Funny Site

Role

Sound Designer/Composer

Intention (SMART Goal)

By October 14th, for the first session of game design, by following this tutorial, I will create a way to click buttons to produce babies for my September project.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Christopher Larkin

1. A game’s soundtrack should be based on what the game itself is about.
2. A leitmotif is a theme of a character or place that comes back when that character or place comes back. Essentially a way of connecting music to certain things in the world.
3. Leitmotifs can also be instruments, or specific things that play when something happens.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/christopher-larkin-review

Christopher Larkin is an incredibly talented composer. He made the score for Hollow Knight. It’s incredibly atmospheric and mysterious, setting up the game perfectly.

Training Source(s)

1. People like watching numbers go up.
2. Idle games are easy commitments. You can play them much more easily than you can play most other games.
3. Somehow idle games aren’t the most cash-grabbing or monetized games out there.

Project Timeline

Proposed Budget

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

https://chsgamedesign.itch.io/period-1-team-6

Skills Commentary

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1KovAAuKIOdqIne7nkVOpXdzmQjHb_6t_mwhlyhBqIu8/edit#slide=id.g1176dcbe26d_0_0

For the second session, I learned how to use unity 3d’s terrain feature to make maps for our racing game. It went very poorly at first, since package manager kept importing packages that didn’t have assets I needed. But, by the end of the session, I was able to make two maps that had working assets and roads.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

During the second session, while I was importing packages, several assets would be missing. First, I looked up videos to find out how to fix it. Then, to solve the issue, I reimported the packages and used the HDRP wizard to convert the assets to the right version so that they would work.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

For session 2, we all made different parts of the racing game. I made the racetrack, leo made the car, and Seth made the car’s art, for example. Then, we combined them and made sure they worked together.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I used this racetrack tutorial to learn how to download the racing package and use it to make the racetrack.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I learned how to make games with genres that I am unfamiliar with. I don’t know too much about idle games or racing games, but I learned how to make games in those genres.

Reactions to the Final Version

“The gameplay and art looked unpolished.”-Hunter

“Really slow.”-Bennett.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

In my opinion, the game isn’t nearly as bad as everybody says it is. We set out to design an idle game, and idle games are slow and monotonous by nature. However, the opinion of the consumer is always more important than the creator’s. Next time I think what would have been best is getting feedback from people earlier, so that we could fix the problems before we presented them to the class.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

John is the most hardworking and self motivated person I have ever met. After working with him in game design, I can confidently declare that he was not only persistent and dedicated, but that he always finished not only his part, but most of everyone else’s parts as well. John is able to solve just about every problem presented to him. On top of that, he was always able to help me and my teamates with any problem, or teach us about anything we needed. If you want a determined and persevering member of your team, hire John immediately.

SUMMARY

Role

Level and Sound effects Designer.

Intention (SMART Goal)

By May 10th, as part of team 2 session 5, I will add sound effects to our game by following this tutorial.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

William Pellen is the co-creator of Hollow Knight. He did the coding and game design of Hollow Knight. I’m using him as a leader in the field because of how he made the game design in hollow knight so fun. It feels good to play, and I think that is the most important part of a game, especially for me, since I’m doing level design (alongside sound design), and levels need to be fun to play.

https://au.linkedin.com/in/william-pellen-2786ab57

Training Source(s)

(1:14) Audio source adds audio when it is put on an object

(1:38) Drag audio into the audio source to play that sound

(5:49) This is the code to make an audio manager, which can locate the specific sound you want to use, making keeping track of audio much easier.

(8:35) Audio sources get added for every sound in the array.

(10:29) How to add audio with only a single line of code after making the audio manager

Project Timeline

1. Implement boss by April 15th.
2. Have cutscenes finished by May 6th

Proposed Budget

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Team 2 Itch Page

Skills Commentary

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cwydY9v7HJyBazr9G8rlnWYZyW5UzPMlndmr_c_QuzU/edit#slide=id.g1176dcbe26d_0_36

In this session, I implemented the music that Seth created into our game, making them play at certain points.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I was able to create my own sounds, and learn how to implement them into the game. Once I finish all the sound effects for our game, I will place them all into the game, and make them play at certain points.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

I found BeepBox, the sound creator I’m using, by asking people about what good music and sound creators are. Once I found one that I liked, I ended up using it.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I used videos that showed old retro sounds, along with tutorials on how to make good 8 bit sound effects to design my own.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I learned sound design, which makes it so that I can be very adaptable with my skills. Now I know how to do effective level design, coding, and sound design.

Reactions to the Final Version

I remember the specific suggestions and reactions, but not the people who suggested them. Here are the ones I remember:

1. The dash is glitched

2. Spikes and lava are too big

3. The melee attack can hit people twice, due to a bug.

4. Health can go above the maximum limit of 12.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I think the game is looking very good right now. However, it’s not much better than the last verison. That’s mainly because most of the stuff that we did has not been implimented yet. I made sound effects, but I haven’t put them in yet. John worked on the boss, which also hasn’t been finished yet. So, we didn’t get a lot of visible progress, but are work this month will really show up next month, when it is all implimented and works.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned basic sound design, how to use BeepBox, and how to impliment sounds in Unity. I added the muisc that Seth put into the game, and I was able to figure out how to make it loop, by using simple coding that detects how long a song plays to make sure it doesn’t do it incorrectly.

