Project proposal

My Proposal

After looking into a range of tower defence games and sources that have evolution and growth I have been inspired to create a game that would be a tower defence game that is themed around evolution, so our idea is to create a tower defence game that is themed around evolution and growth. This is because by looking at my research I believe we could make a simple tower defence game based around evolution and growth with little to no problems, this is because with our previous knowledge of using game maker we believe it would be a feasible goal to create one before the deadline of 11/06/2015.

Influences

After researching into tower defences I was influenced into creating a different style of tower defence games that incorporated all the good features that I found of tower defences such as mechanics like enemies various health, my goal is also to iron out any features that I dislike about tower defences from the games I researched into, this is to try and prevent the games from becoming boring as quickly as some other tower defences. I also wanted to incorporate the way that the game Evolve uses evolution as when the player evolves a lot of the games features are changed and so the player must play in a different play style, this was a feature that I am inspired to try and recreate in the forum of a tower defence game. I was also inspired to create this game as it goes against the predictable path ways of enemies which I found in tower defence games, this is because the enemies either followed a set path with some turns or simple moved from one direction to another (right to left) because of this we decided that a tower defence game could work better by having enemies come from a range of directions, this is to keep the player more engaged with in the game and to make it more interesting as it would be unpredictable to where the enemies would come from, I believe this would be good change to how tower defences currently work, and so by creating this game I can test my theory.

From my research I found that tower defences have crucial elements to them such as shops, various enemies with a range of health, pause menus, base damage indication, inventory and money to name a few; these are key features that I would be working on as well as other areas such as QA and fixing any bugs that may arise, development over time will change which areas of the game I would be focusing on and towards the end of the project I plan on implementing a range of suggestions that have been though of by both players and developers, as well as fixing minor bugs.

Development time

Work on the game is aimed to start on the 29^th on April which I will start to add enemy health into the game as well as other features that will be added over the following weeks, development is planed up to the16th of May after which I will be focusing on developing any content that has been suggested later into development or hasn’t been classes as vital to the game and so will be added during any free time the following two weeks. These weeks will also be to remove any bugs that shouldn’t be in the game, these will be unexpected bugs that have not been important enough to fix, for example any slight problems with any text such as any grammar mistakes. I believe this is a good way for me to be spending my time as this will mean that more development time can be spent of vital areas of the game such as making sure the shop works correctly and as intended while fixing any bugs that will stop the players from being able to play the game and then when I have any free time I can develop less important updates for the game which are nice to have in the game but not vital, this would include any bugs that the player my experience but not notice, this way I can ensure that all of the criteria of the game that I am working on will be achieved by the date of May the 16^th without anything being left behind because of lack of development time because of working on less important coding.

Problems and solutions

During development a range of problems may arise, to counter these I have a range of solutions depending on each problem, this way I should be able to achieve the best possible work for the game even with any problems that I may face, it also is to try and prevent any problems from happening such as saves corrupting.

Problem: Because I’m working on game maker which is a software there could be problems with it such as it not launching or working correctly this could become a problem as it could stop me from being able to develop the game because of this I have some solutions to this problem.

Solutions: If game maker isn’t working there are a few ways I could try and resolve the problem such as looking for online solutions on the game maker website as it may have advice to how to fix the problem. Because I will be around people that have more experience in game maker I could ask tutors if they know how to resolve the problem so game maker will work again, I could also try using a different computer as it may fix the problem, I believe any of these methods should be enough to fix game maker, however if it’s not enough to fix the problem I could do some surveys to players for the mean time and create thumbnail sketches for the mean time this way I will keep being productive until the problem is resolved.

Problem: Because I’m not an expert on game maker I may face problems with coding, this could be not knowing how to code something for the game or errors that may arise during development such as bugs.

Solution: I could look for online tutorials of what I am trying to achieve to see if they have any good methods or ways to prevent any problems, I could also use the game maker website and submit a question such as how to fix a bug, this could get me a reply from someone on the forum with a method I could try or a solution to the problem, I could also ask friends who are experienced with game maker to see if they have any ideas that could work.

Problem: Because I’m working at a college, not being able to go to the college could be a problem. (This could be because of a range of reasons such as striking, weather, weekends or illness.)

Solution: Getting game maker at home would be able to resolve this as I could use it to continue working on the game, I could also create surveys for players to get feedback and to help my idea development, I could also create thumbnail sketches.

Problem: Because I’m working on a computer there can be problems such as Corrupted saves/auto saving saves a problem with the game and loses content.

Solution: This will be prevented by creating lots of new saves for each new stage of development such as when an new area of the game is being worked on we can create a new save for that work before we start working on it; this will prevent game makers auto saving from keep anything that may be problematic and because of game makers auto saving it will help us keep any work if game maker suddenly stops responding, saving constantly will also lower the chances of game maker crashing becoming a problem. To prevent corrupted saves we can also save lots of saves of the game this way if any get corrupted we can use a slightly earlier version of the game, we can also lower the chances of this by having the game saved onto a range of areas such as on a range of memory sticks and on Google drive, this way if any get corrupted saves we can get the game back from a different location.

Problem: Because this project has a deadline there’s the risk of not finishing on time.

