Game Design Document

Game Design Document

I made a Game Design Document on Dun Doc and it had my ideas and thoughts on my game.

Here is a link to my Website (https://www.dundoc.com/project/5846)

This is how I will keep track of my Game Document

Here is an Outline of my Game in Illustrator

Shows how I want my game to be like.

Unity Tutorial 05

Unity Tutorial 05

We made Weapons, Scripted and Collect Gem Text Box

My Experience

I found this tutorial very enlightening because of how I am learning that there are plenty of work and understanding that goes into making a good game. I feel like it was really good and well explained I enjoyed making the Text Box for the mouse it was fairly easy but keeping track of which goes where was pretty difficult. The most challenging part of the process was trying to position the weapon (AXE) So I knew how the animation was going to turn out but I got there in the end. The only thing that I am trying to get a hang on is the texture because of how many steps they have before you can make it suit the environment also you have the new way of trying to add keypad inputs to make the animation of the swinging of the Axe. 

I feel like the assignment really helped me grow and develop my skills and I think that I have a lot to learn from using unity. It has given me more confidence to be able to go through with more tutorials and hopefully make my game design work.

Game Vision Statement

My Game Vision Statement for Space Pong

The purpose for me making a Vision Statement for my space pong game will help describe the content I want on the game, to have a plan for implementation. It will really help me because I will be able to make my plans and ideas in more detail and I will be able to see it in writing to know if I am on the right path and if my ideas make sense or not and make changes towards it. So basically I will see all my best ideas and remove or skip over the failed one which makes it best for me to focus on the straight forward easier tasks at hand.

Introduction

Space Pong is a Casual Game because you have a base that you are trying to protect and there is a meteor trying to destroy the base and you deflect the meteor to destroy your opponents base vice verse for him as well. It will be PC compatible as it is a PC game also it will be made my unity  that will appeal to all age groups preferably 13+ and above.

Description

In a world where you are wondering through the deepest darkest parts of the spaces nebula in a void of nothingness where you discover that there is a base on the far corner of space with other life forms inside, out of nowhere a spontaneous explosion from above out of the ashes hurdling at a rapid pace is meteor out of the ashes both of you are unable to get out of there on time forcing you to go on the defensive and deflect the meteor away with your shields. Will you be left standing after the explosion?

Main Features

• Endless Survival

Genre

This is a Casual Game there not that many rules it is quite simple to follow it follows the basic survival game logic. It focuses on defending your base.

Resource

There will be some resources needed for the development of the game such as texture for the character's and background and perhaps for the natural disaster. The textures can be made or downloaded.

Target Audience

The game is targeted to players that enjoy Survival based games. It is very PG 13.

Game Play

The game play will be somewhat face paced as it will have repetitive back and forth banter as the player is desperately trying to keep his base and possibly his own life from being destroyed by a meteor. The player must also try to destroy the other opponent to keep his life intact.

Source (here)

Links
3D Ping Pong Tutorial

Unity Tutorials

Unity Tutorial 03

In this tutorial I was taught how to make a fully animated moving clock. I thought that it would very simple to make and a part of me still thinks that is very simple to make, but I was very surprised. when I open up the tutorial because the whole information was in text and it really threw me off because I am a visual learner and I knew I am very good at following instructions but I like to see what I am doing and follow along so I already knew that this was going to be a big challenge for me with so much information cramped up in 1 go.

As I was building the structure of how the clock was going to look it seemed pretty simple because I had no problem with that at the time but then as I started to go deeper and get the C# scripting it was getting pretty complicated because I was unable to understand what purpose each code had to do and it made me nervous that I would not be able to finish this tutorial. I took a little break to calm down because I felt like I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of information that I had to process and when I came back I was able to find the issues with the clear mind.

I really enjoyed this task because I was able to push myself beyond my comfort zone and look through the text and back track to figure out where I went wrong which I think helped me improve on my problem solving skills.

Progress in the Clock Development

Games MDA

Games MDA

Image Above (Source)

Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetic also known as MDA was developed as a Guideline when it comes to Game Design and Tune Workshop at the Game Developer Conference San Jose 2001-2004

Mechanics are rules that the game follows, Example would be Shooters and Golf.

Dynamic describes the run time behavior of the mechanics  that act on the players input for others output over time.

Aesthetic are how the player experiences inside the game. There are a few types of experiences or as they are known "fun" such as Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression and Submission.