Grammar and Spelling

My editor

Editor

John Zickuhr

SUMMARY

Role

Room Designer

Intention (SMART Goal)

By March 2nd, as the room designer for team 2, I will create preset rooms that will generate in the levels by following how Spelunky makes it’s random generation for our Session 4 project.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Derek Yu created the level design system for Spelunky, which is similar to how I plan for our game’s system to work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Yu

Training Source(s)

Project Timeline

1. Basic enemy AI
2. Functional Imp sprites
3. Improved room generation
4. Basic boss implimentation
5. Basic player upgrades

Proposed Budget

Pre-Production edited by John Zickuhr

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

https://leotheweeb.itch.io/unity-rogue-like

Skills Commentary

I made preset rooms that will generate into levels when the game starts. I also made arrow traps that will shoot players.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I encountered a bug where arrow traps wouldn’t destroy arrows that hit arrow traps, but I figured out the problem and made it so that they could destroy each other.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

When I needed advice, I would get help from John, since he’s better at coding than me.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

By looking at the way that Spelunky does level creation, I created a random generation for the levels in our game.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I learned how to problem-solve, and how to code in Unity on my own.

Reactions to the Final Version

Jim told us that our game looked promising and that making a roguelike was very advanced for most freshmen.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t get the enemy ai done until the very end, meaning we didn’t have enough time to make the game fully playable, but I’m still incredibly happy with how it turned out. With a few more features, this will be a full game.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned how to code on Unity. Before, I had to ask John for help on most things, but now I am able to code for the most part on my own.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly and John

Editor

John

SUMMARY

Role

Level Designer, and UI/HUD

Intention (SMART Goal)

By January 28th, as a part of team 2, I will explore level design by following unity learn, I will have learned how to code and will have designed different types of rooms to implement into the game

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Gavin Simons, a game designer for Hades.

Hades is a big inspiration for this game, with the roguelike mechanics and sword fighting gameplay.

Training Source(s)

1. You must take into account multiple variables when designing a game. 1:26

2. Working with your team to balance these aspects is important. 1:44

3. Once you are ready, you should create a rough draft of how your level design will work. 2:11

4. After the rough draft is approved, you will create it in the game, and playtest it to make sure it is good. 2:40

5. Research parts of your level before you start making it. 3:35

6. Plan the levels around mechanics in the game, so that they fit within it. 4:45

7. You need to be able to talk to people. Communicate your ideas, while listening to theirs. 5:35

8. Make sure to guide players correctly, so that they won’t get lost, frustrated, or annoyed. 5:54

Project Timeline

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

The game is not completed yet, but we have a prototype.

Skills Commentary

First, I designed the enemies and the bosses for the game. Then, I worked on the game itself. I coded the objects that would spawn in the rooms, and the enemy rooms. I also started coding the health system, but we didn’t finish it by the end of the month.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

I helped John when he was coding things, and when we got stuck, I would try doing the simpler approach to a problem, instead of overcomplicating it, which usually worked.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

On most of the code that I did, John helped me since I didn’t know how to use Unity that much. Because of this, I learned how to code with other people and collaborate on ideas.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

Github, and youtube videos on how to make certain things in Unity.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I want to become a game devoloper, so learning how to code in Unity is very important for me. Now, I feel like I could make a game on my own.

Reactions to the Final Version

We did not upload our game, since it wasn’t finished, and so nobody reacted to it.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

While we weren’t able to finish our game, we didn’t expect to, and the product we got out of it can be easily made into a better one in the next couple of months. I was pretty proud of myself for being able to learn Unity and do some of the coding, especially considering I had covid and missed about half of the month.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned how to use Unity and how to code in it. I didn’t originally know what all the different types of language in Unity meant, but with John’s help I figured it.

Grammar and Spelling

I proofread it myself cause I don’t trust that John guy.

Editor

John Zickuhr

Cue What do first, second, and third pass mean?

Notes MDA stands for Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics A designer creates a game, a player consumes it MDA breaks games into 3 components, rules, system, “fun” The design counterparts for them are mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics Mechanics are the components of the game, like data and algorithms Dynamics are the behavior of the mechanics with the player inputs affecting outputs Aesthetics are the desirable emotional response from the player. Games are more like artifacts than media, the content of the game is it’s behavior, not the media that streams out of it towards the player. Designers see mechanics first, and aesthetics last, while players see aesthetics first and mechanics last. Games invoke different types of fun/aesthetics Feedback loops are very important, since they show how a cycle in the game works, and how invested players are feeling by the end of it. Mechanics are actions and behaviors players have access to. EX: In a shooter, the mechanics are weapons, ammunition, and spawn points, which make dynamics like camping and sniping. Passes are sort of like more complicated systems in the game (Although I don’t really understand it.)

