Games Design Journal

3/29/18 Week 1-14
Kamal Afiq [0330643]
Games Design
Week 6

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Week I: Introduction to games and game design

Today we were tasked with creating our own unique card game from a standard deck of 52 cards. Our game was as follows. The game can be played by up to 6 people. Each person is given 7 random cards at the beginning of the game. The game advances in turns around the players. When it is a particular player's turn, they must take a card from their hand and place it on a table; saying a certain number. If the other players 'have' the same card they may place their chosen card on the table as well. All those that place a card down can take another from the stack after everyone else has made their move in the round.

The main mechanic of the game is the bluff. A person may say that they have chosen a specific card, while in fact it was a bluff and they have placed a different one. Anyone during the turn can take the chance and call out the person on a bluff; if they are correct and it was a bluff that person cannot take another card from the stack, if the person is wrong and it wasn't a bluff, they must forfeit taking a card from the stock. Or if they haven't put down a card at all, they must give one of their own to the person they called out on their bluff.

The joker is a special card in which if it is called a bluff, 3 cards may be gained or lost as a result of a bluff callout. The goal of the game is to finish with the most cards. The game ends when someone loses all their cards and is designated the loser, and the remainders count up their cards and see who has the most, who in turn is crowned the winner.

Below I have placed the game we made into simple foundations of game design.

• The objective was to have the most cards by the end of the game and have everyone else lose theirs.
• The challenge was deciding when to risk bluffing, or calling out someone on a bluff. Risking yourself losing a card or gaining on to get an advantage. The challenge is trying to discern whether they are bluffing or not by their behavior, e.g. facial expression or body language.
• The reward and punishment of the game is gaining or losing cards based on whether you bluff or call someone out on their bluff.
• The element of choice is choosing which card to put down, whether to bluff the card you put down, or whether to call someone out on a bluff
• The luck aspect is finding an advantageous card like the joker and having someone call out a bluff correctly or incorrectly.
• The strategy involves choosing which cards to put down, which to bluff, when and what to call out on a bluff.

Week 2: Project Management

Game production should be prioritized so as to ease development along. Agile and Scrum systems are also used to plan projects. Assets and gameplay elements should be categorized intro three main priorities:

1. Priority 1: Must Have - Player, Level, Exit, Boss, Health-bar, Rewards
2. Priority 2: Good to Have - Mobs, Obstacles, Pickups, Skybox
3. Priority 3: Nice to Have - Collectibles, Decoration, Dialogue, Non-gameplay elements

Early game concept & ideation
One of our first tasks was to start creating a concept for a video game, which we would then translate into our very own fully fledge game project. I decided to start off by creating a short narrative first, which I can then expand into further ideas with game play and visual concepts.


Valeya's Way 

Many summers have passed since the Red Winter and the world is little more than a myriad of scattered tribes and old ruins, shrouded in stories and legends of a world long lost and forgotten. In a cold and secluded corner of the world, a small tribe does its best to eke out an existence in the harsh wilderness, sending its youth out into the Farlands in hopes of bringing back long-lost relics and knowledge to help their fledgling community survive. A young man leaves for a faraway land home to artifacts in hopes of helping his tribe. But when he fails to return after many months of waiting, his mother, a renown and skilled Wayfinder in her youth, embarks on a dangerous journey to find her boy in a world that is both unbelievably vast and unrelenting.

The game is a 2D platformer with an aesthetic identity that makes use of a flat, simplistic style which emphasizes silhouettes and form to communicate the hard-edged atmosphere of the world. The art style can be liked to that of Limbo and Ori and the Blind Forest. The game focuses on traversal of the terrain, conflict with enemies and solving physic-based puzzles.

The player controls Valeya, an aging Wayfinder who travels around the terrain through walking, running, climbing and sliding. The terrain is varied and natural, and the shape of the terrain depends on the environment and level. Dangerous beasts and creatures roam the Farlands, who will immediately attack once they spot the player or the player enters their aggro-zone. Valeya herself can attack with her staff, which doesn't do much damage but does knock-back the opponent; giving her time to retreat or evade. Furthermore, she can forgo direct combat by using her mobility to avoid and lure enemies away intro traps or pitfalls. The player can refill their hitpoints by collecting Relics, Wayfinder shrines and Lost Stories; which also gives exposition through popups and dialogue. Aside from the enemies, the other challenges the player faces is physical puzzles, which the player must make use of the environment to complete and continue on their way. 

