on the way

Homework 4: Teamwork

• Do you love your project/game. If not, how can that be changed? 

Right now, I love the idea of our game.  We've got a lot of great ideas we want to include in the final version we submit for this class, but right now theres a lot of work for us to do to get to the stage of where we love our game

• Does the team as a whole love the project? If not, what can be done? 

I think we're getting there. We're pretty dedicated and putting together something amazing to present is on all of our minds, and non of us are going to be satisfied unless it meets a certain level of quality.

• Are the team members communicating with each other?

We communicate through texts and over the phone mostly. We've decided to set up a log to keep track of the tasks we complete, and manage a working schedule.

• Does the team have a regular meeting schedule? What is that schedule? 

As of now, we do not. The team has been in talks about a day that works with all of our schedules. It'll most likely be Thursdays in the future.

• Describe the modes of communication between the team members. 

We use text, email, Google docs and we often discuss what needs to be done after class.

• Regarding game documents, what must be remembered while designing your game? 

We want our game to play well and be fun above everything else. We want it to be simple, enjoyable, easy to get into and have some degree of strategy.

Homework 3

For my groups game, I went ahead and put together the 3D image of a two handed great hammer. I started by taking a Cylinder and scaling it so it would look like the wooden part of the hammer. Afterwards I put a cube on the top of the object and scaled it into a brick like object. After that I touched up the block by subdividing different areas, then I extruded them to create the edges of the hammer to make it look like more of a dangerous weapon.

I made this object because it'll be one of the weapons that is eventually used in our game. We plan on having a fair amount of weapons in game, so I'll probably get to make more of these soon.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7k0uxm

http://www.sendspace.com/file/k7awrb