Third Project - Documentation, New Level Layout & Place Holders : 23-11-15

I created a Level Design Document for Sean covering the new map layout, floors, buildings, resource point locations and items and hazard locations. I believe the everything should now be in the GDD apart from more images and reorganizing, currently I've been working on a story board for it showing what a player will see from beginning to end.

The new level is much bigger than the grey box and has more than just houses. I've added a fuel station, corner store, arms store, warehouses, and a hospital. At the moment there is no interiors or way to make out which building is which, apart from the coloration and size, but this is just a place holder level to use while waiting for the proper assets to be completed. I may change the arms store to another corner store depending on whether or not people would prefer to keep the current melee attacks or have it changed to ranged attacks, I think I'll add it to the Questionnaire for the next play test. Hunger will also be re-added as it will give players a proper reason to leave the safe house. Right now if the players wanted to they could just remain hidden in the safe zone all game and now that we are keeping the zombies from entering the safe zone players may be able to exploit this problem. Also to keep them from running back into the safe zone every time things get too dangerous the players won't be able to enter the safe zone, once they have left, until the final thirty seconds.

I have created place holder assets for the UI and tutorials, they include the inventory box, food, meds, and weapon (melee and ranged) icons, arrows, vote icons (player colors, and sleep) and button icons. Just in case we do go with ranged attacks I have created the ranged icon along with the rest. I still need to create the "straight to helicopter" icon for the end vote as well as a border for the hunger and stamina bars (which will probably be UI scroll bars). I'm still waiting on the other place holder assets from the animators and haven't heard much from them. So far I've seen Ben working on the animations and has completed the player run place holder animation. Hopefully we will have the place holders completed before the next play test.

 

Third Project - Documentation & Grey Box : 15-11-15

The GDD is has become a lot more detailed and practically has everything cover, just a few thing here and there that need tweaking or adding, just answering questions that the animators and programmers have. The assets list is also completed so now we can start delegating tasks and we should be able to start the grey box tomorrow, however I wish could have started sooner but unfortunately I've been a week behind because the game idea kept changing. I think it's pretty decent now though.

I'm not sure if the programmers want to set the grey box up a specific way to make things easier, but I have an idea on how it could be laid out. Because it's all 2D we can have everything on separate heights. The ground will be on its own and the players, walls and resource point will all share the same level. Higher and lower rooms will be above and below the "main floor" level high enough and low enough so that the cameras don't clip through the levels above. The camera should already be fixed to the player so when the player goes up or down stairs the camera will be showing the right room. The underground rooms I think should have a black background (behind the room) to show that it is underground while the upper rooms should remain transparent so the player can still see the outside world, I think this makes it feel more natural (can't see the streets from under ground but you can from upper floors).

Third Project - Documentation : 08-11-15

Finally got to work on the documents after a stressful week of working out mechanics figuring out weather or not add networking. I'm still worried that networking won't work at the gallery but if it does then we will be going down that road. Just in case it doesn't work I've created two versions of the game in one document, one for networking and one for single screen, so essentially I've been documenting two different games based on the same concept. I've also created a card version of both as a paper build to help with play testing the mechanics.

I did a bit of research to understand why the mechanics didn't feel right and thought that they may just be lacking. Originally the mechanics were inspired by the Garry's Mod mini game "Murderer" and what I remember from the social game "Werewolf" but after discovering the card games "Cash'n Guns" and "One Night Ultimate Werewolf" I realized that there is a lot more I could do with my game "Zurvivor". I added a new player type called Suicidal based off of the Tanner card in Ultimate Werewolf who's goal is to be voted and killed at the end of the game. I created a Watcher type based off of my experience with Werewolf but change its mechanics allowing it to see both the Infected player and the Suicidal player but thought this to be a bit over powering and changed it to can only see one chosen player (Will try both types in paper play testing).

There were other type such as the Troublemaker (changes the cards of two other players) and the Hunter (if killed at the end, choose someone else to die with you). I thought of having my Survivor types being like the Hunter type but for now it doesn't have an added perk considering with the card game both styles can be put together, but if this is the case it would create an eight player game with four Survivors increasing the chance of two players dying at the end of a round. This may be okay and should be tested out during play testing.

