Project Report 2014-02-26

Without a plan you won’t get anywhere, no matter how eager you are to get started. Chances are you’ll just misaim and be forced to revise in an unproductive manner. As you already spent many thoughtless hours on something that turns out didn’t work the way you thought it would. That has been my work these past few days: coming up with a plan of attack.

The coding department is almost done with the various components required to construct a level (don’t ask me about the specifics, it’s programming I can’t begin to understand properly), and in order not to lose any time they need to have a blueprint which to go by. It’s at this point you learn whether or not you’ve managed to keep track on how the game functions as a whole and how it’s experienced by the player. The appearance of these blueprints is most primitive, but sometimes the simplest way is the most efficient one to relay information.

Red markers are “Warriors” – heavy melee hitters that pursue the player once close enough or aggroed. Blue markers are “Workers” – ranged support. They start off as unengaged until they receive damage by the player. Having to engage the two in large numbers is intended to be a challenge, so the player is encouraged to aim carefully as to minimise risk of having to deal with overwhelming forces.

                                                       Room 1: 

                                                       Room 2:

At first the player is just introduced to the game’s dynamics without as much emphasis on challenge as communication between him and the game. Workers and Warriors are first introduced distanced between one another to help the player understand their different behaviours and thus be able to base his future decisions with that knowledge in mind. The cube/hexagon formation is simply the rough outline of the game space to use if that even becomes relevant, it’s more to serve a practical way to easily construct levels on a conceptual stage more than anything else. The purple marker at the far left is where the player spawns or the general direction of from where he emerges. The light-blue frame is the intended size of the screen, or zoom of the camera. While we aren’t sure if that’s the exact adjustment we want for it, this camera position does give the player a fairly proper field of vision in order to have an idea of what lies ahead and make tactical decisions based on it. The dark borders on the map are simply walls. They have a very organic outline planned for them so far with crammed tunnels opening up to larger, open spaces that provide the player with different challenges. We wanted the player to always have the confines of a room within sight as to avoid confusion as too open spaces does not provide any direction, while still open enough to give the player the ability to manoeuvre unless forced into a crammed tunnel. Which is the intent as he now needs to be even more mindful of his aim if he wants to avoid a deadly focused barrage of missile fire. The green arrows are general indicators of how the player is supposed to progress through the level. Orange fields are aggro range.

I am under no delusion that this is in any way near what our group will end up with. So far we’ve only theorised how to best construct the level. We won’t know until we have a solid platform to playtest on. Most likely we will have to revise the camera zoom along with enemy numbers and statistics. It basically comes down to trial and error at this point. Hopefully we’ll have a sample ready to be tested on clueless people to see if the goals of the game are clearly defined.

Testing, testing, testing, testing…

Until next time!

Björn Erik Berndtsson. Graphics and Game Design.