AS91495 Production
AS91495 – Produce a media product to meet the requirements of a brief
Document\
Due date – I was
unable to submit this standard on the original deadline due to technological
difficulties (Site crashing & fail saving mainly) and lack of knowledge within scripting. Our new deadline is 3
November 2017. This extension will allow me to gain knowledge about production
technology within the Gamefroot website and how I can use it effectively to
create a fun and enjoyable videogame.
Research - Before creating levels, I researched about level design:
I found these to be useful tips into creating a detailed and
fun level.
Development
Plan – I’ve drawn
rough sketches of a possible path the player may take then a rough detail of
the level that includes obstacles, points, checkpoints etc, the player may
face. In some areas of stages I have changed things due to errors discovered
through play-testing. Some cases, I was unable to follow my story due to the
limited knowledge and resources Gamefroot site provided.
Following these sketches came a rough version of a stage. Some levels followed the design while others were altered to fit the story-line of my game.
Techniques and conventions + chosen genre - I have included a range of techniques and conventions in my game to help the player identify its genre and make my game enjoyable. The Golden Apple is a 2-D action plat-former that features collectibles, obstacles, enemy mobs, moving platforms and power-ups. My game can be easily identified as a platform genre by the many platforms the player has to maneuver between, and the deadly objects the player avoids. I've input these features thoroughly and combined some to create a challenging yet satisfying game. With precise placement of checkpoints and lives, I enable the player with relief as they surpass obstacles. My game features a power-up in which the player acquires dashing walking speed. I have integrated this power-up ability with deadly objects and small platforms to build a challenge (shown below)
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| Level 5 challenge |
Because the ability grants great walking speed, the player can jump great distances. This ability fits perfectly into my story-line as the main character acquires power.
"This part in the game was fun. Using the power up to jump over the lava and land on those tiny blocks was hard but fun at the same time" - Thomas George
I have provided collectibles on every level for the player to collect. I have also included hidden treasures in each level to act as a side quest for the player.
Gamefroot production technology - Creating and designing levels, characters, scripts etc. takes hours and hours out of production. Gamefroot allows tools and tutorials to be used by the game creator in order to enhance and design levels. I have used the resources Gamefroot offers to create and design fun and enjoyable levels. The tutorials helped me master the Gamefroot tools significantly in building levels. As a result I have created 5 levels that feature collectibles, obstacles, and enemy mobs.
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| Gamefroot tools |
Target
Audience – I selected participants who are male and female aged between
16-19 years (teenagers) to play my game. As they play the game, sometimes a
bug would occur disrupting game-play. Through the feedback my target audience
have given I am able to realize the mistakes but also things I can work on to
make my game more fun.
Level 1 – Feedback
Story points provide dialogue to display on screen if a player
overlaps the story-point. By setting the story-point on not-permanent, it meant
that the story-point would disappear after seeing it. I think this setting
provided a realistic approach to my video game.But feedback from my audience told me otherwise.
“I think you should leave text box longer” – Denver Valoa
“The text is unexpected, so when I walked past I didn’t read
anything” – Thomas George
To resolve this problem, I have decided to change the story-point
setting to permanent so that players who don’t ‘expect’ seeing a text box out
of the blue can walk back to read.
Another problem I faced in level 1 is the player’s jumping height.
“The character jumps way too high I can’t see beneath me.” - Denver Valoa
Although some of my audience say the character jumps too high, I have decided not to change this due to the significant amount of adjustments I will have to do. This would be very time consuming.
Level 2 – Feedback
“You need to elaborate more in the beginning of level 2
about how John ends up this place” – Denver Valoa
This is a minor problem. I have fixed the dialogue text and have made
it so that the text states clearly where the character has ended up and how
they got there.
“Hold down key? Text box needs to be accurate because I didn't hold the down key long enough to see beneath me...” – Denver Valoa
This issue made it difficult for my play-tester to progress
further in my video game. The instructions to see beneath the player are not accurate resulting in confusing players. To resolve this problem, I have timed how long it takes for the screen
to shift down while holding the down key. I edited the text box to state
exactly how long the player needs to hold the key in order to see beneath.
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| Before patch |
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| After patch |
“Warn people about this power-up!!” – Denver Valoa
The
purpose of this area is to introduce the player to the first power up. But I
have encountered a problem in which the player does not know it is power-up at
all. I will fix this problem by warning the player with a dialogue box that
gives a brief description of what the power-up is. For further safety measures,
I will place a block before the edge to prevent player from falling into the
pit of spikes.
As my selected participants were playing, one managed to
jump straight to the end-point without having to follow the plan I initially had
in mind. This issue allows the player to finish the level earlier than expected which is setback for my game. I will patch this problem by placing the platform further away the
end-point so the player cannot jump straight to the end.
Level 3 – Feedback:
There
were no serious issues apart from a few bugs and errors with scripts but nonetheless
the level was smooth.
Level 4 - Feedback
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| Before patch |
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| After patch |
An issue in level 4 was the difficulty of challenges. Particularly,
the first challenge the player comes across (shown above). My audience said the
moving tiles were too fast which stopped them from progressing further. So, to
solve this problem I have changed the speed of the moving tile to a suitable
speed; not too slow that it becomes too easy, not too fast that it is almost
impossible to pass. Also, I have input a checkpoint in the middle of the
challenge so the player doesn’t start right in the beginning. The checkpoint
saves the player from restarting the obstacle. This ensures my game isn’t tedious
because the player doesn’t replay the same difficult part they struggled to
beat. Furthermore, I added a life pickup so the player is rewarded for
surpassing the obstacle.
Level 5 – Feedback:
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| Large gap in-between platforms |
Level
5 is a straight forward level focusing around the power-up of the feather – John’s
dashing ability. The player uses the power-up to jump across large gaps.
Reflection - I am unable to feature the stealth ability to my video game due to time, limited resources on Gamefroot and lack of knowledge on how to create scripts. Originally, the power-up of the stealth ability was supposed to be introduced in level 4 where the player slays the monster in the woods. The player turns invisible for a set amount of time then regains their body. The issue with this power-up is that enemies could still see you even with the ability activated.
Copyright
considerations - The Golden Apple is not based on a licensed title and has not been copyrighted by any gaming companies yet.
Link to my game: http://gamefroot.com/game/the-golden-apple/
Link to my game: http://gamefroot.com/game/the-golden-apple/
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