Stopwatch Blues (HW #8)

1) The Tetrad

• Story: The player character is obsessed with time and must get to the clock tower that can be heard chiming in the distance.
• Tech: The player controls time with a stopwatch. 
• Art: Abstract, we are inside the player's mind so things will be realistic yet distorted. I've picked triangles as a main shape for the textures I'm creating, its creating a very interesting look so far!
• Mechanics: The player can freeze global time or a specific object. If a specific object is frozen, it will resume moving if global time is frozen. This mechanic will be used to solve various puzzles. 

2) Balance

• Global time freezing will have a time limit and you can only freeze one single object at a time. 

3) Emergent properties

• Umm none so far as far as I can tell

4) Interest curves

• The starting level will grab the player's attention and make them want to find out more about the player character and curiosity will drive the player onward towards the clocktower.

5) Explain the reasons you like or dislike the game and relate this to Game Design issues. 

• I really like our puzzle mechanic; it is unique and I haven't really seen it done before. I also really like how my textures are coming along (though I'm pretty biased there, haha).

My contributions this week: Textures textures textures! Also setting up source control!

Next week: Pulling everything together! Also working on midterm stuff.

Git Repository

I've set up a Git Repo for our group project here: https://github.com/AmsMickler1/StopwatchBlues

This week I've started work on some basic textures and next week I plan on getting them all finished up and implemented.

Grass Texture:

Analyze Two Games

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

The Tetrad: 

• Story: You follow two brothers as they journey to a far away forest to obtain a special ingredient for a medicine that will save their dying father.

• Tech: No modern technology; the story is set in a medieval times like era.

• Art: Charming and colorful

• Mechanics: You play with a controller using one half of the controls to control the older brother, and the other half controls the younger brother. You move them strategically to solve puzzles in this puzzle platformer.

Balance: 

• The puzzles are balanced nicely and scale in difficulty as you progress. Things are kept simple for the most part but it works out well with the game being so short (~2-3 hours).

Emergent Properties:

• You have two buttons for each brother: a joystick for movement and a trigger button for interactions. These interactions can be talking to a person, climbing a rope, or various other activities. As you go through the story you find more and more objects you can interact with and are encouraged to try to interact with lots of things in your surroundings. These provide bases for more and more complex puzzles and level designs. 

Interest Curves:

• This is a relatively short game with a pretty standard interest curve. The game first catches your attention by connecting you emotionally with the boys. They've lost their mother already and their father will die if they don't go on a dangerous journey, you feel compelled to help them! You solve puzzles and then you come across various characters who will either help or harm you, and the outcomes of some such encounters are very exciting plot twists. Once you reach the destination you have a final boss fight and heart wrenching climax (which I will not spoil here, go play the game, its good!). The game slowly lets you down after the climax as you tie up loose ends and make the journey back to your father, hoping you're not out of time to save him. 

I'd rate this game 10/10:

• I really love this game. It's short but sweet and has an interesting and new puzzle mechanic of controlling both brothers at once. The story is simple but beautiful and heart wrenching. I was interested the whole time, wondering what would come next. The art is easy on the eyes and there are some really beautiful scenes and landscapes throughout the game. 

League of Legends

The Tetrad:

• Story: Two kingdoms Demacia and Noxus are at war with each other and the battle is fought by warriors summoned to the field by summoners. There are currently 123 unique champions all with their own lore and backstories that can be used by the player as they fight 5 vs 5 battles with and against other players from around the world. 

• Tech: Fantasy technology ranging from staves and bows to guns and magical artifacts. 

• Art: Colorful cartoonish but slightly realistic characters on colorful and unique battlefields. 

• Mechanics: Attack specifics differ from character to character but all champions have 3 upgradeable attack abilities, a basic attack, and 3 special abilities. Players fight their way to the other teams Nexus to destroy it and win the game.

Balance: 

• The champions are in a constant state of being rebalanced as new champions are introduced. Riot, the maker of LoL, does a great job at listening to the players and buffing/nerfing champions as they become too powerful or too weak to be viable in competitive play.

Emergent Properties:

• The more you play the better you get and the more challenge you face as you're matched with better players.

Interest Curves:

• League of Legends has a very interesting interest curve because there is no story to follow along and complete. You stay interested in a match because you are personally invested in winning so that you can rank up at the end of the season. You end up with a curve that is just a series of identical spikes as you enter and play out a match.

I'd rate this game 5/10:

• League of Legends is a really good game but the community is so harsh on new players and the learning curve is rather steep so it's hard to really get into it. If you don't have a group of friends willing to teach and play with you getting the hang of things is nigh impossible without being insulted non stop for being bad at the game. There is constantly new content though and it is one of the most famous esports out there. 

Team Tasks:

• This week I worked on level design and thought up ideas for puzzles. Next week we will have source control set up and put to use and will start working on one file for the final game.

Blueprint Homework

For my blueprint I made a small circular platform move up and down. This will be useful for moving the player around the level and will also be an object the player can freeze to help them solve the puzzle. My blueprint is here:

Group Progress Video #1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr07LpinlMQ&feature=youtu.be

In this video we've outlined the core game mechanic of freezing time and using the unique properties of the time gun to solve puzzles. I really like this mechanic and Chaolun did an amazing job of making it work!

This week I worked on a concept sketch for the first level and put together a powerpoint and did a voiceover for the video. Next week I want to get the design of the first level fleshed out and hopefully start to prototype it in Blender.

Getting Started HW Post #2

This is what happens when I get bored on Snapchat. I probably snap more doodles than I do legit pictures.

Two Games I like. Hmm... My two favorites would have to be Portal 2 and Fire Emblem. Portal 2 is a first person puzzle game where you use portals to escape from a testing facility ruled by an out of control AI called GLaDOS. The puzzles are challenging, the story is captivating, and the characters are hilarious and loveable. Fire Emblem is a strategy RPG where, in the latest game of the series, you play as a tactician and help the prince and his gang defend the kingdom and stop the evil forces of the dragon Grima from taking over the world. I particularly like the style of gameplay in this game, its almost like playing a game of Chess but with more going on behind the scenes. I fell in love with the series because of the pixel art used in one of the older games, its amazing what these artists can do with so few pixels and the game looks absolutely gorgeous.

Getting Started HW Post #1

This is a short little video of me explaining how I doodle Toothless from the How To Train Your Dragon movies.