Game Idea Research

Game idea research.

So after some tough decision making I have decided to go with a completely different idea and research more on a very popular arcade game. I do not know the official name for this game so I will call it air hockey. The game looks like this and i plan to make it an online game. 

link to image here.

I think this game would be more fun to play than my original ideas and I am going to go for this game.  Now I will outline some game mechanics:

Game mechanics:

1. Reactions:  The players must use their reactions to hit the saucer away and protect their goal. If your reactions are not fast the opponent will score a goal.

2. Precision: In order to hit the saucer and send it in the direction you want you must hit the saucer with your puck in the precise location so it goes where you want it to. When the saucer is coming at you fast from your opponent both reaction speed and precision come in to play. The player with the better set of skills will prevail!

3.Customisation: I plan to allow the user to be able to choose the color of the table, the puck and the saucer at the main menu. This allows the player to choose his/her favourite colors and makes the game a bit more fun. You could also play 2 player with your friend using the keyboard or by yourself against the computer.

Here is a link to a website that has a game similar to the one i want to create.

https://www.miniclip.com/games/electro-air-hockey/en/

Unity Tutorial 02

Unity tutorial 02

In this weeks tutorial Jimmy Vegas was showing us more about how to add audio to our game and also how to allow objects to rotate. He showed us how to improve the graphics of our game which i enjoyed doing however I did have some struggles with unity. In doing tutorial 4 I found it hard to add the script to the game, I followed the tutorial as best I could however the script would not go into the game no matter what I tried and I ended up frustrated. I Think i am mixing up the script in unity with HTML from web design! Sometimes i got a bit confused and lost with all the folders that we needed to create and I found that I was slow to keep up with Jimmy. I enjoyed creating walls and other objects and experimenting and playing around with unity. My creative thinking is good and I feel that i am good at designing the actual game but I feel that I struggle slightly with the code. I also need to get used to using the mouse to navigate around the map although I have an apple mouse and I think it may be harder to navigate using this mouse. Overall I really enjoy these tutorials as Jimmy's voice is calming and he is a good teacher!

Screenshot from my unity.

Game elements

Game Elements

Upon reading the reviews for the book "Challenges for game designers" It appears that the book received a very positive response from readers as many that reviewed the book are game designers or game developers. When designing a game it is crucial that you know the right steps to take and the right procedure to follow. The book is written by Brenda Brathwaite who has 30 years of experience in the industry. this book will help all game designers improve their brainstorming abilities and sharpen your game design skills whilst giving you the knowledge to design a game properly. In one customer reviews the person says that he bought the book twice after he lost his first cope, thats how much it meant to him. Another user says how "this book is a must buy for anyone wanting to get into making video games. According to many satisfied users this is one of the few books thats focused on game design rather than game development. I am thinking about buying this book myself since these reviews are so good as i feel it would help me with my game design skills. 

Link to photo of book.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/233119/best_of_2014_gamasutras_top_.php

This is a link to the 2014 top games voted by Gamasutra. 

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/311921/Gamasutras_Best_of_2017_The_top_10_games_of_the_year.php

Here are Gamasutras top games from 2017.

https://www.mockplus.com/blog/post/web-design-articles-2018

 This is a link to the top 10 web design articles that are worth reading.

Feedback thoughts.

Feedback thoughts

The first article i read was 'seven ways to crush doubt in creative work' by John Spencer and I have to say I learned a lot from this article. I am a worry'er and overall nervous person so when i am doing work and others can see it i'm always worrying of what they think of my work. I learned that you should never ever compare yourself to anyone else. We were all made differently and no one is the same on this planet. I learned that you should adapt a growth mindset and to not be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes make you learn so it is okay to make them as long as you learn from them. The most important piece of advice for me in this article is to trust yourself. Sometimes a bit of self confidence is all you need and sometimes you must have faith in yourself and as Nike says, 'just do it'!

