My 'Game Design Document'

Hey Huns,

Welcome back to my blog.

I'm kind of confused as to what I have to write about but here goes.

A screenshot of Dundoc after I have click add project

In the game I am designing, the main character is either a penis or a vagina. They will designed more like a cartoon than realistically. The setting is in a clinic which I will make the artwork for. The game works in a collect/avoid way in where the user collects the sperm points as well as boosts and tries to avoid damage causing STI's. The player has the option to jump, slide under or move from side-to-side in order to avoid or collect.

On the first level, the player is taught the instructions via a pop-up notification. Level 1 involves using the side-to-side movement, level 2 introduces the jumping option, and level 3 add the sliding under option.The game take place in a 3rd person view, much like games with similar concepts. Each level will progress through the clinic, from the front door to the doctors office, Seeming as if the player is moving through it themselves.

The character will make a squelchy noise when they move, I will try to compose a theme tune to play in the background, something similar to the styling of the Super Mario Bros game. 

The user will control the player using the arrow keys (up = jump, left for left, right for right and down = slide under). The game is single player but works on a leader board system, much like old arcade games of the 80's. 

I really don't understand what I'm supposed to do and I have been trying to understand for the last 2 hours. Dundoc will not allow me to create a new project for some unknown reason so I really don't know what to do at this stage. I have also reported the bug to the website.

Reading about Games GDD

Heya Huns,

Welcome back to my blog. For the reading this week we were looking at the early stages of the design process of games by Greg Aleknevicus.

source

He explains that if you are creating a game that include tiles to then make the tiles smaller than the space in which they have to inhabit so not to cause them to overlap or interfere with each other. 

He also suggests to use distinguishable colours in the design of your game, but this can be tricky as many people (including myself) are colour blind. Contrasting colours are best as they are easily distinguishable from each other and no mistakes can be made, If both characters and red and orange it can be hard to tell them apart.Greg also suggests using shape to differentiate characters in order to avoid the mix up which can occur from colour. Using different materials and components can also help to individualise characters. Use clear fonts so your game is easy to read and doesn't cause strain on the users eyes while trying to read. Keep your game uncluttered, so the user can focus on the actual game and is not distracted from the game play by an overuse of graphics.

When designing the box for your game he suggests listing the name on the side as many companies tend to forget this seemingly unmissable design point. Depending on how the game is then displayed on the shelf, this can be the selling point for the customer as they might miss the game if you forget this design feature. It is also important to display the age rating on the front, side and back of the box. 

Have your theme work with your rules, this means to have a clear set of rules that do not contradict each other (unless the add to the game play) and do not cause confusion for new players. Keep your game rules concise and to the point, don't create intentionally vague rules as they can then be interpenetrated however a player wants. Include examples of the gameplay from the rules to avoid confusion also.

I've learnt a lot of do's and don't about game design from this reading and I found it quite helpful. Even being colour blind I had not considered designing my game to suit these needs.

I also found these additional readings interesting to read:

https://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/level-1-overview-what-is-a-game/

http://www.artificial.dk/articles/artgamesnetworks.htm

http://publisherperspective.blogspot.com/2009/08/playtest-notes-on-initiative-frontline.html

Game Vision Statement

Heya huns, 

Welcome back to my blog.

Today I'm going to discuss my idea for the game I will be designing. The plan is to make a platform game where the main character is a penis or vagina, avoiding STIs and collecting sperms. If possible I would like to make the game multi-levelled i.e. after each round you progress to a new level. The character will have 3 lives and every hit from an STI will take one of them away. Condoms and other contraceptives will give the player 30 seconds of invisibility from the STI's. Other obstacles like gaps in the floor will also cause the player to lose a life. The surrounding world in which the character moves will be an STI clinic to tie in with the theme of sexual health. Once the player runs out of lives, I hope to be able to add a feature that brings up a sexual health fact in order to educate users. I hope to have a comedic take on this as well as an educational one, which will hopefully then catch and keep the interest of the user.



Required resources for this game will be Unity3D,a lot of Jimmy Vegas' videos and time. While researching resources for game design, I stumbled across this article, which explains how to increase and optimise your game's performance.

