Unit 68 - Computer game design

Game research and testing (game table)

This was a table created to compare various game releases, The structure was left blank due to lack of knowledge of what to write there.

So what if we were to compare two games from different times? Let's take System Shock and Bioshock for example. I never personally played system shock but I have played a fair bit of Bioshock and System shock was the predecessor of Bioshock, before it became a franchise. Bioshock is listed in the grid above, and as we know, is a first person shooter set in an underwater city known as Rapture. It focuses on two elements, combat, and story. System shock focuses on the same sorts of things, taking you through an interesting story while giving you fun gameplay and combat.

Bioshock in-game

So lets look at what Bioshock does differently to many other games of its genre. For one, it adds the use of a mechanic called plasmids. Plasmids are powers you can obtain by utilising a substance named Adam, which can rewrite your genetic code. Powers can include the ability to freeze your enemies, Fire flames at them, telekinesis, and even being able to fire bees from your hand. Combined with conventional weaponry, you are able to take down larger enemies along with numerous other smaller enemies. This combat mechanic means you need to simultaneously manage ammo and eve, combining the right weapon with the right plasmid to counter a particular scenario. If you're being chased by multiple enemies, you may want to freeze a few enemies and shotgun the few active ones to thin their numbers and temporarily disable each group so you can deal with them individually.

System shock in-game

In system shock, Most of the base elements are the same. You play in first person, you are given weapons, but no plasmids. The feel is very similar to bioshock, being enclosed in tight corridors and having no way of escaping. I cannot say as much about system shock due to not having played it before, however I can give basic similarities and differences.

Both system shock and Bioshock are set in inescapable areas. System shock is in space, and Bioshock is in an underwater city. Despite this radical difference in location, the enclosed, empty feel remains. Everything alive out there is trying to kill you, Bar big Daddies and little sisters in Bioshock. And even then, you have to kill big daddies. Both games include weaponry of their own sort. And overall, they're both very similar games, with only a few differences.

So how has time made these two games different? One of the most noticeable aspects is the graphics. Look at the two pictures above. The system shock screenshot is what the game looks like to play. Bioshock, as is quite clear, is the graphically superior game. But since when have graphics made a game? There are a few other things that time has used to differentiate the two. System shock has a very different control scheme to Bioshock. Whereas Bioshock had a basic control scheme of moving the mouse to look around and using WSAD to move, System Shock worked very differently. For one, instead of WSAD to move, it was SXZC. As far as I know, no other games have done this. Instead of just moving the mouse to move, it was R to look upwards, F to centre your view, and V to look down. A was to look left and D was to look right.

The control scheme for both games are very different, with Bioshock taking up the scheme more people nowadays are accustom to due to ease of use. System Shock using a control scheme of a very unusual nature, which isn't so easy to use.

The storytelling in both is intriguing. Bioshock taking an approach of having someone guide you over the radio, and a few audio logs you can listen to should you find them, giving you information about the plot and what's happened there in the past. System shock does something similar. Acquiring log disks and reading e-mails allows you to put the pieces together and work out what's going on. There are no other friendly NPCs to interact with, whereas in Bioshock, you will meet the occasional friendly person. Though one very noticeable theme, is I have yet to actually stand in the same room as someone friendly. You'll see them through glass, hear them on the radio, but never actually go up to them before they either turn against you or die. This creates a very distinctive feeling of isolation, there is hope out there communicating with you, but you only ever see what you're up against. System shock does this as well, making sure you never genuinely meet anyone friendly.

These two games are very similar in their execution, their environments, and their story-telling. So because of the more intuitive control scheme, and just improved game in general, Bioshock would have to be superior to me. I cannot say for sure due to only having played one, but from what I can see, system shock is still a very good game.

Research into Mechanics

The first thing we did was focus on looking at other games to take pointers. The game tried, was a simple flash game "Fireboy and Icegirl." A local multiplayer game focused on co-op. Or you could just
be weird and play it on your own controlling different characters. The video below shows me and Alex's experience with the game:


3D Game pitch and development (Everything I've done)

We'd had a look at how one game worked, now it was time to try our luck at actually designing a game and pitching it for kickstarter. Our task was to design a complete game and create almost a trailer for it, promoting it and making people want to donate to it. Concept art was drawn and 3D modelling was used to place various structures in the environment of the game we'd made.

