YEAR 2 - BA2a - Guns and Bullet Juice

The first thing I realized once I'd coded picking up items and switching weapons was that it's not particularly obvious whether you actually have the gun equipped or not. At this point, the only difference was the ammo counter at the top left of the screen.

To make it clearer I did a number of things:

1. I made a model from a few cubes and stuck it beneath the camera. Then I made it so that the 'gun' model is only visible when the weapon is equipped.


2. I made a crosshair and pasted it onto the UI. Then I coded it so that it's only visible when the gun is equipped.

I tried a few different variations on the crosshair, black was too difficult to see, white was too saturated, red was maybe too distracting. The one I went with in the end was white but at 20% opacity. Allowing the player to use it as a guide but subtle enough so that it doesn't take the attention away from the rest of the game.

HOWEVER, The reason I added the crosshair was to make it clear that the gun was equipped. I said previously that I didn't much want the player to be able to aim too easily because I wanted to instill panic/vertigo. THEREFOR, I may be looking for a solution (and despite having said that it's actually very satisfying playing the game like this).


3. I used an equip sound that I found royalty free on THIS website for when the player first picks up the gun. It's a sound the player won't of heard before in the game so they will know that the gun is now in their possession.


4. As soon as the player picks up the weapon, they manually equip it and I print the words "You can change items with 1 - N" (with N being the total number of items I eventually add to the game).

Making the Gun satisfying to use:
I want it to be a big deal when the player first shoots a zombie since the zombies make the player feel so powerless before they acquire it.

- When the player fires the gun I play a loud and satisfying shot sound.
- I also kick the camera back slightly with the impulse of the shot so that it feels really punchy.
- There is an additional red light attached to the player that flashes an intense muzzle flare with the shot.
- The bullet itself has a red light attached to it making it visually very clear.
- (The red is both for contrast and because it is associated with killing and action. I feel like this will heighten the 'power' of the shot)
- Stray bullets also destroy and blocks that they may hit, adding to the feeling of it being a tangible thing.

What I still need to add:

- Satisfying visual and audio feedback for when you hit/kill a monster
- Change the zombies AI to react to the gun shot (Scared/Run away? Aggressive/Run at you?)
- Particle effects?

YEAR 2 - BA2a - Menu and Shop

When the player first loads up the game they're presented with this level. It functions as an introduction and as a death screen.

I liked the idea of making the level as a physical space because it allows the player to experiment with how the character moves and it gives an introduces the atmosphere of the game.

The player progresses through levels by finding a hidden door.
I introduce this concept to the player on this menu level by clearly signing which door leads to where. Therefor, when the player gets to the first level of the game and they see the door they will immediately know that it is the goal and will from then on associate the door with progress

This is where I'm currently at with the shop. I may add a shop keeper NPC at some point.

After beating a level, the player is taken here. The door is actually out of frame initially. This is because I want to draw the player to the items immediately in front of them that they can purchase. (Currently only 1 item in stock)

The items spin around before being picked up and have a spotlight on them to really say "Look, you can buy stuff". They also have their prices written above them so that it is clear how much they cost so that the player can decisions on what to buy.

Only when close to the shopfront might the player realize that the exit door is to their right. It's on the right because moving to the right is synonymous with a feeling of progression which is satisfying.

YEAR 2 - BA2a - Testing

I tested the game between friends at home and took notes as they played:

- Generally players only realized the importance of gold once they realized that you could use it to buy things.
    This sounds like a problem initially but I actually quite like it because it changes the landscape somewhat once players realize this. When they're new to the game, players only have to worry about finding the door but once they learn the value of gold they are is essence given a sub-goal that might change the way they play the next time through.

 - Most players played fairly cautiously but they were more outgoing as they got used to the zombies AI.
    It is by design that players should feel like they understand the zombies to an extent but in the full version of the game, the zombies AI needs to be smart enough that players can never feel entirely safe. Else, they will fair to find them scary.

- Once finding the outer wall, players would generally stick to it until they got close to the door
    This is a problem that would need fixing in the final version of the game. If players can bypass all danger then there is no challenge to the game and it looses most of it's meaning. A solution might be to remove the mine-able blocks by the outer wall and lose some mystery OR to have some kind of consequence to standing to close to the outer wall like an enemy that comes out of it.