Sources from the Information found can be located here

Feedback Strategies

Feedback Strategies

The first article that decided to go with was "Try Feedforward Instead Of Feedback" by a man called Marshall Goldsmith. I was understanding the good points that they were trying to get across on the article such as the following:

The feedback you give towards a person or object should not meaningless or empty because you want to give them information on the feedback on why you think it fell down in some areas and what they can do to improve it or even what you would like them to do to help better themselves in there current or future projects.

They also taught me that it does really matter how high you are in terms of power or rank because anybody will need feedback and whichever areas you feel that they lack in and just because someone teaches you new information and how to do it doesn't mean you cant advise them with feedback and how to get the main point across or what to talk about that they missed some whole topic around it.

“Mistakes should be examined, learned from, and discarded; not dwelled upon and stored.” – Tim Fargo

When I first saw this quote I did not know what it meant but, If I were to take a guess I would say that it is trying to tell us, when someone gives you a feedback you should try adding it towards your project don't just read it and not make changes because without change you will get the same result.

The second article that I also wanted to go with was "The Difference Between Praise and Feedback" by a women called Anya Kamenetz. This book has some very good opinions that I felt were so true and relevant is day to day life because the article talked about the following:

• Process Praise
• Praise and Personhood
• Praise and Feedback

The article was basically trying to explain that parent are always praising kids over little things that does not play a role in their lives like picking up a paint brush and or little tests. It would be more beneficial to interact with them and ask them some questions, talk to them about school or whatever their interests are and get involved with what the kids are doing.

I feel like the articles that I have read were very enlightening, I have really learned how to improve on my feedback comments to help give people hopefully very successful ideas.

Happy Quote (Source Here)

Game Idea Research

The Game I Decided

I would like to be able to make a game that I would like to call Space Pong. The game is basically exactly like ping pong but it has been re masted to more of a space theme. The reason why I think that this game would be to work I because I feel like the game itself can transition within the space background and would look good visually. I also feel like the objects can be designed in such a way that it would be able to fit the space theme or make it at the least futuristic. I think that the concept itself would be very popular and original in that genre.

I want the game to be able to be a local 2 player game. I would like the game to be able 2 people fighting to protect there planet from a meteor also know at the ping pong ball. I feel like it would make sense with the background I am going for with stars flying around randomly in the background and we have asteroids that can collide in the middle of the players and hit the ping pong ball which makes it random on where it will go.

Game Mechanic Ideas

• I would like it to be point based so whenever you score you have to reach a certain number for you to successfully beat the opponent
• 
  
• I would like to have a system so whenever you get a certain hours played altogether with all the game you will unlock new maps.
• 
  
• I would like to be able to have new skins for the Ping Pong Paddles to be unlocked with every 10 victories.

Here is an image that shows a familiar idea of what I have in mind.

I am trying to get a background during the game like this but I hope to get map moving and having meteors coming out randomly.

Unity Tutorial 2

I really did enjoy the part 2 of this tutorial because it had a lot of useful information regarding how to make the textures look realistic. It also helped me by recapping how to add new textures in to use them when designing the map. I was also very impressed when it came to how easy it was to add objects like water to the map. There are some things that I found hard to grasp and that was the understanding of the coding itself because everything has a purpose and plays a part in the game development process. I am looking forward to being able to make vehicles because it will be fun to try drive and explore the map that you made with machines and equipment also I am looking forward to making my own game with functional NPC's that attack you.

I was able to follow the instructions without any problem on YouTube

Down below is some of the Achievements from the Tutorial  

We made a wall and added a wall texture to it to give it the real look.

We also added new stone texture to the ground to make it fuse together naturally for a realistic look.

We added water to the map to make it look more relatable a mountain type terrain.

Game Elements

What is Game Elements?

What are the Qualities of a good game?

The first thing we must do in order to know what a good game looks like, is separate the qualities that may have been applied to the game. There are some main themes that are used in almost all the games and that is that they have rules, conflict, goals, decision making and uncertain outcomes.

What are Atomic Elements of Games?

Well it may have a different meaning or answer depending on who you ask but it is some parts of the game that when you really take a look at it you can see the themes. For example these are something you may consider when looking at the atoms.

• Players
• Objective
• Rules
• Resources and Resource Management
• Game State
• Information
• Sequencing
• Player Interaction
• Theme(Backstory)
• Games as System

What are Critical analysis?

I know whenever you see critical analysis you thinking that you have to look through somebody work you would say that "It is nice" or you might give it a rating or talk about the bugs and problems. It does not mean trying to find something wrong in the work, you have to give feedback that the person can work off of. You must talk and compare it to other games to see or know what is missing or what could be added to help improve the game. This way you can get your ideas across to make it better and the developer knows where he went wrong and is able to improve or add more that can help benefit you both. If you get stuck try to ask yourself these kind of questions during your Critical Analysis.

