Hw #6: Analyze two Games

Tetrad: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

• Story: The story begins with the player as a prisoner being taken to Helgen to be executed. Right as the prisoner's head is laying on the chopping block, a dragon appears and destroys everything. During the destruction, the player can choose to follow the Imperial soldier or the prisoner Stormcloak soldier. The player then follows the soldier to the nearby town Riverwood to regroup after the attack. The next day the player must got to Whiterun to tell the Jarl about the dragon attack and request aid. Jarl Balgruuf the Greater accepts and directs the player towards the court wizard for the next step. The wizard sends the player on a quest to retrieve the dragon stone. It is discovered that the player is Dragonborn and has this power to fight dragons. At this point the player can either continue with the main quest line or can go off and do minor quests and level up. 
• Mechanics: The game is first person combat oriented but it can be played as third-person. At the beginning of the story the player is able to choose the character's design; there are 10 different playable races. The game is an open world type game with 100s of side quests available for the player. There are three main skill classes, Mage, Warrior, and Thief. Under each class is a set of six skills in which the player can choose to level up the desired skill. The player can play with a max of two weapons. 
• Art: The art is medieval viking style. Depending on where you are in the game world it could be dark and wintry or bright and sunny. The game world has it's own weather patterns such as rain and blizzards.
• Tech: I mostly played this game on Xbox360 but it is also available on PC.

Balance:

As you go through the game, the enemies become harder to defeat and in order to defeat them you must level up. Your choices in the quest lines have an affect on the outcome of the quest. Some weapons effect the player's stamina more then others, like a war-hammer may take half of the players stamina to do a power attack where as a small dagger will hardly take any stamina.

Emergent Properties:

there are many combat variations, which helps keep the game interesting. 

Interest Curve:

Skyrim has a great interest curve. There is so much to explore in the game and seemingly never ending quest lines.

Skyrim was the first game I played that I really fell in love with. And after years of playing it I can still find new quests to complete in the game.

Tetrad: Minecraft

• Story: There isn't really a story for this game. You just explore and build things. When you first start you must build a shelter to stay in at night to 
• Mechanics: Minecraft is a first person open world adventure game. The main objective is to chop  and place blocks to build different structures.
• Art: The game world is composed of 3d blocks in varying colors such as brown for dirt and bark, gray for rock and green for grass and foliage.
• Tech: can be played on PC, Xbox360 and iPad

Balance:

Your choices in the game effects life in the game. If you dig too deep in the ground you will find water or even lava. If you mix lava with water you'll get stone or obsidian. If you decide not to build a shelter before nightfall you will be attacked by creepers.

Interest Curve:

I don't think this game has a very good interest curve. The objectives aren't clear enough for me and there isn't much of a story.

I did not enjoy this game. I felt boring after playing it for an hour.

Hw #8: Game Analysis

Greenhouse Tetrad

Story: 
You wake up in a house and you quickly realize the town has been overrun by some sort of plant zombies. As you defeat the zombies you find some survivors who join you in your attempts to save the city. You are told the radio tower might have some information so you go to there and find it has been overrun with zombies and you find a few survivors tucked away safe from the zombies. They tell you that from what limited knowledge they have that they believe some type of spore is causing all of this and the spores appear to be coming from the mansion across the river. Upon getting to the mansion you must defeat the zombies and destroy the spore machine and the evil AI that is controlling it.

Mechanics: 
The player will begin the game in a run-down house with one character, the robot, and as you go through the game objectives you will find survivors who will become your companions. The game is mostly just an open city where you can explore different areas, but some areas are more difficult than others to get through. Each character will have the same health bar that will be affected by enemy contact. Throughout the game you will set up bases where you can heal you and your team, as well as switch out members of your team (maximum of 3 at once).

Art: 
The location of this game is a run down city overcome with the plantlike zombies. The roads are mostly covered by grass at this point and many of the houses are abandon. We are hoping to create a darker creepy aesthetic, but at the same time we are not trying to stay away from the horror genre.

Tech: 
We are using Unreal Engine and we are designing the game to be played on the PC.

Balance: 
To add balance to the game we want to give each of the companions different attacks and play styles, each one will be more helpful in certain parts of the game than others. For example, if you are fighting a lot of melee enemies you might want to use a ranged character and shoot them before they get too close, but if you are fighting weaker ranged enemies you might want to use heavier damage melee characters.

Emergent Properties:
 In addition to the choice of your team we are trying to give the player different options for most other things as well. A very skilled player may be able to end the game quickly by storming the mansion with just the robot you start with, or a player who isn't as good at combat could possibly stealth around the mansion at the end of the game, bypassing the hordes and cut all power to the mansion, disabling the AI.

Interest Curve: 
As the player progresses, the enemies will become relatively more difficult to defeat, and the missions will become more complex. Furthermore, more details about the AI, the scientist, and the android will be revealed throughout the game.

Hw #7

We created an fsugd repository in Github and we all summited a commit.

link: https://github.com/blackkeys/fsugd

We all decided that using Google drive is more convenient and easier to use than Github and will continue to use Google Drive for our game.

In the coming week I will be continuing working on the world for the game, adding foliage, buildings and textures.

HW #5 Unreal Blueprint

My blueprint spawns an explosion 500 units away from the character when the space bar is pressed.
I figured this effect could be useful when animating the character throwing something like a bomb or other explosive. Below is a video of the effect and some screenshots.

