Log #9

Gable and I started working on the presentation for our final digital prototype today. We decided to create separate sections for the final presentation and will mainly concentrate on the pipeline for the game. We would probably start with the basic mechanics and design of the game as well as elaborating on any aspects we've added or tweaked. That will be followed by a run through of the development of the interface and the art. We will conclude with the showing of our puzzle book and of course the final digital prototype.

New Mechanics

Tonight we discussed new mechanics to be incorporated into the new prototype. We discussed new movement techniques that incorporate lifting, weapon puzzles, switches/cranks, and warping. We also discussed the use of character daggers and the roles they play in level advancement. The use of button sequence based puzzles were also discussed. Daggers would be used for warp actions and used in situations where a key is needed. Other weapons were also discussed.

Daggers
-warp
-key
-changing items
-review
-telekitics
-character specific

New Puzzle

Today Shaun and myself worked on puzzle mechanics. We came up with 3 concepts and elaborated on one solid idea. We then had other people playtest the prototype and give us feedback. Once we worked out some kinks, we were left with a functioning puzzle that should function properly in the game. Later in the day, I made a more visual and movable paper prototype.

Log #8

After working on some creature designs over the past week, we've finally decided on a creature design that would eventually be the base for various other creatures within the game world. Animations for the creature is underway and should be done in the coming weeks. For now, we have all been thinking about puzzles that could be incorporated into the game. We are looking for puzzle designs that will really involve both players as they get through it together by using not just their wits but also through communication.

Log #7

We have started building art assets for the game levels we will be concentrating in this class. We will be concentrating primarily on dungeon level assets as that is what we want to aim for in the sense of the scope of Studio 1. We have also made some changes to our previous art style that deals with the strokes around assets players will be able to interact with and those that they can't. For example, we have added a light stroke to the trees in order to create a clear delineation between them. It will definitely not take away from the things that players need to focus on. A solution to the separate screen when entering buildings has been thought of as well. We will create interiors for buildings that players will be able to enter and when players do enter them, they will be able to see the insides as the top of the roof would fade away thus granting vision to the players inside the buildings.

Log#6

This weekend we meet to work on the games story elements and art design. We worked on environments and elstablished a definite era and style to the game. After these items were set in stone, we continued to work on interface and player ineraction. We shared art concepts and ideas to make sure we were all in sync so that the game archetecture would stay the same consistantly. We also worked on how to handle revealing the interior of a building when one of the characters enters.

Log#5

During our group meeting today we discussed and worked on art concepts. The main characters were worked on until reaching an end design. We removed the characters mouth and nose and enlarged the eyebrows. The mouth and nose were removed because once the character was re sized within his environment, these attributes were no longer necessary. Characters were finalized and accessories were worked on. Interface concepts were also designed to represent character life and weapon integrity. After these changes, we revised our game design documentand prepared a presentation for the following class.

New Paper Prototype

Log #4 - Paper Prototype 2 Playtest 3

We added obstacles to this iteration of the paper prototype and we've found out that the gameplay is more balanced now. Players are ending the level with less health than before, but it is low enough to make or break their completion of this level. The addition of land mass or obstacles have crippled the movement choices for the players and it in turn created more of an engaging experience for both players.

Other added mechanics to previous iteration of the paper prototype:-
Durability to weapons
Cap on enemies to 10
Addition of 4 enemies at the escape route
Extra weapons in the level

Log #3 - Paper Prototype 1 Playtest 2

A few changes were made before we went ahead with the second playtest for this paper prototype. Some new dynamics surfaced in this new iteration of the prototype. We could see that the gameplay was a little faster, players were ending the level with more health and there was less communication as well as strategic thinking between the players. We made a few minor tweaks to this iteration of the prototype and went underway with the second round of this playtest. The gameplay in this round was slower, but was not as slow as our first playtest of the prototype. Players were ending the level with less health and there was a little more communication between the two players.

Log #2 - Paper Prototype 1

Today, we played our first paper prototype that was based on our battle system for our game. We came up with the idea for this prototype through a series of iterative thought processes based on the design of our game. We knew we could not create a paper prototype based on the general gameplay itself because of the real time restrictions. We narrowed it down to two possibilities for this prototype and it was either the puzzle or the battle mechanic. We chose to focus more on the battle mechanic with a small puzzle incorporated into it in order to strengthen our proof of concept. A grid based layout of a map was created as we knew we could not create a real time experience of the game through a paper prototype. One of the problems that we ran into during the creation of this prototype was that we knew we had to come up with something that was very similar to the game experience we are going for. So, we had to sacrifice some of the mechanics, such as the movement mechanic in the game. In this paper prototype we used a grid based movement system and an action list as well as action points in order to govern the players' decisions. Players would be able to move and attack turn by turn, based on the amount of action points they had. The goal of this prototype was to have both of the players working together to get a paperweight onto a raised platform in order to unlock a door at the end of the map while fending off enemies at the same time. We wanted to create that same experience players get when playing a co-operative game as they had to work together in order to clear the level. We had a few play tests todoay and have already made some changes to the paper prototype in order to further strengthen our battle mechanic for the game.

September 22 First Group Meeting

Our first group meeting took place the day we developed our game design groups. During our meeting we discussed several ideas, but we mainly focused on the co-operative storytelling mechanic. We discussed the style of combat we were going to use, as well as incorporating puzzles. The puzzle format will be similar to combat being focused on a sequence of button movements. The puzzles will be solved cooperatively as well.

Log #1

Hi, this is the first post for Project Felton aka Project Gonna Make It. This is Shaun here and we will probably be adding in the stuff we've discussed the past two weeks. For now we are coming up with an art style as well as working on the prototype.