In Cash'n Guns each player has a set of five lives and start off by putting their chosen amount of money into the middle of the table (as you would in Poker) and then pulls a gun out on another player at the end of the cycle. They can then choose from a limited amount of cards each player has to either shoot their chosen player three times (loses a life and can't shoot another that cycle), shoot them once (only loses a life) or shoot a blank (nothing happens). The mechanic of all players shooting each other at the end inspired my decision to let the players (all but the voted player) pull out a gun and try shoot the voted player (sort of a gimmicky style) with unlimited ammunition. The round would end if they killed the Infected player, if they didn't then they lose their guns, the Infected player turns and begins chasing and devouring the remaining players. All this is player controlled and add an extra level of entertainment. It could also work for both versions of the game.

I still need to write up the HCD and TDD as well as create a mood chart so the animators can get a sense on the art style I'm going for. I too will be working on assets but most of it may be personal work to increase my skills especially with animation (both 2D and 3D).

Third Project - Brainstorming : 1-11-15

Spent Wednesday talking about ideas with the programmers and some of the animators after brainstorming "trust" with them and the audio students. We were thinking about networking but came to the conclusion the it may work at the gallery but would be too complex for itch.io in the time frame we have, I'd rather have the programmers helping in the games production rather than sorting out networking. We were also discussing what the animators are good at and what they need to accomplish, by the sounds of things their theme is mythology.

With this in mind I have come up with  few ideas that have no theme / plot and are mostly about the mechanics so that way they should be flexible enough to accommodate any theme (Norse mythology, Greek mythology, aliens, etc.). They should also be flexible in terms of art style, any of these ideas can be in 3D or 2D, toony or realistic styles.

I managed to come up with the first idea that day (technically it was a few days before this but was more refined on the Wednesday). I was originally thinking a 2D top down, two player survival with friendly fire but now I think it would look better 3D with the camera fixed forward on an acute angle. The players are able to stab each other in the back by shooting each other, when their health drops below half they become very slow and could be used as bait for the monsters in order to escape difficult situations. There would also be multiple levels to help establish trust (or lack there of) between the players.

The second idea I came up with on Thursday is more of a strategy game with some turn based aspects. What I mean is both players have AP and use it to build up little societies but need to give something to the other player in order to refill it. The idea was to be a race to the moon theme where players start in the Middle Ages and work their way up to the Space Age but can attack each other to reduce population or resources the opposing player may have. The trust aspect was mostly just trusting the other player to be making weapons for mining rather than war.

I decided to try a single player game for my third idea where the player is guided to the end goal by an NPC but the NPC kills them in the end. The player put their trust in this NPC just to be stabbed in the back at the end. This was sort of Bioshock inspired, more specifically it was inspired by the "Would you kindly?" phrase. The player is lead down the path thinking their choses are good and their own but reveal they were under the control of another.

The forth idea went back to a two player idea but instead of trusting the other player not to stab them in the back I decided to try something with trusting the other players abilities. One player would run through a dungeon killing stuff while the other rigorously tapped on traps and doors to keep them from activating or closing and screwing over the first player.

The final idea is pretty short but involves a lot of real world communication. One player would be safe in a bunker with enough provisions to last them several years (lets say ten) and the second player would be outside (maybe fighting off monsters) trying to convince the first player to let them in before the time ran out and nukes would drop (so not Fallout 4 inspired). The problem is player one doesn't know if the second player would shoot them or not. If they both survive then the provisions will only last them half the time (so five years) but if player one doesn't let player two in or if player two kills player one then whoever survives will have all the provisions to themselves.

At first I was pushing towards my first idea but now I'm liking the forth one more (shows why multiple ideas are better than the one), however I would like to work on the first idea as a side project. I may start doing this whilst working on the primary project or over the holidays. I already want to continue working on First Horror as well as VIRION during the rest of the trimester so I may leave the new idea for a later date.