Not my last game design

I learned a lot this semester in game design class.  I didn’t think I would learn a lot aside from maybe a new API but I definitely learned a lot in terms of how to design a game that invokes replay.  For my final project I decided to team up with 3 other people and tackle something a little bit more ambitious than what I could do on my own.

Ingress - completely unique and frustrating at the same time.

I first heard about Ingress about 6 months ago.  I downloaded it purely based on the fact that it was a game developed by Google.  This alone was motivation enough to make me try it out.  I’ve always been a fan of Google products but never heard much about their game making ability.  Of corse the game takes advantage of one of the core elements of Google.  Big data.

The advantage that Google has that other game developers don’t is access to an amazing amount of data and technology.  By harnessing the power of the modern smart phone Google has created a very interesting MMO.  An MMO that plays out in real life locations.  Players must actually move around to specific locations to actually do anything in the game.  You pick a side (either blue or green) and continue to fight for your side. 

This is where the game loses me completely.  I hate item collection games.  With a passion.  Having to grind to get to the next level is something of a pain to do for me.  It is okay for games where the grind is actually fun. Like Diablo. But the problem I have with ingress is that it is just not fun for me.  I can appreciate some of the cool concepts that the game does that no other game can do.  I think the missions tab has some cool ideas and I have actually made notes to visit some locations that I saw listed there if not just for my own curiosity.

But I honestly cannot bring myself to play this game beyond level 2.  I tried but it just bores me to death.  I think the thing that bugs me the most is the feeling of futility i get.  I don’t actually feel like I am making a difference, but then again maybe that’s because I'm only a level 2.  But this to me is a major game flaw.  I will bring up the example of EVE online.  EVE has a reputation for having an insanely steep learning curve but at least you can do something with a low level character.  You can actually do quite a lot in EVE with very little skill points but the problem is new players usually have no clue what those things are.   EVE has other problem but that is for another blog.  With Ingress I feel that the little progress that I make is not as gratifying as I would wish it to be.

In the end the nerd in me really likes what was put into ingress but the gamer in me wishes the game was a little bit more fun to play.  Perhaps the funnest thing about this game is the bizarre behavior the game forces you to do. 

Final Project proposal

I am very excited to start further development of the game Scavenger.  If you remember, Scavenger was my early prototype and first foray into becoming a game developer.  It was raw and unpolished but I was proud of it.  But there are so many ideas that I have in my head that I want to add the game.  Since the prototype was just an initial showcase of what the game had to offer, it did not have the platformer module.  This game essentially has two parts; a space flight/exploration sim and a side scrolling horror/action platformer.

Early Prototype

The basic premise of the game has the player in a remote part of the galaxy where your wits and caution determine if you live or die.  Your ship has a limited amount of fuel and you need to land and explore various locations to find fuel, parts, food, and anything that might be useful to your survival.  If you somehow make it back to “civilized” space then you have won the game.

Platform prototype with sample particle effects

As you probably have guessed, this is a very ambitious project for a first time game developer like me.  But I am not alone and I have the help of 3 other talented people that are just as new to game development but also just as eager to get my vision off the ground.

First Game Prototype

Over the course of two weeks, another student and I embarked on our first game prototype.  When trying to come up with an idea for my first game prototype I took inspiration from the games that I have been playing lately.  Games that are much higher in detail and scope than anything that I could possibly come close to in two week.  But hey, I like setting the bar high.

The basic premise of the game was to include two major game mechanics, a plat-former and a spaceship shooter.  This meant twice the work trying to get the physics just right.  We wanted a transition from space flight to an interior view for exploration.  All of this sounded fantastic in our heads until we launched into learning the ins and outs of GameMaker.  I spent most of my time learning the code syntax and reading the API.  I find that using code rather than the helper icons gave me an advantage when it came to fine tuning the physics.  Lines of code are so much easier to work with when you understand them.

During this process, I discovered very quickly that what we wanted to make we could not deliver at the level of quality that I wanted.  This led us to make a decision to cut out a major segment of the game, mainly the interior view or platform part. This allowed me to focus my coding skills on just putting the basic space shooter together.  I spent a good amount of time on developing the code for the side scroller so I was very disappointed when we decided to cut it out.   But all is not lost as we have plans to use this code to expand the game to our true vision for the final product.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprise with the amount of positive feedback on our digital prototype despite the fact that it was only have of our original idea.  And this feedback is really what makes me want to continue to build on this game.  What I thought was a failure was actually enjoyed by others.  And that is a great feeling.

Link to game prototype:Scavenger

Three simple games

Super Puzzle Platformer by Andrew Morrish is a fantastic little puzzle game that at first glance looks a little like Tetris.  The big difference is that instead of controlling the falling blocks you control a little guy with a gun.  The objective is pretty simple, stay alive.  I found this game so addicting that I actually played it when I got home.  In fact I plan on playing it after posting this blog.  It is a very clean game that I could see myself playing on a mobile platform as well.  This game is all about pace and rhythm, and just like in Tetris, you get lost in the rhythm of the game.

Every Day the Same Dream is more of an interactive art piece but what this very simple game does is engross the user in the atmosphere.  This game does a very good job of allowing the user to pick the obvious routine or go on another path.  The music and art in this game are brilliant.  It feels very similar to the montage in the beginning of the movie Wanted.  With the Nine Inch Nails song ‘Every day is exactly the same’ playing, the main character is going through his mundane routine.  I will be playing this again to see if there is multiple endings as I believe this type of game should have that kind of feature.

