It’s the third DevLog about the 6 prototypes. Mainly talked about the 5th prototype. It’s a 12 Second Unity Physics Engine Game.
Prototype 5, A 12 second Unity Physics Engine Game.
The inspiration for this game came from my denial of my own project. At first, this physics game was about jumping off the building, because when it comes to physics, I think about gravity and avoiding obstacles, so landing from a high altitude might be a good idea. However, I was dissatisfied with the project and was hesitating whether I should continue working on the project and submit an assignment that I am not satisfied with or I should delete the prototype and find a better idea. At this time, I decided to use this idea to make a physics game that allows players to choose to “upload” it or “delete” it.
In the game, the player will control a stickman. Players can use horizontal keys to make the stickman move, use space key to make it jump, use mouse clicks to grab a unity icon, and move it around the computer desktop, and eventually drag the unity project into the bin or submit it on the moodle page.
The playtest results mainly reflect three problems. The first is that the animation of the stickman’s movement is a bit strange, which may be due to the problem of the parameters of the internal physical components of the stickman. The second is that the colour of the stickman is white, the icon of unity is black, and the background of the game is dark, and there are also a lot of white backgrounds. So it makes stickers and objects appear inconspicuous in some places. The third is that the hints about the game method are not clear. Since this physics game requires no more than 12 seconds to complete, there should be clear guidelines that should reduce the time players spend finding ways to play and where to go.
In future studies, I need to learn more about the Unity physics engine, pay attention to the colour matching in game design, and pay attention to the importance of game guidance for a time-limited game.
It’s the second DevLog about the 6 prototypes. Mainly talked about the 4th prototype. It’s a avoid and collect game called “XO TOUR”.
Prototype 4, XO TOUR
XO Tour is a tour performance by the record label “XO”. Lil uzi vert, an American rapper, was invited to perform on the tour. Then, he made a song called “XO Tour Life3”.
XO Tour life3 is one of my favourite songs, and it has been continuously inspiring for the past few years. However, this song and this rapper have always been controversial. So I decided to make this game, from the perspective of an incomplete note, to experience the whole song, to experience bad comments.
Shout out to Lil uzi vert, the Weeknd, and RIP Virgil Abloh.
Design
This is the draft for the game. The player controls an incomplete note at first. Players are able to collect the components of the note while avoiding being hurt by the bad comments. The idea is, music could be innocent and the artist could be conceited. I design the game as touring as a note. And there are always hates. It’s OK that some people don’t like your work because it depends on individuals. But I have to pass through all of these, to jump over them. And by doing this, I can make my own art.
Prototype
Play controls the note by “left”, “right” and “space” (jump). Black alphabets are the platform that helps players to jump to a higher place or avoid the “bad comments” in red. Once players touch bad comments, players have to restart from specific places. There are in total of 3 parts of the notes to help players complete the note. At the same time, every part could help players jump higher or run faster. Once the note is complete, players are able to the top and meet the end of the game.
Playtest
There are some bugs that remain in this prototype. One of the most serious bugs is that the note may get stuck when walking on flat platforms, and need to continue walking by jumping. When this problem occurs, it will greatly affect the player’s avoidance by jumping, and sometimes cause the player to touch bad reviews. This bug has not yet been resolved. Also, because the inside of the treble symbol is relatively uneven, the note may also be stuck in the recessed place. However, there is no possibility of death in the treble symbol, so this bug will not greatly affect the player’s game experience. But still needed to be fixed.
At the same time, the test also feedbacks that this game does not convey my theme very well. And the gameplay is relatively monotonous.
Some people think the idea of incompletely note is interesting. some people think that the pictures and the map are well-drawn, which makes the game more vivid.
It’s the first DevLog about the 6 game prototypes.
Until now, three games prototypes have been developed. Two of the models have a high degree of completion and need to be changed based on play-testing. Although there is a model that has been completed, it needs to be changed on a large scale based on the existing play-test feedbacks. The main reason is that the playability is not high.
Prototypes 1, A racing game without dice
It is designed that players pick a card at each round and keep them. Return a pair of the same cards to pick a new card. There are 24 cards in total, involves 3 types of cards:
Move forward (12)
1 step forwards (10).
2 step forwards (2).
Move Backward (6)
1 step backwards (4).
Stay (2).
Functional cards (6)
Give on a specific card you have to other players and the player has to follow the card (2).
Pick one random card from another player and follow it (2).
Force another player to step 1 backwards (2).
The map has not yet been finalized.
The biggest problem of this game is how to make the two actions of drawing cards and playing cards related to the map design and the player’s strategy.
Also, playtest shows that the numbers of cards are too small especially the move forwards card. The probability that the player can move forward is too low. So at the very beginning of the game, move backwards and functional cards are useless.
Changes after playtesting:
Change the number of cards to 42 in total: Double the move forwards cards and functional cards. So there are 24 move forwards card, 6 move back forwards card and 12 functional cards. In order to Increases the player’s chance to move forward and interfere with the others.
Update the maps. Simply, the map consists of a straight line and two shortcuts. These include some bonuses or traps that affect the player. For example, a straight line containing the bonuses that increase the possibility of allowing the player to move faster, while taking a shortcut might make your opponent move faster.
Race game map
Prototypes 2, a twine game.
This is a linear story game. A friend of mine was attacked in London. I decided to make a twine game based on this story as I thought of the increasing discrimination against Asians and attacks on Asians since the outbreak of the Covid-19.
This project has not been launched yet, it has only been tested locally. I am studying to upload it to the Internet such as the UAL myLog webpage.
A screenshot of the twine game.
Based on the playtests, improve the twine game, add a timer to the text, and print the text slowly according to the estimated reading time, so as not to make the web page too compact due to large sections of text.
The current direction of improvement is mainly literary and effect. The literariness includes more contagious words and more concise narratives. The effect is mainly dynamic text and is considering whether to add sound effects.
Prototype 3, an escape room.
This is a cooperative project, completed by Shijie Song and me.
Players need to search in a designated room (M310, LCC), find an unreleased game, and know about the game designer’s story.
The poster in-gameThe process of escaping
All the clues of this game are built on what is already in the classroom. As the subject of this escape room, most clues are related to board games. A small number of clues are hidden in computers and globes. We hope to arouse students’ interest in board games through this game. Song is mainly responsible for the design of the decryption process, while I am mainly responsible for finishing part of the story or expanding the story. This room escape game tells the story of a designer who made a game for a girl and didn’t want the game to be released, but was coerced by an unscrupulous game publishing company. To enrich the story, I added some clues that have nothing to do with decryption but can enrich the story.
We initially limited players to finish the game in 15 or 20 minutes. However, the playtest results reflect that it may take more time to complete it. All three teams of 3-4 people took about an hour to finish, and all of them asked for our help. Some of these clues are very difficult. For example, there is a clue that I like, a folder called “unlock_10_60_1-6”, which points to a game called “Unlock”. There are many versions of Unlock. 5 of them require players to be over 10 years old, play for about 60 minutes and require 1-6 players. The filename points to the clue. At the same time, Unlock also means that we need to find a password to unlock this folder. However, testing has shown that players may not care about the meaning behind the name, perhaps including their unfamiliarity with board games as a whole.
These test results made me understand that everyone has different opinions on the difficulty of the same game, especially as the designer of the game may think that the game is not challenging. Still, it is not the case for the player. But at the same time, it also reflects the problem of the game’s target group. If the game does not have a specific target group, it should not introduce clues requiring players to know one particular field.