The game my group decided to make, was one I'd partially designed last year. Now we were taking it further, still in unity. But this time with an actual story in mind and new design choices. We named the game "Archives" and our company; "Node Interactive" Then got to work thinking of ideas for the various mechanics of the game. The basic concept was essentially a maze puzzle game. You'd interact with devices in the maze to partially take control of the maze and move walls, open doors, replace traps etc. The story, was a little more complicated.

Essentially, two alien races had been feuding for centuries, and one day, a ship transporting intelligence crash lands on earth. A defence mechanism activates and the ship blends in with its surroundings, becoming a pyramid. The inside of the ship starts building the ultimate security system so one day its owners will come to collect it and it will remain safe in the meantime. The mechanism; a maze, built inside the ship, is where the entire game will take place.

The kick starter pitch below was put together by me with graphics and edits created specifically for the game and company. The title is correct, this was draft 4 of the pitch, the first wasn't created by me, the second wasn't used, the third was the original trailer we showed to the class, and the 4th, seen below was the final version.

This pitch was then sent off to an industrial panel, in which they would judge the game itself, along with the pitch. The following are the comments we received:


Other things in the group were designed by me, the logo for the game was created with various static effects and a font downloaded from Dafont. I added a pulse effect a slight 3D curve, and the effect was done! The Node Interactive logo itself was about the same sort of thing. Different colours, a different custom font, and a few small changes to the way the static worked, adding in a double behind to give the logo a kind of atmosphere. Things designed by me can in fact be seen in the video. For example, I designed the concept for the glove, sketching it out and going over it in pen. This was just a concept but the drawing itself can be seen below.

Overall in the group I helped a little with concept art, but mainly focused on designing the graphics for the logo and putting together the pitch, 3 times. I designed several things and even added two pages to a 10 page assessment of the game. I focused on explaining "Gameplay" and "Gameplay Mechanics." These can be seen below:

The above page, as you can see focuses on explaining the various gameplay mechanics for our game. The picture you see was taken directly from in-game footage, and depicts a Node found within the maze. I wrote this page explaining the way Nodes worked in our game, how they could be used to access the maze, and the glove that can be used to interact with various different elements of the map. This is just one of the two pages I worked on for the overall 10 page project.

The second page I worked on just focused on gameplay itself. I explain alot of the story here, touching on why certain things play as they do. For example, I mention the fact that this maze looks like an ancient temple, and that the reason for this is because the spaceship it's set inside has blended to its surroundings. This gives the whole game a particular feel as you walk through sandstone corridors and glimpse various paintings on the wall.

Advancing the Archives

The next stage of this project was to actually start creating this game, to make it a reality. Each group member was assigned a different task to make this game. I was assigned as sound designer. This meant I had to create all the music for our game, and add sound effects.

The first thing I did, was find a way to make music. I used a combination of Soundation (an online in-browser music creating tool) and Garage Band (A program exclusive to Mac). First of all, I made a list of the music I needed to make.

I needed:

- The Main Menu Theme
- The Node Theme
- Ambience
- Death Music

Main Menu So I got to work. First thing I created was the main menu theme. I used Soundation entirely for this one. I needed something that sounded futuristic, yet mysterious. The thing is, the player wasn't supposed to know entirely what was going on so they needed to understand they were in an ancient stone-looking maze, but there were strange elements of technology, giving the feeling that everything wasn't quite as it seemed. So I wanted to give the same impression in this theme. I made sure it stayed mysterious, while retaining it's feeling of an alien, or futuristic setting. The finished piece can be heard below:


The Node
The next task was to make the theme for introducing the Nodes for the first time. This piece of music would be played for the first encounter with the Node as well as whenever you took control of the maze. I wanted to make this theme with a similar thought process to the main menu theme, keeping it futuristic and mysterious, yet this time I wanted to add a sense of action. There were gears turning, lights powering up, it was meant to be a big moment in the game, so I made sure it kept the puzzle feel about it, not turning it into too much action, but just giving it enough action to add excitement. The finished track can be heard below:


Ambience
One of the main soundtracks in our game had to be playing constantly in the background. The player had to feel immersed, and trapped somewhere far beyond their own understanding. The game had to be immersive, and the player was inside a spaceship. There's no such thing as complete silence when you can breathe, and the spaceship was no different. It was still active, it still had power flowing through it. I decided to place a few sounds throughout to give the impression that there were other things happening around the ship. The finished track can be heard below:


