Mini Game V

Mini Game V

For our last mini game we were given no restrictions or set mechanics that we had to incorporate into it. We had the freedom to crate our own game. We were also given then option to choose our groups for this game. The partners that I chose to work with were 

• Matt Murchinson
• Maddi McDougall
• Connor Gillihuy  

Process

We started off by meeting up and clarifying that we were in a group together. We then got right down to it and started mind mapping and writing out ideas for the game that we wanted to create. Our thoughts were really scattered since we had the freedom of creating our own min game with no restrictions. So after a good half hour we finally came to an agreement due to the absurdness and fun that we thought would come of the game. The game that we decided on was a chicken shoot'em up game. We also decided on that the chicken should be protecting something so that the player felt a sense of objective. We decided that the chicken would be defending it coup from rabid raccoons. We loved this idea the moment we started talking about it. Ideas started to flow and our game became more clear. 

Our second meeting consisted of dividing the roles up and what everyone was doing. So we divided the roles which consisted of myself and Maddi were the lead programmers of the group. Connor and Matt were given the role of artists.from there we then created a trello board so that we had some organization of what needed to be done for the game because I believe in organization and we had some very big scopes for our game that I thought needed to be organized. 

We had a quick third meeting that consisted of us making sure that we knew what we were doing and when we should have it done by so that we were not bogged down with implementing and the last minute.

The last meeting consisted of us working on the game and implementing everything. This was a much longer meeting since there were some issues implementing and making sure everything worked all together. But everything came together and we made a kick ass game.

Postmortem

Our game turned out really good due to our awesome group. They were amazing! They put everything they had into this last project even though they were dead ass tired. Yet this some of the best work I've seen all year. I would definitely work with this group again. 

The game that we created turned out great. I loved the animations that Maddi and Matt did. They really sewed together the whole project. I also like the concept and how much more we can exand of the game. For example we can add more players, different enemies, weapon choice, more levels, etc. 

A few changes that I would like for our game would be a animated title screen. We were not able to get to that due lack of time and energy. As well as rather than using the keyboard and mouse i would prefer to have the button layout for the game mapped to the xbox 360 controller for a better game feel.  

Mini Game IV

Mini Game IV

For this mini game we were tasked with  creating a game that was focused around resource management and game economy. The game also had to be multiplayer and could be either cooperative or competitive. The game also had to have an element of chance to give incorporated into it.  I was placed in a group of three. My group members consisted of:

• Maddi McDougall
• Chanel Marino    

Process:

On the day that we were assigned the mini game Maddi and I got together after class to brainstorm some ideas that we could use for our game. We mind mapped some ideas of what makes a good resource management/economy game. So we looked at some games that required the player to manage their resources accordingly. Some the games that we looked at were monopoly and risk  and few others. This gave us a base and ideas to work with to start fleshing out new ideas for our game. We came up with three ideas which included a resource management tower defense type game, an island survival game, and  spaceship game that reminded me of Lovers in a Dangerous Space. With all these ideas we concluded our first meeting. 

Our second meeting we had all group members. We got together and sat down to flesh out our whole game and what we were all going to do to contribute to our game. So Maddi had this idea that we stick with the space theme but switch it up a bit to being so much like Lovers in a Dangerous Space. She had the idea of having an arcade type space game. The objective of the game at this point was having a head-to-head space shooter where the players would have to manage their shields, weapons and special weapons. We all like this type of game and idea so we started to elaborate on it more. 

We started to discuss and we decided that it would be more fun to have 2-4 players rather than just having 2 players trying to kill each other. It brought an element of skill and focus but most of all managing the resources. So we then moved onto the resources. At first we had it so that you could only your abilities when your energy bar reach a certain amount. We discussed and decided that this would not get across resource management effectively nor would it be fun. We decided rather than having an energy bar that determined when you can use your resources (shield, guns) that we would make them each their own separate resource. This seemed and felt better to do it this way. So then we thought how can we make so that the players ave to manage their shields and guns? We decided to make it so that each of them had cool-down timer. So if a player was to shoot their weapon they would lose a counter. The player would have a total of three or four counters. If they fired one bullet it would regenerate after a certain period of time. However we wanted to make it so that when a player used up all their resources, whether it be their shield or weapons, they would have to wait an extended period of time to get back their resources as apposed to a relatively short cool-down to get back one. This would make conserve their resources so that they are not completely vulnerable to be attacked. After all this brainstorming and fleshing out a workable idea we decided to conclude the meeting and meet up again to work the actual game itself. 

The third meeting we got down to it. Maddi was the lead programmer, I was the transnational group member doing both programming and art, and Chanel was in charge of art assets and UI. For the project i set up the controllers and mapped the code to work with controls. Once I had completed that, I  then gave it to Maddi so that we could implement. From there i then worked on the shields for the players. I had to make it so that when the player presses the left bumper of the xbox controller a shield would instantiate and follow the player, since each player is moving. After we got everything implemented into the master copy we concluded the meeting. 

Our fourth meeting was the finalization of the game. and the implementation of Chanel's UI. We fixed up some of the code and made it feel and play better. When the code and UI was being implemented I was creating the start menu for our game so that our game wasn't just a playable but actually had layers. It was a long night but we got it all done.

Postmortem:  

I was very happy on how our game turned out. It was fun and it demonstrated resource management. Some things that I would change or add would be:

• Special weapon
• Free movement rather than fixed
• A game over menu 
• Meteor showers

It think that these elements would make the game more fun and interesting and give it more depth. I think our game was fun but it needed more. With that being said for the time that we had I think we did an amazing job both on programming and art. 

Some of the things that I thought went really well was:

• Game feel 
• art
• music 
• game play 

I thought our game was really fun to play and felt real good. I would love to take this game further because I feel like if we expanded on this game further and implemented our ideas that we left out the game would be so much fun and would be a great party game. 

I really enjoyed working with Maddi and Chanel. They are very talented and great team members and would really like to work with them in the future.