The game will be similar to the likes of Temple Run and Super Mario Bros in the way that it involves collecting points (coins in the case of these games) and avoiding an enemy. 













this is the only non-pornographic image that was 
marked for reuse - source

Problems with Unity Tutorial 2

A very accurate representation of my feelings towards this - source

I know we were advised not to leave work until the last minute in case of this, but this week when I went to launch Unity it recurringly comes back with the message of an error and will not load the application. 

I have watched the tutorials and know what is expected of us to have had done for this week, but I cannot seem to find a way to fix this error, even after spending quite some time searching the internet for some answers. The error display reads 'invalid license' which I do not understand as I did not have this problem with last week's tutorial.

Apologies for not working ahead of the due dates like advised, It's hard to keep up with the workload. I may start attending the afternoon lab on Wednesdays to try and prevent this problem from occurring again.

Game Elements That I Like

 me right now - source

Hi welcome back to my blog,

Today, I was reading about game qualities and elements and a few things stood out to me. 

The first thing that caught my attention was game objectives. A critical part of any game is the objectives that the user must strive to achieve, this is what starts and finishes the game (the interesting parts are what are in between). Objectives mainly fall into 8 categories:

• Capture/Destroy - Examples inclue chess, the aim is to eliminate the opponent's pieces so that you can win.
• Terrotorial Control - Games such as Risk tend to focus more on taking control of the board rather than destroying the opponent.
• Collection - Games like the Spiro series have the aim of collecting objects which are placed randomly around the map in order to move onto the next level.
• Solve - These games take more problem solving and thinking power to result in victory,  Cluedo is a good example as the players must remember key information in order to win the game.
• Chase/Race/Escape - A lot of games fall into this category, even playground games such as chasing. The aim is to catch or not be caught by the opponent.
• Spatial Allignment - Tetris falls into this category, the game rewards spacial awareness skills.
• Build -  This type game involves improving your character or building your resources. games like the Sims and many freemium games follow this model.
• Negotiation of another goal - These games invlove avoiding doing an act, such as Jenga, the player is trying to avoid knocking over the tower while also trying to remove a block from it. Once the tower has been destroyed that player then loses.

Another part that interested me was reading up about players. Games must have either a set amount of players or have a variable. A set amount of players means that the game could not bedone right if they were over or under the required players. The variable usually goes from 2-5 players and works perfectly dine as long as there are at least 2 opponents. Games like solitaire can be played alone, other games can set a single player up against a group (hide and seek). There are any different variations of player conflict and distribution which are unique to each game. My favourite is team competition, as it invloves working in teams against your rival opponent's in order to win, examples of this inclue capture the flag or football.

Rules are another crucial part of a game, without rules the game would be a free for all and no one would win. The rules are what makes the game interesting, as you have to avoid doing something or follow them in order to become victorious. Rules are the guideline for the game, so they extremely important and necessary for the enjoyment of the player.

Feedback Thoughts

self-explanatory image above - source

While researching project feedback online, I came across 'A fixed mindset could be holding you back - here's how to change it' by Anne Kelsey-Sugg and Ann Arnold. It was mentioned that praising a child for everything they do can result in a fixed mindset. This leads to the child growing up into an adult who believes that they are brilliant at everything and do not need to further develop their skills. I disagree with this to some extent, as it is up to the individual to decide themselves if they are good or bad at something and to then take on the responsibility of improving their skills. I do however agree with what the authors say about the then grown adult possibly blaming their shortcomings on others. 

I also read 'Why it's so hard to hear negative feedback' by Tim Herrera. He explains in the article that when receiving negative feedback, our bodies all have the same reaction of tensing up, shallowing our breathing and feeling as if our fragile egos are being threatened. We also tend to build our social groups around people who don't give us the sometimes necessary negative feedback. But as he explains, it works both ways. We avoid giving it out as much as we try to avoid hearing it. To learn and improve we need to understand that the feedback does not come from a place of hate or jealousy, but is given in good faith by those participating. This is especially important for my course as we have a lot of feedback sessions amongst the year group, and sometimes it can be hard to hear if you feel like you've put in the effort. 

Personally, I appreciate any form of feedback as it informs me if what I'm working on is worthwhile continuing with or if I need to go back to the drawing board with my idea. In work, we are told to use our own initiative with whatever we are doing, so It is up to us to decide what happens and we are then expected to deal with the consequences, good or not.