Death Music
This music was created for the sole purpose of having something play when you die. You fall into a trap, you get impaled etc, and this will play. Players probably won't hear the whole thing in-game, since you can respawn with a click, and skip the song, but some may stay longer than others, so best to have a relatively short song they can skip than just a sound. The finished track can be heard below:


2D Game Development

The next thing to do was design a 2D game, so I decided to design a level, based around the sort of RPG feel, like pokemon or other similar games. The program I decided to use for this was RPG maker XP. The program was easy to use, and allowed quite a bit of freedom to do what you wanted. Now all I needed was an idea of what I wanted to make. It couldn't be too complicated given the time restraints, but I still wanted it to be unique. Eventually I decided to make a game designed for two players, Either online, or at the same computer.

I came up with a basic concept of utilising a day-night cycle to have two players interact, who never actually saw each other. One player, would wake up in the day time and walk around a forest, interacting with various things they found around the map. Opening doors, placing down objects, and overall changing the world they were in. Then, at night time, the day time player would be sent back home, and the night time player would activate. They would do exactly as the day time player had done, but at night, and with different paths. There would be certain doors that were open to one player but closed to the other. Certain objects one player needed that only the other could access.

The players would be able to make  choice. Work together, or against each other. After five days of this cycle, a disaster would strike, killing just one of them, both of them, or neither of them, depending on how the game had played out. The hardest option, obviously would be to have both of them survive. The easiest, to work against your other player. However this would depend on who you were up against. You may lay down a trap, then the other player finds it, and reworks it, so it only works on you, then when you go to check it, to see if it weakened the other player, you end up falling into it yourself.

The death system will work in such a way that it will usually not end a game early. The night time and day time player each have a set of abilities, with each death, The day/night ends for you, and one of these abilities are taken away, restricting you further, but making your remaining abilities stronger. Until you are left with just one ability, but one very powerful ability. If you are killed and you lose your last ability, the game ends, the winner, being the survivor. If you decide to work together however, you keep all your abilities (Unless you manage to get yourself killed) and you have a chance of both surviving the disaster.

My Idea
So, I wanted the game to be unique, and playable for two people. I wanted the game to be in-depth, but not overly complicated, it was 2D after all.


 I started making the game with a simple room, adding a few basic objects and such to give it a "roomy" feel. This house will pose as the home for one of the players, and will be the area they respawn each day upon death or when night time begins. I wanted it to seem quite bright, so I made sure most of the objects were by the walls of the room, and added a window of course. This meant the room felt a little more spacious for the player.

This shows a few of the interactive elements I currently have in the game. You are able to look out the window, or look over the bookshelf, each with their own text prompts. A few of these give hints. And once complete, they will seem out of place to the player. The text prompt here is stressing about the fact that it's still light, and combined with the books they will be able to find, it starts making the player really think.


The next thing I worked on, and probably the most important thing, was the forest outside the house. I made sure to keep it basic, scattering trees and shrubs, and putting in a few easter eggs, such as an abandoned campfire, or a pond with an island in the middle. The campfire can even be seen in the top right of this picture. And the stump of a tree just at the bottom.

Of course, in order to leave the house, the player had to be able to go down a floor to get to the door. So I made the bottom floor of the house quite simply. Adding the basics, such as a small kitchen, a log fire, as if to show the player has been living here for at least some time. I made sure it felt quite cozy. Not too empty or creepy, just so the player would know this is the day, and this is safe.

The next thing I worked on, was the night time house. I wanted it to have a very different vibe to the day time house, almost opposites. So instead of giving it an upstairs, I made this house with a basement. The house needed to have an air of uneasiness about it, but at the same time, the player needed to feel like this was where they were safe, where they woke up every night, and that this was their own personal area.

Of course with a basement, it also needed a ground floor. Again, I felt like it needed to show the player that they'd been living in the house for a while. But at the same time I wanted the house to feel uneasy. So I made sure it was relatively empty. Empty baskets and pots. However, I needed to show that the player had indeed been living here, it couldn't just be empty. So I added a few books on the table and a potato sack.

Finally I created a video, explaining the concept of the game, and touring the map. The music is not in-game, and I only currently have one player as a placeholder.