In the second article i read called 'A fixed mindset could be holding you back- heres how to change it' by Ann Arnold and Anna Kelsey-Sugg  the article says how always praising little children could actually make them turn out to be brittle, fragile children. This leads to a fixed mindset for the child. Raising a child telling them that they are brilliant at everything leads them to believe that they dont need to develop any more skills. Someone with a growth mindset believes that intelligence and ability is changeable and that you can develop and learn. This can have the same effect on adults in work. Someone may think that they know it all and wont work to develop their skills and this may lead them to not getting that promotion or that new job ahead of someone else who worked hard to develop their skills.

I really enjoyed reading these articles and took some tips for myself. 

Game brainstorm

Game brainstorm

I have chosen to brainstorm about these four games as they all seem fun, enjoyable and suitible for all ages.

Game 1: Dodge.

This game would be designed on the computer using game designing software and it would be a digital game. The idea for the game is that several 'bad guys' will fall from the top of the screen and the player must try and avoid them using either the arrow keys or the mouse. The longer the player lasts in the game the faster the bad guys will fall and the higher the score. Another idea for the game is the longer the game goes on the bad guys begin to come from different angles on the screen and they begin to change size eg bigger and smaller bad guys. I plan for the background of the game to be black, the bad guys to be red and the controlling guy blue. I like the idea for this game as it is simple to play, does not have many rules and is fun for all ages. I like the idea that friends could play together and battle it out to see who can get the highest score. Growing up when me and my brother were younger we used to play games like this one on our old computer so I believe this will bring back some memories and is why I am interested I creating this game. I have no previous knowledge in creating games like this however I have played games similar to this one so I believe it is a good idea. I plan to use a program like unity to create this game if I were to choose it as it is the leading online engine for making games.

https://www.kongregate.com/games/platky/mouse-dodge

Game 2: Sliding puzzle game.

When i was younger and still to this day i always loved puzzle games. I sometimes play candycrush on my phone when i'm on a bus or whatever as I feel they pass time quickly and are good for the mind. My mother loves playing pzuudle styled games so this one was inspired by her love for them. The games is simple to play would be fun for all ages. The idea for the game is to have a big square shape on the screen. The square would be filled with 10-20 smaller squares each with their own number on them.(1-10 or 1-20) However there will be one small square missing from the big one and the objective of the game is to slide all the squares around until they are all in order from 1-10/20. There would be different levels with the easiest level only having maybe 5-10 numbers, the medium difficulty level having 20-30 numbers and the hardest level having 30-50 numbers. Players could work their way up beginning on the easiest level and work their way up to the hardest. A possible feature is that the player must start on the easiest level and he/she is not able to progress to the next level without having completed the previous level. The user would be able to choose the colour of the square for customisation and there would be a sound effect once the square is completed. Another variation of this game is where you could have a random picture cut up into loads of different squares and the player must slide the squares around to get the picture to fit together again. The player would use the mouse to clich and drag squares.

https://www.proprofs.com/games/puzzle/sliding/

Game 3: Connect 4.

This game was the game that brings memories back as me and my younger brother used to battle it out every day for the crown of connect 4 champion. This game is probably the first game I can really remember playing. It was so fun to play and you could play it for hours upon hours without getting bored. I intend to make this game on a computer software and it will be a 2D game. Everyone knows this game but i will explain how it works for anyone who hasn't had the privilege of playing it. You begin with a board that stands upright with holes at the top. The most commonly used connect 4 board size is seven columns by six rows however size variations include 5x4, 6x5 and 8x7. Each player gets their own set of coloured coin shape disks. The aim of the game is to drop the disks into the holes where the disks occupy the lowest space. The first one to get four disks in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally is declared the winner. The tricky part of the game is whilst you are trying to get your disks to form four in a row, you must also pay attention to your opponent to try and prevent him from doing the same. I believe this would be a fun game for parents to play with their children or for friends to play together. I have previously played this game in the physical format so this would give me an idea of how the game should be played and how to design it.

http://www.ludoteka.com/connect-4.html

Game 4: Nibbles.