- All players said it was clear that the large blocks in the outer wall were unbreakable
    Good. Their function is clear by their design so I don't need to explicitly tell players this.

I asked players some questions about their experiences playing the game. Here are my results:

Q - Did the zombies pose a threat?

A - Yeah, even when I had the gun there was still the possibility of one coming up behind you and killing you since you die in one hit


Q - Do you think that if I added other pickups you would be inclined to explore more?

A - I think I probably would. Like when I ran out of ammo I had to go back to stealth mode.


Q - Were the mechanics(after I initially explained them) clear? was your objective obvious?

A - Yeah, it seemed generally quite intuitve


Q - Were the zombies scary?

A - Initially yeah but after I git used to them they weren't so much


Q - Did you prefer this game to silk runner? (I'll talk about Silk Runner in a later post)

A - Yes, I think it was mostly because this game had an objective. Silk runner has a lot of potential if it were more fleshed out.


Q - Any thing else you want to add?

A - Maybe if it was an endless game, if you were going to go for that, it would be cool to have the decision of stacking up on ammo or flares"

Other notes:
- I need to make it clearer when you die
- I need to give the player more ecouragement to explore
- I think it's worth adding another rarer enemy type

YEAR 2 - BA2a - New Features and Mechanics

This is a screenshot from a top down perspective of my map. I've coloured in certain areas to better highlight what goes where.

Black - Player Start Point
Yellow - Gold
Red - Zombies
Green - Potential Exit Locations

The dark grey is just regular blocks that you can mine.












The player starts in the middle of the map.

They are in close enough to a zombie to hear what it sounds like but not close enough to see it yet.
    - So that the player understands what zombies sound like

The first thing they'll probably see is some loose gold which is glowing yellow (which feels safe in the darkness) when they touch it, it makes a satisfying sound so they know it's good to pick up. It also acts as a light source so that when they get to it they can see the zombie stood near by which should be facing away.




- Now the player understands that they can get quite close to the zombie as long as it's not looking at them. They also understand that gold is a good thing but is sometimes better left than taken as it gives the player greater vision.






The player should also see the glowing yellow gold blocks to their left. Since they know that gold is good they might try to mine the blocks revealing loose gold that they can pickup.


The player can throw out flares (of which there's a limited supply) that bounce around and illuminate the room

The players task is to find the door hidden at one of the potential spawn points (closest I could get to procedural generation). They have a device that sounds whenever they press the spacebar.
The higher the pitch, the closer they are to the door. I want the player to feel like they have a chance at finding the door in this huge cave without it being as easy as following an arrow or conveniently placed lights.

YEAR 2 - BA2a - Horror

In the hopes of figuring out which direction to go in for the horror part(s) of my game I've been watching some extra credits videos on the matter.

How the Uncanny Instills Fear
How Games Keep Things Exciting
How Horror Games Create Tension


Notes:

- I want to create an oscillation of excitement which starts high, cools down and then increases throughout the film
    - I can do this on a macro scale on a level by level basis.
    - I can also attempt to do this on a micro scale by placing monsters frequently enough that when you meet one it's a big deal, but not so frequently that it becomes routine. To raise the excitement throughout the whole game a roguelike/no saves style design works well. Where if you die, you must completely reset. Therefor the stakes will rise, the further the player gets into the game as the punishment for dying (time to get back to where you were) increases.


- "Quiet areas make us feel nervous"
    - The low points of the oscillation 

- Designers use limited visibility to build tension
    - I am doing this currently with darkness and destructible terrain (eg. You could mine through a wall strait into a monster).

- "The build up to the scare is actually as important as the scare itself"

    - In a proceduraly generated game like Twin Miners it will be difficult to attempt to script these kind of build ups. What I can do is use idle monster audio so that the player knows prior to the encounter that there may be a monster there. This will create a bit of a tension build up and should prevent against 'unfair' deaths that may occur from not seeing the monster too.

    - On another note I think I might use audio as a kind of indicator for where the exit for the level is. It's vague enough that the player won't be able to find their way directly to it and it should also tune them into listening out for sounds. So I can play with them on an audio level.

- Many games use false audio cues to make us think there's something there when there isn't. So we can less
easily predict when the real scares are.