Summary

MDA breaks games into their 3 components, Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics. Aesthetics are the emotional response the game should invoke. Dynamics is the behavior of the mechanics affecting other factors and way things interact with each other. Mechanics are the tools the player has access to, like jumping and running in a platformer.

Cue fdgd

Notes sdfg

Summary

1. In the inspector window, you can find coardinates. X and Z are flat, and y is vertical position.
2. By making an object inside another object in the sample scene area, you can make a parent and kid object.
3. The tools are view, move, rotate, scale, rect, transform, and edit bounding volume.

SUMMARY

Our goal was to create a platformer puzzle game, with an ability to redirect projectiles. As the level designer, I designed fun and interesting levels, suggested ideas, and playtested the game.

Role

Level Designer

Intention (SMART Goal)

My goal is to make levels that are fun and engaging for the player, scale well in terms of difficulty as the game goes on, and use all of the mechanics implemented into it to their full potential.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Maddy Thorson, the creator of Celeste

Celeste is a platforming game that is very hard, but has fun mechanics and challenging levels that make it very rewarding and fun to play.

Training Source(s)

1. Puzzles are based on limitations. 1:21
2. The cleverness of a mechanic in a puzzle game will determine how complex or how many levels can use the mechanic. 1:33
3. Outlandish concepts that are unique usually create better and more complex puzzles. 1:41
4. The player should know what their goal in the game is. 2:29
5. Good puzzles are built around a catch, a logical contradiction that the player can’t figure out at first. 2:38
6. Solving a puzzle should involve a revalation, that makes the player have to reconsider their options to find a goal. 5:20
7. You must make sure a puzzle sollution is intuitive, so that the player doesn’t end up confused as to how the mechanics in a puzzle work in the first place. 6:14
8. Puzzles use assumptions to make people think they have the right solution, to distract them from completing it, and to make them use critical thinking. 8:01
9. Puzzles should be minimalistic, so that they don’t overwhelm you. 13:36
10. To determine the difficulty of a puzzle to build a natural curve between levels, you should use these four basic criteria. The number of solutions, the number of steps required, the number of options a player can choose from, and the mechanics a player needs to know before hand. 15:20

Project Timeline

1. Start pre-Production
2. Begin making the character
3. Make objects the character can interact with
4. Design early levels
5. Add in turrets, and reflecting projectiles
6. Add in more types of obstacles
7. Design the rest of the levels
8. Make the final boss
9. Playtest
10. Add in any unfinished sprites and patch bugs.

PRODUCTION – ACTION

https://leotheweeb.itch.io/warp-wizard

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

The levels were designed to start off very easy, like a normal platforming game. As the game continues, it introduces mechanics less common in platforming games, like sprinting, breakable walls, and turrets. Then, it introduces the main mechanic of the game, reflecting projecticles. Introducing things slowly makes it much easier for the player, since they have essentially at least one level to learn each new ability or enemy. In the last few levels, the game uses all of the mechanics at once, to test the player on their mastery of every mechanic in the game.

I also came up with the idea for the lizards with guns, the one directional turrets, the dragon final boss, and breakable platforms.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Over the course of our game, we had a lot of bugs, levels that weren’t very fun, and mechanics that were annoying. I playtested the levels and found these mistakes, and then Leo and John fixed them, allowing us to get rid of the issues with the game.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

Our group had a very good process for designing things and communication. I would suggest an idea, John would code it into the game, Leo would polish it, and Seth would make a sprite for it, and then I would add it into levels. This process repeated, allowing us to add more and more ideas into the game.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

I looked at games that used platforming and puzzle elements well, and thought about how to combine them in a fun way. Games like Celeste, Mario Oddessey, and Spelunky 2 were big inspirations because they were fun, had well made platforming, and good level design.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

I watched a lot of youtube videos and played a lot of video games. Im in speech and debate, and I had two tournaments this month.

Reactions to the Final Version

My parents playtested the game, and while they found it to be a little difficult, they liked the concept and the uniqueness of the game.

“I really liked the re-direction mechanic”-Nate.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

Simple: The game is very simple and easy to understand, since it introduces mechanics slowly, and the mechanics themselves are jumping and sprinting, which are easy to understand.

Unexpected: The projectile redirection mechanic is unheard of, and not seen in other games. It’s not expected at all, and it’s used to make levels that have never been seen in a game before.

Concrete: The text in the tutorial section of the levels, and the lore at the beginning of the game was easy to understand and taught the player about the world and mechanics well.

Stories: The game had a detailed first level that explained the lore. You are a wizard on a quest to slay the dragon that rules over the lizard government. This story was unique and interesting, and made the game have a purpose.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned how to suggest new ideas to the team, whether it was about problems or ideas I had. This allowed me to better improve our game. I also learned a lot about how to make fun levels, and how to make unique design that’s different from other games.

Grammar and Spelling

Edublogs built-in spell-check.

Editor

Leo M.

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