The game aims to tell an impactful story of a traveler's journey in a dangerous world and this is done through gameplay that emphasizes the dangerous nature of the world as well as an underlying narrative that makes for an impactful experience.

The aesthetic style I'm currently looking into.

Details

• Three levels, each with mobs, puzzles and bosses.
• Audience is young adults, 18+
• Minimalistic art style
• 2D platform gameplay

Mechanics

• Platformer movement the player can use their keyboard cursors to move Valeya left, right and jump.
• If possible I'd like to install a basic parkour system, where Valeya can climb ledges and crouch move.
• Collectibles the player can move over and collect objects in the form of Relics, Wayfinder Shrines and Lost Stories. The collectibles have lore and exposition that is presented to the player.
• Perhaps a counter to show how many collectibles the player has obtained.
• Hitpoint system the player can be injured by opponents and traps, or can be killed outright by losing enough hitpoints.  
• Checkpoint system after significant milestones in the levels, a checkpoint is saved which the player can return to when they die.
• Dialogue system the player can take part in conversation with NPCs or scenarios, the player advances the dialogue by clicking a button.
• Combat the player click a button to perform a melee attack that knocks-back and injures an opponent. 

UI & UX

• Start Menu when the game is opened, the player is presented with a main menu with 3 options; (a) Select level to play, (b) Graphic settings and (c) Exit game
• Escape Menu when the player presses ESC, a menu similar to the Start Menu appears that pauses the game. The same three options are presented.
• Tool-tips and help text that appears on screen to give the player hints and basic tutorials for gameplay
• Health-bar which displays the player's hitpoints

Artwork

• Player character sprites of the main player-controlled character, Valeya. 
• Enemy mobs in the form of wild creatures, beasts and phenomena
• Enemy bosses which are essentially mobs with an attack pattern and setup
• Interactive objects such as Relics, Wayfinder Shrines, Lost Stories and Exits
• Level terrain that appears as a solid mass that the player walks on
• Level decoration that appears on the level in the form of grass, rocks, logs, ruins, bushes, etc.
• Special effects such as wind, impacts and pickups
• Backgrounds in the form of parallax layers and elements in the background
• UI elements in the form of menus, links, dialogue boxes and other UIs
• Icons for the game itself and collectibles

Early conception and mockups

Following instructions from my lecturer, I proceeded to create a mock-up level of the game using just basic drawings to get across the main art-style and the gameplay elements.

A very minimalistic style with an emphasis on silhouettes on form. Atmospheric lighting and hand-painted background artwork gets the mood of the level across. The terrain is jagged and natural, straying away from classical blocky platformer levels.

In this level, the player starts off at the left and must make their way to the right of the screen towards the light-source. They must scale a low-cliff, fight or evade the beast. They must then push the box into the lake, and use it as a jumping platform to get to the other side, or else they will die by drowning/falling onto the spikes. There is a collectible item they can collect on a small rock shrine. They can then continue on to the end of the level, where they are then transported to the next stage.

This is a rough mockup, but it gets across the general level-structure of the game and how it is played. In reality the camera would be a lot closer to the player, and the level would be much longer and the points of interest would be more spaced out.

The same level but with markers of the different elements of the level. Red elements are the highest priority, orange middle priority and yellow low priority.

Character design and environment concepts

At this stage in the process I can start coming up with rough concepts for the different characters, enemies and environments that will be present in the game. I intend to go for a very minimalistic, flat style that has a heavy emphasis on silhouettes and shapes. The main level itself will be very dynamic in terms of form. The background itself will be a mixture of silhouettes and hand-painting.

Initial concepts for Valeya. 

For Valeya herself, the main recurring trope i kept throughout all the different concepts was that of the cloaked traveler with the walking staff.  I experimented with various styles of garb and cloathing as well as walking staffs/spears/halberds. Each one has a distinct personality and culture attached to it, which I will then further develop when I choose a design I think is good and striking enough to further develop.

Re-Evaluation

After development of the project, I've come to realize that the gameplay and experience itself isn't really shaping itself to what I would like it to be. As such I've decided to redo the project (including all artwork, concepts and planning) and restructure my game to be a more fun and engaging experience for the players.