Game Development / Projects

 

29.8.2022 - 27.11.2022  (Week 1 - 14)
Lew Se Win / 0347637 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Game Development 
Task 1: Game Design Document 
Task 2: Art Asset Development
Task 3: Game Prototype


We are required to come up with 3 ideas about 2D platform games. Mr. Razif also told us not to create a very complicated game as this is our first time designing a game.

Idea #1: Food
2D platform which allows players to collect ingredients, inspired by my previous game studies module's game. 
  • Levels: different recipes 
  • Difficulties increase with harder recipes / more obstacles 
  • Platform : supermarket / kitchen
  • Obstacles : 
    • Knife 
    • Fire
    • Items falling down 
    • lost control trolleys 
  • Protect: 
    • cutting board 
    • fire extinguisher 
Idea #2: Meet the friends 
Collect items on the way to meet friends; pass them to the friends when they meet as a meeting gift.
  • Levels: to meet someone that you are finding 
  • Platform: Village
  • Obstacles: 
    • Bad weather
    • Accidents
Idea #3: Survival
A pet rabbit was lost in the jungle. To survive, the rabbit had to hunt the food itself and find his way out of the jungle to find his owner.
  • Items: grass / carrot 
  • Obstacles: Predator
  • Checkpoint: Warrens (tunnel) 
After listing down all my ideas, I decided to go with the first idea because I think that was the most "complete" idea I could think of.

There are several questions I have to solve while drafting my proposal 
  1. How the game can be level-based? 
  2. What are the different recipes? 
  3. What is the final platform? supermarket or kitchen? 
  4. What are the checkpoints for the game? 
To solve all the questions, I decided to tweak my initial idea because I realised that the game would not have a strong storyline. Hence, I then work backwards to create a storyline for the game. Suddenly, an idea came into my mind, and I decided to create a storyline about a girl who has no plans for her birthday, so she has to bake herself a birthday cake to celebrate her own birthday.

Besides, I also decided to have only one recipe for the game, as the repeating process of collecting ingredients would be boring. Hence, the player would only have to complete one recipe, which is a cake recipe for this game. To add levels to the game, I believe it should have two different scenes (platforms), one for the character to buy the ingredients and another for the character to bake the cake. Next, the checkpoints of the game could be the different sections of a supermarket. However, this idea was not included in the proposal because most of the ingredients should be found in the baking section of the supermarket.

Proposal 

Figure 1.0 Proposal

Proposal Presentation 

Figure 1.1 Proposal Presentation 

Revised Proposal 

After Mr. Razif's feedback, I decided to revise my game play as there would be more challenging and interesting elements that could make the player feel challenged in the game.

Figure 1.2 Revised Gameplay 

Figure 1.3 Revised Proposal 

Game Prototype 

We need to focus on the functionality of the game and not the visual for the game prototype. Hence, I decided to use the sprite available in Unity. 

Figure 2.0 Tutorial

Following the steps I learned in tutorial classes. I a very simple placement of the game. 

Figure 2.1 Ground & ingredient placement

After the whole setup, I started on the scripting part, which is a very torturous process for me. However, the tutorial videos were very helpful, as I could follow along step by step and figure out all the problems.

Figure 2.2 Character script

Figure 2.3 Falling obstacles script

Figure 2.4 Randomise falling obstacles script

After completed the prototype for level 1, I moved on to create level 2 and 3. I decided to load different scene for my game and no data saved between the levels, as the player will have 3 life in each level. 

Figure 2.5 Different Scenes

Level 2 is most likely to have the same concept as Level 1. Hence, I did not spend that much time on creating level 2. However, creating level 3 is much more challenging than I expected. I've created a variety of triggers to distinguish the area inside the oven from the area outside the oven. This is because if the player is in the oven area, the baking status will increase, while being outside the area will make things go the other way around.

Figure 2.6 Level 3 Setup

The script for the status bar looks short and easy, but it took me more than three days to figure everything out. Because of the use of Boolean, the status bar value could continue to increase rather than increasing by a value only after the area was triggered. 
 
Figure 2.8 Status bar slider script

Figure 2.7 In oven area script

Final Game Prototype 

Figure 3.0 Game Prototype Video Walkthrough

Game art assets 

I started by designing my character. 

Figure 4.0 References

With the references, I did a simple sketch on my iPad. 
Figure 4.1 Sketch

Figure 4.2 Character design progress

Figure 4.3 Final Character (Suzy)

After that, I draw the frame by frame animation for the character, so that she can be animated in the game. 

Figure 4.4 Idle

Figure 4.5 Walk

Figure 4.6 Jump

Figure 4.7 Hurt

Figure 4.8 Slipped


Other than character, I also did illustration on all the assets needed for the game. 

Figure 4.9 Illustrator working file

As the time is limited now, Mr. Razif advised me to complete only level 1 as soon as possible. Hence, I stop focusing on the art assets and start to work back on Unity.


Figure 5.0 Unity progress

Figure 5.1 Animation

Figure 5.2 Animator

After that, I amended on the ingredients and obstacles by adding animation. Besides, I also added sound effect for jump, collected, slipped and hit. 

Figure 6.0 Illustrations

Figure 6.1 Ingredients animation 

Figure 6.2 Falling Obstacle animation

Figure 6.3 Audio

Level 1 game walkthrough 

Figure 7.0 game walkthrough, 12.12.2022

After that, we are given more time to continue to complete our game. Hence, I continue working on the other 2 level of my game. 

Figure 8.0 Level 2 Game Design

Figure 8.1 Level 2 Progress in Unity

I had no trouble completing level 2 because it is quite similar to level 1. However, I encountered some difficulties in my level 3.


Figure 8.2 Level 3 Progress in Unity

At first, I did not connect the animator correctly, which caused my character to stop moving. I solved this problem by removing the linked transition from any state and only making transitions in the idle and walking states. After I built my game in Web, I realised that level 3 status is too slow. Hence, I decided to increase the baking status for that the player would not get frustrated in playing the game. Lastly, I also inserted some audio to my game to make it more interesting while playing. 

Final Submission

Figure 9.0 It's My Birthday Game Video Walkthrough


FEEDBACK

Week 8

Mr. Razif said that I should improve on the game development to make it more challenging. Mr. Razif also said that I could implement a timer to add complexity or maybe something to punish the player so that it is not easy to win. 


REFLECTION

This is definitely a hectic module for me. This project is extremely difficult for me because I am not a coder and I am not particularly interested in games. However, throughout the semester I have learned a lot, and this module is also informative. I really hope that I have more time and can complete the other 2 levels by then. Lastly, I would like to thank Mr. Razif for assisting me and answering all my questions patiently whenever I faced a problem.





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