QWOP is an exercise in frustration.   The whole point is to move your character by controlling individual muscle groups.  Yes, that’s right, individual muscle groups.  The Q and W are your left and right thighs, and the O and P are your left and right calf muscles.  The gimmick of the game is that the control scheme has no natural connection to what you can use to control on the keyboard.  You have to map your brain around the idea that your right middle finger and left pointer finger are you right leg.  This is super confusing.  I did manage to get 20 meters though.  

The evolution of Duel Poker

Duel Poker did not start out as a poker game at first, but it evolved into one. Below is the evolution of the game from early concept to playable game.

Early stages:

In the first iteration we wanted a game that had a combination of card play and grid movement.  Players started out with 5 cards in each hand and a token that they placed on the grid.  At first we used the simple rule of trying to knock off the other players token. This was achieved by landing in the same grid spot.

 The first set of rules stated that in order to move your player on the grid you needed a combination of numbers that match the desired grid location.  So if you wanted to move to spot 2-4 on the grid you needed a 2 and a 4 in your hand.   As we played through the rounds it became clear that it was a very boring game and it would take forever for us to find the combination to land on the opponent.  There was also the complication of who was going to go first.  The person going first had a distinct advantage and we quickly realized that player one could never lose.  We had to change the rules to include some sort of shift once players got close to each other, some sort of combat.  We decided to let face cards determine combat.  Essentially a game of war started once players got to within a set number of grid positions of each other.

The game needed a lot of work and movement was still very luck based and had not tactics at all.

Second Iteration:

On the second attempt I was paired up with another student who made the suggestion that we change the card-movement system.  Instead of playing two cards with the face value determining our new location, we used a system that dictated how far the player could move and in what direction.  The new rules stated: Moves are made by placing any number of cards face up to indicate a movement.  Odd numbers allow for movement in a diagonal direction and even in a north/south direction, the distance one can move is limited to the card number divided by 3.  So a 10 can move a player’s stack at most 3 spots and a 5 can move only 1 spot diagonally, and so on.  This made movement a lot more fun.  In our only play through it became clear that the movement was working but the combat system was not.  Combat was essentially a battle of who had the most face cards left in their hand, pretty boring. And since we only had one token, each the game was over right away.  Something needed to be changed for the game to be any fun at all.

Third Iteration:

When playing against my friend we came up with the idea to change the combat system to that of a modified version of Texas Holdem poker.  We also changed out the single token representing each player with a stack of quarters.  This would represent a “health bar” of sorts but could also represent real money if anyone actually wanted to gamble during this game.  When a player combat starts, the defending player can “fold” by giving one chip of their stack to their opponent, otherwise 1 round of betting takes place in which each player states the number of chips they are willing to risk.  If a player cannot match a bet then they must fold and lose one chip.  Three more cards are drawn from the deck and placed on the table, this is called a flop.  The player with the highest poker hand from cards that include his/her own hand and the flop wins. They then take the chips that were wagered from their opponent and add them to their own stack.

This made the game very fun to play.  I found that early in our play test of the new rules that if a player was moving towards another, this was a good indication that they had a good hand.  This created a hunt and chase effect.  But every time players discarded “move cards” they drew new cards to replenish their hand and in effect gave them a new set of potential poker hands  The strategy developed where my friend and I would move cautiously around until we both felt that we had a good hand.  On one attempt I decided to attack early with no real poker hand.  I used all my cards to land close to my opponent.  This was very risky because I had to draw 5 fresh cards and I had no clue if they would be good enough to win.  Turns out it was not that bad of a strategy because I won that hand.  But I got lucky by drawing a pair of queens.

Dutch Blitz

Ever played a card game called speed?  Imagine playing that game with up to 8 players at once.  That is what it's like to play Dutch Blitz.  You can play a version of the game with 4 decks of regular cards but to get the full enjoyment you really need to pick up an official set.  Each set comes with 4 decks, each deck has a different symbol and color on the back to differentiate from each other.

Each player has their own deck, if there are more than 4 players then players can team up in pairs until you have 8 total but each team is to have one deck. The point of Dutch Blitz is to be the first player/team to 75 points.  A player gets points by playing cards from their deck onto the dutch piles that will accumulate in the middle of the table.

Before each round, the players must setup their deck as fallows.  Three Post Piles, one Blitz pile, and a Wood pile.  There are no turns, and the round begins when the last rounds winner say go.  As the round begins any player/team can place a card in the middle by either starting a new dutch pile or playing onto an existing one.  Dutch piles must all fallow the same color and stack in order, so the bottom card must be a 1 and the next card that can be played on it is 2, then 3, and so on.  Players then flip 3 cards from the top of their wood pile and place them face up in a new pile.  Any card that is on the top of the post, blitz, or wood piles can be played into the middle on a dutch pile. But only 1 card at a time and 1 hand at a time.

Players can also stack on their own post piles to move cards off their blitz pile but must be done in a descending boy/girl order.  But be very careful here, if you try to get too cute by moving cards off your blitz pile in an attempt to blitz early then you may end up blocking a lot of valuable cards. During the round players can continue to flip 3 cards off their wood deck until it is gone.  once it is gone they must pick the deck up and start over.  They cannot shuffle the deck.

 When a player runs out of cards in their blitz pile then they yell "Blitz!!" and the round ends. all players then gather their cards from the middle dutch piles, and any cards found in these dutch piles count for 1 point while every card left in a players blitz pile will count as 2 points against them.

This point system has an interesting effect.  You can try to get as many cards onto dutch piles as you can or you can try to blitz early and end up with only a few points but giving your opponents all negative scores.

The game is played at a frantic pace and can often lead to accusations of cheating and arguments over who played a particular card first.

Once you master the card game you can try the Dutch Blitz sport.  It is the same game but played with giant sized cards that force players to run around while playing full contact Blitz!