This is also a game that brings back memories from my childhood as I used to play this game on my old nokie phone, I believe the game was called snake. When i got my first phone, a nokia, I was obsessed with playing this exciting game. The game has a black screen on the background and then begins with a small green snake on the screen. There is a little red dot on the screen which is food for the snake. The idea of the games is to use the arrow keys on the keyboard to change direction of the snake as it moves around and try and direct it so that it runs into the food and eats it. As the game goes on the snake begins to grow with every bit of food it eats. The speed that the snake is traveling in also increases which makes the game more difficult. The games gets harder to play the longer you play for, which is essencially leveling up. This game is a classic and would never get old and that is why I would love to ,ake my own version of it with possible different colours. I could also add audio to the game to give it some life. This game is perfect for anyone who has a spare few minuites or has nothing to do or simply would love a quick game.

https://playsnake.org/

Unity Tutorial 01

Unity tutorial 1

Unity is the worlds leading real time engine for creating games on a PC. Unity is a visual engine ad is excellent to use for any aspiring game developers. The interface is highly customisable giving the user the ability to adapt the display to suit him/her. I found the three part Unity game engine tutorials by Jimmy Vegas very useful as he very expertly guides the viewer through the engine from the very beginning assuming you know nothing and are a beginner. You can use the engine on several different platforms such as PC, xbox, ps4, android and ios. The software is object orientated but also uses some code. In tutorial 1 Jimmy gives us a basic overview o it whilst showing us how to do some basics like creating shapes. In tutorial 2 he shows us how to add different terrains and how to import different textures and materials. He demonstrated how to download textures on their website and then create folders to drag and drop them into. He showed us how to use the opacity to create paths in terrain which I found interesting. In watching these tutorials I learned how to create the basics of a game and I enjoyed how well Jimmy guided me through everything, he was easy to follow.

link to image

Game Design

Game Design

What is a game? This is the question that there is no actual definition on as many people have different definitions. I think a game is an activity that one engages in for amusement or for fun, usually containing rules and some conflict between players. There are many different types of games people can play such as online multiplayer, simulations, adventure, real time strategy, puzzle, action, stealth shooter, combat and many more.

In reading through an article named 'Don't be a vidiot, What computer game designers can learn from non-electronic games' By Greg Costikyan he explained how 3D graphic adventure is somehow qualitatively different from a 2D game, meaning that innovation nowadays is more focused on technology rather than creativity in game design. Game developers are more interested in what the game looks like rather than how it plays. This may be due to the competitive market with stores like Smyths stocking hundreds of different games on their shelves. 

It seems that online games are much more popular now than board games as more people have access to the internet and technology. These days people can download games to play with their friends on their mobile phones rather than playing board or card games. This seems cool and futuristic but sometimes you can't beat a good board or card game. It seems like the days of all the family sitting around the table and enjoying a good board game are numbered. 

Greg also says how game developers can't really fail if they don't make games for big companies such as EA or GT. Perhaps thats why there are lots of games out there that just art that good.

In reading the article "The essence of euro-styled games" by Lewis Pulsipher it seems that there was an era where Euro style board games became very popular and are still popular today. A Euro style board game has a few characteristics that define it:

• Usually takes under an hour to play
• Simple rules
• No player eliminations
• Great visual interest
• Short intervals between playing
• Very pacific

Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of a video game, the gameplay, environment, storyline and the characters in a game. It is the production stage of a new game. In Lewis Pulsipher's article "so your going to make a game for the very first time?" he explains how there are several steps (6) in creating a game for the first time. These are:

1. You are better off making a table top or board game if your web programming skills are not that great.
2. Make a game based on another game as this will make it faster to get to the point where you can play it.
3. Try and pick a form of game that is fairly common, nothing out of the ordinary. 
4. Focus on gameplay not appearance.
5. Once you have the prototype play it yourself as it coule be rubbish to actually play.
6. Once all that is done you can modify the game which takes up a lot of time.

I thought this was an interesting article by Lewis and i enjoyed reading it. 

Here are three links to articles that i found useful to read on the topic of game development:

https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-learn-board-game-design-and-development--gamedev-11607

https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/02/18/beyond-programming-the-power-of-making-games.aspx

https://techbeacon.com/4-fundamentals-mobile-game-design

Photo of game developers office from Epic Games.