• What challenges did the player face?
• What actions do the players overcome?
• Do players affect each other and have purpose?
• Is the game worth playing again?

Players

I think that players are very important to a game because you must really consider how the game will be able to function with a number of players. The reason why players is so important when planning is the amount of players in the game can be the difference between how hard the game is as well as how quickly the game finishes. When making a game make sure that it is suitable for the game map and the game does not break or taken advantage of. The things that you should think about when making a game regarding players would be.

• Are the players even?
• Can players join or leave during the game? 
• How does this effect the play?
• How many players does the game support?
• Must is be an exact number to complete?

Information provided here

Objective

When making a game the most important thing that every game needs is an objective because without it there is no meaning and reason to do it. The objective can be used in a lot of different ways because in the game it can be used to make people achieve the goal or follow the story line. The thing that you should think about when planning an objective would be.

• What is the objective of the game?
• What are players trying to do?
• Does your objectives benefit what comes next?

Information provided here

When it comes to making a game there are a lot of things are variables that you should really plan for but there is a book that has been proven to help challenge the game designers mind and help with brainstorming and help sharpen your game design skills

Information provided here

Feedback Thoughts

Fixed Mindset

Isolated Mindset

I was reading about "what fixed mindset is" I found out what it is about and the problems of fixed mindsets. I think that fixed mindsets can go both ways in terms of positive and negative because to have a fixed mindset is to be 100% certain about what to do and why you are doing it and sticking to the same routine day after day which is very good if you are good at what you do and are doing very well in that area or workplace. However you can also encounter problems with fixed mindsets and that is because you are not open minded, you have one sides thoughts which is a bad thing because once your routine breaks or changes you will not be able to adapt or understand what is going on. I think because they are so used to staying in their comfort zone they always want to stay in a place that they are good at. It is different to someone with a open mindset because you are ready to take on the challenges and you are completely willing to learn something new because to the person it is not starting all over again from the bottom it is adding new skills to the resume.

Why Rejection hurts so much

Emotional Rejection

I believe that rejection hurts the most because sometimes we may not be ready for it and even when we are ready for rejection we are still in disbelief over the event that just occurred. The rejection can hurt from a number of reasons, 1 of them being from something you love or care about because in your mind everything is going well and then problems happen which lead to the rejection. We are still human and are all vulnerable to devastation and heartbreak. The worse thing that can happen from rejection is that you close yourself up to the world and build up an emotional wall because you do not want to get hurt again which leads to sudden change in character. The most important reason is because we live in a world where we care about how other people see us especially when you try and invest your time around that person the rejection hurts the most when you yourself made the effort and you still were not good enough. 

Game Brainstorm

Summary

It is a game where you start off in the middle of nowhere for example lost at sea. When you notice that you are spawned on a raft that is made of wood with nothing but a fishing rod, but you also have a health bar that starts to decrease everywhere 10 seconds. You start to notice that you have different equipment or junk just floating at sea in the middle of nowhere which seems easy enough but you are also in a shark infested water where you have a shark coming every few moments biting the wood breaking it bite by bite trying to reach you.

Objective

You are supposed to use the fishing rod to throw out and rail in the objects that you see floating around the water and and also try to use it to build or improve your raft, while trying not to be eaten by the shark that surrounds you.You should try to survive for as long as possible.

Rules

Try not to get killed by the shark.

How I came up with the Idea?

I was playing a jaws games and I found it very annoying and repetitive after 5 games and I was thinking that the game could be a lot better because I had some ideas that would make the game more fun and I remembered that I could make my own game so I narrowed down on my ideas.

Summary

It is a very simple game where the camera bring you to a pipe and you have to drop your real picture or whatever image you want into the pipe and then it will appear above the pipe and it will have a countdown then when the game starts you will have a hammer and you have to hit the object with your picture on it to get points and you need a certain amount of points each rounds for you to be able to advance to the next level.

Objective

You have a hammer and you have to hit the objects and get as many points as possible to be able to get to the next stage.

How I came  up with the Idea?

I was playing a Mario game where you have pipes and you jump in and I was trying to think if there was a way to make a game out of the pipes but then I thought of a basketball machine game that had a goal to reach before you go up a stage and thought why not make a game where you can smash faces of your choice and try to level up in the process. I think it can be good for fun or maybe just to relive anger.