- They talk about horror games which are enjoyable because they're designed to make real life feel safe relative to the game world vs horror games where the horror lingers with you after the game has ended. They don't explicitly say why they're enjoyable but I assume it's because they fall into Roger Callois categorization of 'Vertigo'.
  - Create safe zones in the game which let the player relax and feel good about what they've just overcome.

    - At some point I need to decide which style of horror I want to go for but honestly I only think I'll get that answer further down the development cycle.

YEAR 2 - BA2a - GunGodz

So Vlambeer has made a 3D game
GunGodz

I played it and figured that it was worth analyzing since it's so relevant to the FPS route of my game.

I also found this article where JW analyses the game.






- Firstly, the game has a lot of enemies. Initially not too many but it ramps up pretty fast.

This is because (as we know from vlambeers 'game feel' presentation), JW operates with the notion that lots of weak enemies are more satisfying to kill than just a few 'heavy' enemies. I guess it makes the player feel more autonomous.

This should work fairly well with my current design as the number of monsters ramps with how many monsters you've already killed. However, I can't quite easily predict the route that the player is going to take so I may have a few problems with pacing (?)


- They switch up the environment every few levels.

For variety and a feeling of progression I assume. It's always an adrenaline rush when you first come across a new area with new enemies.

I may not be able to do this in the prototype but it's definitely something to consider for the final build.


- No crosshair

I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this is in GunGodz. It could be because they want the game to feel more like the games they were inspired by; Quake and Doom. Or it could be for the slight increase in difficulty.

Maybe it's just because I've played these kind of games before but I was never going to put a crosshair in Twin Miners anyway. If a monster runs at the player I want them to panic, miss a bunch and waste all their ammo. However, I'm currently considering adding it as a purchasable item from the vendor.


- At the start of each stage, you have no choice but to shoot a guy

Arin Hanson would probably refer to this as 'defining the core gameplay mechanism from the offset'. In other words, it's a statement; this game is about shooting people. It also teaches the player that left click is shoot.

Since shooting is optional in my game I'm not going to do this in my game but maybe I can always open up with a zombie facing away from the player or something. It's an explicit choice KILL or HIDE.

YEAR 2 - BA2a - Undertale

I've been playing Undertale a lot recently and it's been in the back of my mind whilst designing my game.

It's essentially a game about trying to find ways to avoid fighting in situations where killing is the easier option.

Essentially, Twin Miners is about trying to AVOID monsters so that they don't kill you.

I was playing with the idea of being able to KILL monsters as a last resort.


Naturally some people will just try to kill everything they come across and I figured, does it have to be a last resort?

And that's where Twin Miners crosses over with Undertale.

New Narrative:
- Your twin sibling is working on a CURE in their underground research lab for the VIRUS which has turned HUMANS INTO MONSTERS.
- You are the only person who knows of their whereabouts.
- It is your duty to find them and get the cure to turn the monsters back into humans killing/ saving whatever you see fit

Therefor, the player has a choice is whether to play stealthy and save as many monsters as possible
or
to play aggressive and kill lots of monsters
or
play somewhere down the middle.


How The Core Gameplay Loop Supports this:
- Explore
- Find gold/ Get gold from kills (?)
- At the end of the level, you can purchase ONE item (gadget for sneaking/ weapon for killing)
- Repeat next level

The game adapts to the amount of kills previously and will throw more/tougher enemies at you accordingly.
i.e. The game can either stay as a spooky stealth game OR it can evolve into an oldschool FPS

YEAR 2 - BA2a - Juice!

I watched 3 video's relating to game feel in the hopes of expanding my knowledge of what makes a game satisfying or 'fun'.

THIS one by JW from Vlambeer
THIS video by grapefrukt
and THIS series of videos by Cactus

Essentially, every action the player makes should have a strong visual and audio feedback loop
Ways to exemplify this would be:
- Punchy Audio
- Screenshake
- Destructible Terrain
- Permanence (leave any and all debris behind the player so they can look back and see what a mess they've made - can include rubble, dead bodies, bullet shells etc)

A few important things to note:
- All 3 of these developers make 2D games almost exclusively
- All 3 of these developers make very arcade style action oriented games

This was relevant to the original idea for the game
but now
my game is a survival horror with an emphasis on being quiet.

What I need to figure out:
Do I want my game to feel juicy?
    - could it ruin the horror; the tension?
If so, how do I apply what I've learned from these videos to my game?

