Thursday, November 12, 2015

Homework Midterm Update

Team 2 - Game Document Update for Midterm

Tetrad

Story:

 Our story, told in a linear fashion, will unfold beginning in an environment in a world familiar to that of ours. Our hero, Gaya, the child of Mother Nature, is awakened in a peaceful area of Eden that will provide a place for them to learn and practice these newly acquired elements (game mechanics) that they must use on their quest. Once leaving this Eden, Gaya will enter a world of turmoil and imbalance--the only progress will come through the mastery and practice of the elements to reestablish balance. A foreign race of creatures, Malterra, has destroyed Earth’s environment and is abusing these elements for their own desires. The Malterra will use these elements to fight our hero in combat. Gaya will use all four elements to battle the Malterra, to display balance of elements over the abuse of the single element being used by the individual Malterra. 

Technology:

 We are using a fairly standard video game setup: our game runs on a computer, the graphics are displayed on a monitor, sound plays through whatever speakers are available, and the player interacts with the game by using a gamepad or a keyboard.

Aesthetics:

 We are currently working on models to represent our game’s main character, but the current model is the default mannequin. We have particle effects in place to denote the character’s current stance. Apart from the third person template map, we have one level that features maze-like mountain formations.

Mechanics:

Our current player character can move around in three dimensions by running and jumping. The player can utilize a basic three-hit combo to attack enemies. In order to move from one combo attack to the next, the attack button must be pressed during a certain window of time. While attacking, the player cannot run or jump, but can slowly turn in order to fine-tune the direction of the attacks. The four stances can be activated with the d-pad on a controller or the T, F, G, and H keys on the keyboard, although these stances only generate particle effects at the moment.

Member Contributions

Itiel Agramonte: character models, simple map

Daniel Hoekman: character controls and attacks

Arthur Karapateas: enemy AI

Michael Uria: background music, sound effects

week 1:
Itiel Agramonte: finish Mixamo characters and animations
Daniel Hoekman: make character attacks functional, create enemy that can take damage
Arthur Karapateas: upload basic AI
Michael Uria: get music playing in-game

week 2:
Itiel: finish basic map
Daniel: give stances unique properties, work on combo system
Arthur: work on enemies
Michael: work on music, provide sound effects

week 3:
Itiel: map detailing and troubleshooting
Daniel: refine character attacks and abilities
Arthur: work on enemies/boss
Michael: finish music

Friday, November 6, 2015

Homework 8: game analysis

Team 2 Game and it's Element's of the Tetrad


Featured above is a possible working title of our game that was designed by our team members. This image, although simple helps clarify the important elements of our game and how they work together. 

1) the Tetrad

  • Story: Starting this game's campaign we wanted to introduce the player to a world of nature. One that introduces turmoil and tranquility since our games focus is eventually about balance and making all of that work together properly. Most of our story will unfold in dialogue being spoken by a narrator while the player fights against foes. This will be done using technology to record our voices for the characters of our game. The gameplay will continue during times of exposition and hopefully this method of story telling will keep up engaging gameplay while being told. 
  • Aesthetics: Our games aesthetic is one that will include many natural environments, including those that seem to clash. As our character is the balance between all the elements of nature, this aesthetic will help portray the narrative we want to convey. We will also be using many premade models found in unreal, especially those from the Infinity Blade starter packs. These include many wonderful resources, especially for environments like fire areas, and snowy regions. 
  • Mechanics: Our gameplay mechanics will involve switching between 4 various elements of power to fight against opponents. The fifth element will be an ether that is used to keep the player alive, so it acts as a health system. As the player continues fighting and stays alive for longer they will be rewarded with new powers to continue providing various options for combat to prevent a lack of emergence in gameplay. 
  • Technology: The technology we are using to create our game is unreal engine and the power of our computers. We are also planning on allowing a player to plug in a usb controller to control the main character. The D-Pad will be used to seemlessly switch powers, and we believe that this is immensely important for the mechanics of our game to feel good and fun to play. The technology will help us portray the aesthetic we are looking for with the models and texture packs we will use, and the story telling will then help better be told. 

2) Balance:

Our games balance will come from the player learning how to use which elements against which enemies properly. Some enemies will be effected more by a specific element, and the player will be especially weak to enemies of another type of element. This way the player will be constantly thinking about which power to use for each combat scenario. We as a team believe this is the best way to make our game feel balanced and fun to play, while also continuing to be engaging. Balance will definitely be the most difficult aspect of our game to make it feel right, but our goal is to achieve a good sense of balance that is fun, while also having a good learning curve. As the player eventually masters their elements against certain types, we would eventually like to include enemies of various elements in the same area to make the combat feel more frantic, this will be the most difficult part of our game to balance. Our map for the player to play in will also be a map made of 4 sections. Each of which cater to a specific element more so than an other, so this will help prevent any one element from being used more than an other.

3) Emergent Properties:

As our players learn about which elements work best against certain enemies and how to use their powers to manipulate the environments around them, we want to introduce enemies that might be containing more than one element that they can switch between. This emergence will be mostly a change in difficulty if the player survives for a long period of time. This will help create a new sense of focus that will prevent the player from feeling like the difficulty is stagnant. Rather than picking a difficulty mode, this will help create an emergence in difficulty. Other emerging properties will be power ups found on the map that can make certain elements more powerful, and maybe certain events that happen within the map like challenges to overcome as you survive for longer periods of time. Our game is seeming to lean more towards a survive on the map for a period of time with events that unfold as you play to help keep the player engaged. Unlocking new abilities as you play will also be something that will help keep the player engaged as they play.

4) Interest Curves:

As our players continue playing we want to make sure that events occur that seem not only threatening but also engaging to help them learn a new ability. This will happen as our players continue surviving on the map. The new abilities could include flying with the air element, sliding with the ice ability, rolling with the rock element, and burning with the fire element. These new methods of movement and combat will be introduced to the player as things also get more challenging and they need to travel across the map in a quicker rate to protect the environment around them. The dialogue will happen continuous as the player plays so that they do not feel alone in the world that they are fighting in. Hopefully these elements of emergence will help continuously keep up the players interest in the game to continuously survive. A high-score/leaderboard being implemented  will also be important to helping players feel interested in continuously playing our game to see who can survive the longest. That competitive aspect will also hopefully help keep interest in the game. 

5) My opinions on the game so far

Based on these design choices I am liking the game that we are making. About halfway through development I was not too happy with our design decisions because the goals of our game were very unclear and not seeing an end in sight. As soon as the tagline, "Master the Elements, Master Yourself" was created we all started to see a much clearer vision for our game. Our games development has become a lot more fun and engaging, and I believe this will help make our games elements feel a lot more passionately created to actually be fun to play. Our goal is just that, to make our game fun to play. Our story telling will just be to get the player into the world around them so that they can start playing and so that they can start learning how to have fun with eh mechanics and the world around them. As the development has become more fun, so has the game.


Game Contributions this week:
After pushing AI mechanics to github, I also included a field of view for our enemies, and the ability for enemies to patrol certain areas, and go to specific spots on the map after certain things occur. Next up is working on making the enemies attack the players, and being able to be defeated by the player.