Summary

It is exactly like a normal ping pong but it has a space theme. You have 2 satellites that are used as paddles and you have a meteor as the ping pong ball and you have to hit it back and forth to protect your earth from exploding. You will have some  obstacles that float in the middle of the screen from left to right making it hard to predict where the ball goes and stopping straight forward received hits.

Objective

You are supposed to protect your planet from a meteor by deflecting it back to the opposite enemy while trying to be careful of the floating random projectiles.

How I came up with the Idea?

I came up with this idea because I always enjoyed playing ping pong in real life because it was very simple. fun yet very competitive so I decided to put that experience and emotion in a video game. I did not want to make it simple and boring so I made a theme that would be able to have the same parts or useful contribution in the game mechanics, I ended up coming up with a space theme

Summary

It is game where you are a comedian and you must be on stage with different kinds of audiences and you have a few options in jokes and phrases and depending on what choice you choose to say to the audience will determine the outcome of the outburst of laughter and you must try to fill the Meter of laughs to the top but you also can have the meter decreased if the joke you pick is unfunny or you take to long. It can cause the audience to boo or loose interest.

Objective

You have to try give as many good jokes as you can in a row without taking to long to decide to try and fill up the Laugh O' Meter.

How I came up with the Idea?

I came up with this idea because I was very much into watching comedy on Netflix and I thought while I was laughing how hard their job is while they were explaining in there routine the life of a comedian. I decided to make a game around the concept because I have never played a game like that and if the idea existed it was never popular enough to be known, So I wanted to try it out and see what becomes of the idea.

Unity Tutorial 01

I really enjoyed the Unity Tutorials but I found them a little bit hard to follow because the video itself was a little bit outdated so the GUI layout was changed or moved to a different location which made it almost impossible to follow but once you used your mind and explored the different settings it was very easy to understand from there.

Outline 

I had to learn the basics of Unity so basically I was spending time exploring the different functions and settings and trying to figure out make use of the objects.

I had to figure how to download texture from the internet and upload it into my files in unity and insert it onto the object or part in the game.

I was also able to mix and match some of the textures to make it look realistic which I thought was amazing because it came out amazing and you can tell without even knowing how to use unity or the more advanced settings that you can make sure the map pretty easily.

I was able to start adding props after I had mastered the manipulation and texturing of the terrain which made for a very convincing map and you could really see it coming together when only a few steps where complete.

I added another prop into the game but this time it had a script in it and it was able to make the gem (prop) rotate. It was a very new experience because we used a different coding language known as C# and I ended up using the software Dreamweaver to code the script for the Gem to work.

VIDEO PROOF!

Please Watch

Game Design

My thoughts on game design.

A game designer is a person that makes games but not necessarily the coding but the assets such as the buildings or the story or rules because there are different roles to play in a Game Designer.

Game Designers are artists

Games Designers are architects - they create blueprints of the game as a prototype

Game Designers are Party Hosts - they can invite people into our game space to enjoy and see the progress so far.

Game Designers are research scientist - they make sure everything makes sense and it goes by the laws of logic and makes it as realistic as possible.

I was being shown or being thought what exactly a game was and what made it good. I learned that a good game has a play activity, rules and a lot of the time involves some sort of conflict. So of course there must be an objective, outcome and a set of rules that would lead you towards your goal it makes players make a decision trying to get the object based around the rules. Games go through something called Critical Vocabulary. Where you go and get criticism from your classmates but they help you by giving you the good and bad parts of your game to help you make some improvements or slight changes perhaps even add some of their good ideas.

Games may have some of the following:

• Games have Activity
• Games have Rules
• Games have Conflict
• Games have Goals
• Games have Decision Making
• Games sometimes involve no material gain  

We also learn that not all games are made perfect on the first try because there is no such thing as a perfect game or done. It sometimes takes a game with a lot of mistakes because a good game goes through many stages of hate and topics filled with arguments or criticism before they can change or update the game along the lines of people comments and only by making those little changes and letting the public see growth can you be a great game designer.

Links of my Interest

http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatIsaGame.shtml  - I think they have a point when they say that a game bring pleasure to people it should be fun and time consuming.

https://gamasutra.com/blogs/LewisPulsipher/20110516/7453/So_Youre_Going_To_Make_A_Game_For_The_Very_First_Time.php - I agree you must be focused and ready to pursue game design and be in the right mind set if you want to make your first game.

https://gamecareerguide.com/features/602/pulling_the_plug_in_defense_of_nondigital_teaching_and_learning.php?print=1 - I think it might be eaiser for us students to learn game design on non electric games but is it going to be informational enough to give us the experience and knowledge we need to start at the best level.