For Week 2’s Challenge Activity, I used the game design principles outlined in the reading materials to produce a proposal for an indie game prototype that I intend to for this module.
I’ve chosen to base my proposal on my current knowledge of GameMaker Studio 2’s programming language (GML) and my pixel art skills. I believe that by sticking within these boundaries I’ll be able to produce a playable retro styled platform game that I will be able to add plenty of polish or ‘juice’ to, which will help raise its overall quality.
Game Name: A scarecrow’s life
1. Game Mechanics – platform jumping, melee combat, blocking, traps and hazards.
2. Genre - Action platformer – using elements from games such as; Gods, James Pond 2: Codename: Robocod, Ghouls and ghosts, Swtichblade, Castlevania, Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion and Rick Dangerous.
3. Player Fantasy – Play as an unlikely hero thrown into a chaotic and deadly land, slaying monsters, rescuing villagers, and collecting treasure!
4. Platform and Controls – Windows PC, Keyboard or Controller.
5. Spatial Abstraction – 2D view with horizontal and vertical scrolling, with players traversing through varied locations.
6. Avatar – A real living scarecrow!
7. Camera Perspective – 2D fixed perspective on the player
8. Goals and Scores – Slay vicious creatures and rescue villagers for treasure rewards and find keys to progress onto the next level.
9. Progression and Variety – Players will progress through a variety of levels and themed zones, each with their own enemies, hazards, and bosses.
10. Tension and Rest – Each level is filled with different enemies and hazards that will require their own timing and solutions. Enemies will not respawn initially and will then only respawn in specific areas, so players will be able to rest in between each hazard.
11. Obstacles and Penalties – There will be a number of environmental hazards, such as spikes, falling out of the playing area and deadly fireballs for the player to traverse through.
12. Resources – Platforms, health, and treasure.
13. Decisions – Not many initially, as each level will be pretty linear. There will be hidden treasure and health areas to reward player exploration and experimentation.
14. Simulation and Chance – Enemy types move in varied ways and have differing health and will require different techniques to defeat.
15. Storytelling – A simple story of a distant land terrorized by an unspeakable evil, getting the hero they deserve…
16. Art Direction and Style – The art direction will mix 8 and 16-bit graphical styles and use a minimal analogous colour palette for each zone to add variety.
· The player will consist of his own distinct analogous style colour palette.
· The environment will also use analogous colour harmonies that help contrast and differentiate it to the main player sprite.
· Enemies and interactive items will also use a similar analogous style to the main environment – most like inversed to contrast and help with visual clarity and hint at interactivity.
17. Animation and Visual Effects – The player character, interactive items and enemies will all be fully animated with game levels and backgrounds remaining static – some elements may be animated, time permitting!
Plenty of effects parallax backgrounds and screen shakes and particles happening with player interactions and impacts.
18. Sound Design – Basic sound effects for melee attacks and impacts with a looped background soundtrack. These are likely to be 3rd party produced for time purposes.
By keeping the scope of the game relatively simple and highly polishable, I’m hoping that (or should that be intending to) continue to add additional gameplay layers and mechanics once the engine is complete.
I’ve chosen to work on a 2D platform style game primarily for two reasons:
One: As I’m a relative novice with regards to coding, I’ve been very deliberate about choosing the style of game based around the quantity and quality of tutorials for it.
Two: Being a child of the 80’s, there was no shortage of quality platform games to choose from and some of my fondest gaming memories are from playing platformers on my Amstrad CPC and latterly SEGA Megadrive (as well as a friend’s Commodore Amiga).
I chose the Udemy based tutorial ‘How to Make Tile Based Platform Games in GameMaker Studio 2’ by Peter Morgan. Working through the lessons in this tutorial course will likely take 20 to 30 hours, with some elements being quicker to work through than others, as well as my skills and knowledge development speeding things up (less errors and being quicker to spot them).
From my experience of learning via online video tutorials, this has to be the most comprehensive tutorial series that I’ve worked through and I believe that by completing it, I will be able to use the skills and knowledge gained to expand and improve upon its initial gameplay elements.
I’m hoping to produce as many of the assets myself as possible, however I will likely need to look at using 3rd party music and sound effects to save time. Luckily, www.humblebundle.com have just released the HUMBLE SOFTWARE BUNDLE: BIG MUSIC 2 which includes a large amount of royalty-free music packs! If these don’t fulfil my musical needs, I’ll like look at using Fiverr to source what I need.
As mentioned in the weekly webinar, I like to be involved heavily with and control the art style of anything I produce, so I’ll be designing and making all of my own graphical assets and is likely to take a similar amount of time to the programming, but luckily can this can be achieved whilst working on other disciplines.
References / reading:
Lobb, I. (2020). GAME DESIGN PRINCIPLES.
Riot Games (2018). So You Wanna Make Games?? | Episode 10: Game Design. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=yYYtBFSxoCg&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 11 Feb. 2021].
Game Maker's Toolkit (2015). Secrets of Game Feel and Juice | Game Design Basics. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=216_5nu4aVQ&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 11 Feb. 2021].
GDC (2020). The Gamer’s Brain, Part 3: The UX of Engagement and Immersion (or Retention). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=CozTtfhwPX0&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 11 Feb. 2021].