4 Game Brainstorm Ideas

Welcome back to my blog, 

I've had a few game ideas from a brainstorming session today and I'd like to share them.

The first game is based on an idea I had about spreading awareness of sexual health. The main character would be a penis or vagina (depending on user preference) who's main goal is to collect sperm cells which then count towards points (1 sperm to 1 point). The character would take damage from STI's, which will come in the form of small enemy characters (different character designs depending on the STI). The STI's could have different effects depending on which STI they are intended to represent. The character could also boost the amount of points they get and become partially immune to the STI's damaging hits if they collect contraceptives (not just condoms, to inform the user of other options). The idea comes from the likes of Temple Run or Super Mario Brothers. The character could jump over gaps in the floor or interact with the surrounding world. The world in which the game is based would be a clinic or hospital to go with the sexual health message of the game. There will also be messages at the end of each round with a sexual health fact for the user to read. 

The second game idea that I came up with was a chasing game based off a Cops and Robbers game I played as a child. The game would be a police pursuit of a getaway vehicle (the character is the car of the cop or robber). The user can choose between being the cop or robber character. The game would aim to get to the safe house before the police catch you or to catch up to the thieves before they make it to safety. Gasoline would be used as a booster to speed up the car of whichever character is chosen. Points would be allocated for the number of pedestrians the driver avoids, and damage taken for the amount hit by the speeding car. The game would also be timed rounds of around 60 seconds, to put pressure on the player to do better or to come back and beat their previous time. There may also be an option to take a secret route that moves you further towards the safe house (5-second delay from the other car). The setting of this world is the streets of Dublin City Centre, with famous landmarks hidden in the back as the car zooms past.

Screenshot from Super Mario Bros. - source

My third idea has a message about being environmentally friendly. The idea is to create a game for younger children, educating them about the importance of recycling and not harming the planet. The character will be a simple human in cartoon style in gender-neutral colours (to avoid designing multiple characters). The character is then damaged by pollutants, such as smog or toxic waste, and the more of these that the character comes across, the more the clean and lively world behind them dulls. The character can get boosters and/or gain back lives from collecting recycling signs which will be randomly generated in the map of the game. The world in which our character lives will be, in the beginning, green and full of life such as trees, flowers etc.. But as the game progresses, and the character takes on more damage, the worse of a state the world becomes, also increasing the risk of them coming across more damage causing pollutants.

The fourth and final game idea I came up with was to have a dog as the main character. The aim of the game would to navigate your way through a warehouse, owned by an evil cat (enemy), without being caught. The reason for this being that the evil cat has kidnapped the dog's owner and is keeping them hostage at the top of the warehouse. Each floor would be a new level, increasing in difficulty as the game progresses, with more and more enemies to fight off, or hide from. Boosts such as invisibility can be used to sneak past the cat's evil henchmen and points can be collected in the form of dog treats. Damage is taken from the henchmen, if caught, the game will resume from the level you just began on, but if you are killed then the game begins from level 1 again. Once you reach the roof of the warehouse, the dog's owner can be seen, but standing between you is a giant cat, reading for the final boss fight of the game. The game will publish a leader board in order to encourage users to come back and hopefully incite some healthy competition between them.

My game ideas may be a bit over-optimistic for my capabilities but I am excited to learn if I can create the exact game that I picture in my head when looking at these ideas.

Here's a link to a thread that shows the collecting part of the games I mentioned.

Unity Tutorial 01

screenshot from Johnny Vegas' tutorial - source

It was hard to get a hand of how to use Unity, even with the tutorials as it is completely unfamiliar to me. The first video was a bit easier to grasp, but once the second one began I found myself getting lost or being in a complete state of confusion. Applying the texture was not the hard part, but editing the sizes of the tiles took me a while to understand.

It took longer than expected to get through the tutorials as things like details and adding grass caused a bit of stress for me when it did not work, so a break was needed. Scripts made nearly no sense to me so I will not comment on that section of the tutorial. I will revisit these tutorials again so I can improve on the parts which caused problems.

Overall I'm not fully confident but I definitely have a better understanding of how Unity works as well as a little (emphasis on little) bit of an understanding on how to use it. I fear I may struggle in this module as it's something that is completely out of my own comfort zone and seems alien to my way of thinking.