Project Report 2014-03-05

Thought I’d delve into the finer details of a specific map I’ve been working on this week which is intended to be the very first room of the game where the player is introduced to the two main enemies of the game. The first level is probably the most important part of almost any game, as it’s how the player is first introduced to its elements and features. It is here that you establish a communication between the player and the game as he learns about it – its dynamics and rules – and how to advance through the experience. Poor communication can result in terrible conveyance.

Red dots are Warriors – heavy melee hitters that can cause significant harm to him once close enough. Blue dots are Workers – ranged attackers that might not be so dangerous on their own, but as groups they can bring down a deadly barrage of focused missile fire on the player. The orange borders are there to simply help with separating the different encounters. The light-blue screen and purple marker in the upper-right corner is the camera border and player spawn point.

What further separate Workers and Warriors is their respective behaviours. While Warriors work as any typical aggressive enemy, attacking the player on sight when within aggro range, the Workers are initially passive to the player’s presence and only engage in combat if hit by any of his attacks. Warriors advancing on you under the cover of Worker missile fire can prove to be a difficult challenge, so it is important that the player understands these behaviours as quickly as possible in order to progress without incident. To help establish a working communication between the game and the player he is at first introduced to simple setups of enemies with no particular difficulty involved. This is simply in order to introduce the player to how the different enemy types work by playing the game rather than having to look up some “how to play” manual in order to understand how the game’s different objects work.

I don’t think anyone wants to spend time learning how to even play a game in order to be able to progress in it, so the more we can blend tutorial into the gameplay without making it feel like it disrupts the flow of the experience the better. We make sure the player understands how the game works and what its rules are before presenting any considerable challenge. The first room is simply meant to work as an introduction to help the player get into the zone of competence in case he’s new to this sort of experience. If he isn’t he should be able to steamroll through quickly towards the more challenging engagements that he might crave.

Half way through the room the player might find the latter encounters challenging to an extent, which serves to introduce him to tactics he could utilise to survive. Encounter Three and Four can certainly become difficult to overcome as both present a large number of workers that can easily overwhelm the player if he’s not quick on his feet. Encounter Three’s crammed area makes it difficult to evade any ranged attacks, so the player should be able to pick up on that he can survive more easily when in an open space, even if the number of enemies is larger. As Workers only join the fray if attacked, it should serve as an incentive to the player to mind his aim and make sure only to hit the Warriors in order to avoid having to face a combined force at once. In short, if the player’s aim is good and/or tactical in his engagement he should be able to pull through with minimal casualties, thus enabling him to progress more easily. It is a constant balance of interest between wanting to take the powerful warriors out as quickly as possible while not being too reckless in your attacks to avoid a bigger mess on your hands. This gives the player some degree of control of how the game plays out, and thus gives it some tactical depth.

Further on, the room ends with a simple setup once again, Workers just behind a group of Warriors. By this point the player should have an understanding of the behaviours, and be able to act accordingly based on the information given to him. If he survives he may safely exit the room.

We’ll have to playtest it to know if this design works, but it shouldn’t require all too much editing apart from changing enemy stats. Though maybe I’m a bit overly positive.

That’s all for this week. Until next time!

Björn Erik Berndtsson. Graphics and Game Design.