If vid does not work, here is the link to the youtube version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwPlmX2dgO0

Team Homework 1

Link to video: https://youtu.be/st1x6YLc2jM

In our group video, we each show the different assets and characters that we will be using to make our game.

We had a hard time figuring out how to make a tactical turn based game with what Unreal offered and decided to scrap the idea.
Instead, we are going to make a more open world game where you are able to switch between playable characters, much like the game Avenger's Ultimate Alliance. We are eliminating levels and having a discoverable world to explore.

In the next few weeks I plan to work with Thomas to design the layout for the town, make blueprints for weapons and necessary actions and animations for gameplay.

HW #3 Tetrad

Story

[game start]

You wake up in a dark storage facility. A siren blares outside, and static rings in your head. When you approach the door, you hear shouting from outside. When you step outside, you see a man fighting off two plant monsters. He kills one; the other kills him, and then heads towards you. You fight off the plant monster. The static in your head turns to a radio signal and you hear someone calling for help.

[New objective, find the source of the radio signal].

Get to the source of the radio signal; a house. There are a bunch of enemies outside! Kill them all and go inside and recruit your first companion.

[level break]

-radio guy says that he got separated from the rest of survivors, so he radioed for help

-you're confused, so he explains that x amount of time ago, a virus hit, and people mutated into plant monsters that you've been fighting. For some reason, some people are immune

-radio guy asks for help getting back to group

[end level break]

So now you have one companion and one new objective, get to the house. You step outside the radio building, and you discover that the streets are full of enemies again. Backtrack to the house where the other survivors are and you finish the level.

[level end]

-There are three people in the house which are the other survivors

-radio guy says thank you, you join party of survivors.

-they say that this mad, reclusive scientist, caused this mess thinking that she was meddling with biowarfare

-The survivors know exactly where the scientist is and plan to storm her laboratory

[level two begin]

Objective: get to the laboratory. A few enemies scattered about, test out some of the new characters' abilities on your way. Reach the house, go inside, and then...

-The AI, created by the scientist, talks about it's motives for turning everyone into mindless plant zombies

-Defeat AI, discover you were the scientist that made the AI.

-End of story, android scientist, at an attempt at redemption, starts working on a cure for the AI's virus

[game end]

Mechanics

Head radio/GPS system [this explains knowledge of map and quest markers]

Glowing objectives [ie, doors, items; robot vision allows this to happen]

Range of motion and range of attack per turn are determined by individual stats

Must complete objectives to finish level

If android dies, must restart from last objective

Battery/crystal source must be gathered to use laser arm

Movement confined to tiles on square grid; cannot go outside of grid/level

Some squares cannot be accessed, as in, you cannot step onto an occupied tile

Turn choices: move, attack, or go into defensive position

If character dies, resurrects at last objective point in x amount of turns

Doctor character can heal others (maybe doctor can resurrect)

Art

For android speech, black box with green text and serif font

No central art theme for right now, while we gather resources from the internet

Maybe cartoon, maybe realistic

Dark and gritty elements; after all, it is an an apocalypse

Simple

Electronic music, woodwind sounds

For now, one background sound, and attack and walking noises

Android and AI voices can be just generated speech

   

Technology

Unreal Engine

Blender

How elements relate to each other:

The visuals of the game make gameplay more engaging; music sets the tone for a better user experience. Blender allows us to fully express our ideas for setting, enemies and playable characters, furthering the intended experience. Because Unreal is user and beginner friendly, we can go about creating our game without focusing too much on the coding portion; we can dedicate more time to story and experience. Game mechanics keep the story moving; objectives allow you to unlock more of the storyline and finish levels.

Minimal prototype

A good minimal prototype for this game would be a short, narrow corridor on a small grid to help the player learn how to move the character around. The first objective is to kill an enemy and then get to a marked tile on the far end of the corridor. There is a single, easy-to-kill enemy positioned on the tile in front of the marked tile. Character stats will be displayed on the screen along with the different attacks that can be performed.When the user controls more than one character, all character stats are shown on screen but maybe in a more condensed way. Once the enemy is defeated, you can move a character onto the marked tile to end the level.

HW #2 Game planning

Over the weekend I met with my group and discussed what type of game we wanted to make. We still have many aspects to work out but we are all very confident in what we have.

What type of Game will you be creating?

The game we will be designing is a tactical turn-based RPG. The player must use strategy to move across the grid and defeat enemies. As the game progresses the player will come to control more characters to fight increasing numbers of enemies.

What is the quintessential experience you want the player to feel?

Excitement and heroism are the experiences we want the user to feel. The game will provide multiple surprises and enemies to fight for excitement. The story and character development will provide the user with a heroic experience.

What is the theme of your game?

The main theme of our game is man and machine vs. nature and machine. The main character of the game is a robot and its companions are human. The enemy consists of humanoid plant zombies and an AI that controls them.

Initial story-line:

The story starts off with the main character, an android, waking up in a warehouse having few memories of who they are and what is happening. Once outside of the warehouse, the android discovers that there has been a plant-zombie outbreak with an unknown cause. The character must journey towards the main city to obtain more information all the while defeating any zombies that come after them. the android finds out that a wealthy and famous scientist attempted to create the perfect AI whose purpose was to aid mankind. But after observing the world and mankind, this AI decides that the best way to help mankind was to control everyone and turn them into mindless plant zombies. The main character must find where the AI is located and destroy it before the entire world is turned.