YEAR 2 - Ba2a - 3D Prototype

A few changes had to be made when changing the game to 3D.

Firstly,  I wanted the game to be in the first person because I felt like it would enhance the atmosphere and I wanted to take advantage of the engines capabilities.

Therefor, the game now just has the one character, who can both mine and shoot.

What we have now is a survival horror, rather than a juicy action game.

From horror games I've played in the past, Resident Evil, Limbo, PT, Amnesia:The Dark Decent etc, the scariest points are when you feel the most vulnerable.

therefor, I am going to keep ammo VERY rare. Shooting should be a last resort.

I want hiding and exploring to be the main themes of this game. 

YEAR2 - Ba2a - 2D Prototype

Since I can develop games very quickly in GameMaker:Studio I decided to prototype my game in 2D before bringing it to Unreal Engine 4.


I changed the giant worm to zombies for convenience mostly. Also, It's more satisfying killing lots of small enemies.

The zombies act as a time pressure to keep moving. As well as a motivation to keep looking for ammo (infinite ammo in this version).

Vision s limited to create a spooky atmosphere and to encourage exploration.

Gold will be linked to score and can be used to purchase upgrades from an in game shop.

You can see how the ranged character relies on the melee character to keep moving forwards, and how the melee character relies on the ranged character to keep them safe (The melee attack is risky because of it's very short range)

The camera stays in the middle of the characters in order to try and frame all the action.

The 'world' still isn't very fleshed out. I hope to add more variety to the cave and have multiple floors with different environments.

If you'd like to play the prototype you can download it with THIS LINK (windows only)

YEAR 2 - Ba2a - Idea Jam

In order to get some ideas down quickly I gave myself a time limit to come up with some game ideas based off of random strings of words that came to my head.


Book Skipper

An educational game where you have a short amount of time to skim read a book or page so that you can accurately answer enough questions about the book/page.

Target Market, people that want to learn how to read more quickly and how to pick out the key points in a wall of text.

Target platform, IOS, Kindle, Android. People already read books on these platforms so there are already people with these devices that might want to play your game.


Antique Fire-hydrant

A first person 'find the object' game set inside a burning antique shop. Try and find the fire hydrant to put out the fire before the fire destroys everything in the shop. The more antiques you save, the more money you have left to upgrade the store.

Target Market, Youtubers. People that like dumb quick games that cause panic.

Target Platform, Steam/PC


Angelic Forensic Team

As a team of angels you must figure out how a person died by analyzing the evidence surrounding their death so that they can go to heaven, else, they will remain in limbo. A twist on the detective genre with perhaps a time-limit?

Target Market, Ages 14+, people that have enough time to sink into this kind of game

Target Platform, PC


Out of these 3 I think 'Antique Fire-Hydrant' is the only one suitable for this project but to be totally honest, the best game ideas I come up with are all ones that I just think of whilst in the shower or whilst enjoying other media.

Often, the best ideas come from when I ask, "What about this game in this new context?", "What if the game were to solely focus on this one specific mechanic?", "What about this variation on an already existing game?".

So I had an idea for a game which is a combination of:
A - 'Keep Digging/Climbing/Running' games (Avalanche, Probability 0, Canibalt)

+     "Why are they always about moving in one particular direction?"

B - 'Twin Stick Shooter' (Minigore, Boxhead)

I'm going to prototype this idea quickly in GameMaker: Studio and if it's good I'll bring it into UE4.

YEAR 2 - ba2a - The Flow Channel

The lecture we had recently looked at the concept of flow and it linked to THIS blog post explaining what Jesse Schell refers to as the 'flow channel' where the challenge/skill ratio should ideally fit within.

I was thinking about how I would map 'Too May Windows' (check previous post) to the same graph and I got this.

The graph represents a single play session of the game as it's an arcade game and doesn't change particularly each time (other than a small amount of RNG).

The game has a rising slight rising challenge due to the time constraint. At 5000 points, the challenge increases drastically due to the less generous time rewards.

At a micro level, the challenge/skill graph probably looks something more like this.

The peaks being the click of a button and the rising challenge being looking for the button (with decreasing time).

The time between each peak is about 3 seconds and the extra long challenge increase being at a multiple of 1000 points where the game shakes the board, changing the current layout of windows.