Solution: To prevent any areas of the game not being finished on time we each are going to have a set deadline to which we should have completed each set of work, if this work has not been completed for this date we will have to do the work during our own free time to make sure it is completed, also because we are spending our time from most important updates to least, we are making sure that vital parts of the game are completed before any smaller less important updates, this way we can make sure that the game is finished with most of the content we intended to have in the game and at least have the important parts. We are also having reasonable deadlines this is important as we are considering how long each change to the game will take and make a deadline for it that is reasonable, this is to prevent us from having too much work to be completed to quickly as this would be problematic as it could cause us to become stressed over the game and cause us to miss some of the games content and because we are considering how long each piece of work should take it lowers the chances of us not finishing on time.

Problem: Because some of the work I am going to produce for the game is on paper there could be problems getting it onto the computer.

Solution: If the scanner isn’t working I could use a different scanner or my phone to take pictures of any work that needs uploading to the pc, so any problems with the scanner shouldn’t be a problem, I could also create sketches using Photoshop on the computer this way if I can’t use my phone or the scanner I can create the work directly onto the computer, this further limits the chances of any problems putting work onto the computer.

Problem: Because I’m working on a computer there can be problems that I may face such as power outage.

Solution: In the case of power outage I could create surveys or sketches to get feedback on from players this way I can keep active even when I can’t be updating the game.

Problem: Because the work I am producing is for a game players may not like the content that I have developed which would be a problem as the game is supposed to be played.

Solution: To prevent players not liking content I plan on doing weekly play tests to ask players what they think of how the game is developing and to ask them what changes they would like to see in the game and if there’s anything they think should be removed. I also plan on creating sketches of how I expect some content to work and then polling any changes and asking players opinion on the game this way I can try and make sure that players will like the game as they will actively be telling me what they think to the game and any changes they’d like to see, this should make it harder for players to dislike the game.

Strengths and Weaknesses

During this project I’m going to be working on a range of materials which each have their own strengths and weakness these are aspects I have consider and took into account for making the game using these.

Computer

Strengths:  Has a range of software such as game maker and Photoshop, this is useful as I am going to be using these for my work such as game maker to work on the game which wouldn’t be possible without the computer. Computers are useful for gathering research, such as finding online tutorials into how to make something for the game such as a pause menu this would be much harder to do without the internet. Because the computers have the internet this allows me to save work across different areas for free and easily this will allow me to access work when at home or at college it will also make it harder for me to lose any work by means of corruption.

Weaknesses: I won’t be able to work on the computer if there are events such as power outage this may become a problem if it becomes reoccurring event

Game Maker

Strengths: Has lots of online tutorials which would be helpful for me if I need help with some coding such as fixing any unexpected problems that may arise. I have some experience in using game maker; this will be useful when working on the game as I will already know how to create some of the coding. Game maker has its own built in help page which could be useful when creating any coding for the game as it can give steps into adding features should as editing a mouse curser. Game maker also has its own forums this means if I encounter any problems or need to ask how to do some coding I can post on their forums and get a reply from someone which may help. Game maker is also a very good software for creating games as its often simplistic this will be useful when creating the game.

Weaknesses: Because game maker is a software there can be a range of problems that I may face such as game maker not working, also any problems that I may face with a computer such as power outage will effect game maker as I will need the computer to run game maker.  Game maker is a 2D game development kit, this means I will be restricted and cannot use 3D.

Goals

The main goal of this project was to produce game that players would enjoy I would know if players liked the game by creating a survey to ask people what they thought of the game at the end of the topic, to try and make sure that players liked the game though out the project I plan on getting feedback from players this way i can maximize the chances of players liking content.

The next goal of my project will be to keep within the theme of growth and evolution and within the genre of tower defence games, to do is I am going to often refer back to what features I found that tower defence games have an add them to our game, and try to have as many of these elements as possible, this should be apparent at the end of the game if I have many of these features in the game.

Research

For my research I am going to look into a range of tower defence games such as bloons, curse treasure get your hands off my gems!, age of war, bloons and plants vs zombies from these I plan on finding what makes these games successful and what qualities I wouldn’t use in a game for given reasons. I am also going to look into the focus of the tower defence game which will be evolution and growth, because of this I’m going to look into games movies and books that feature evolution.

Evolve

Evolve is a game that is based around growth and evolution, in game the character can start by being a small weak creature that has to fend for its self to gain energy to evolve, to do this it must face against weaker monsters and avoid those that are stronger that itself, however the monster is able to evolve very quickly, this both changes its size and strength showing how much evolution can change a creature. The game allows the player to both play the monster and the hunters who are after the monster this makes the game more interesting with its concept of evolution as depending on which team the player is fighting on makes quick evolution either a burden or an asset. Because of how this game is hugely impacted by evolution a has a range of effects that are determined by the evolution of the monster such as who fears it and its traits these features would be a good idea to look into for my game, even if the player will not be able to play as the enemies in the game that I am going to help create, the players evolution will affect the ways that the enemies work as they too will need to evolve to keep up with the player.

After playing the game evolve I saw how evolution and growth can have a huge impact on a game; in the game after a player has evolved everything changes as they grow larger and much more powerful and so becomes a much stronger opponent, from this in the game that I’m going to make I’m going to make sure evolving makes a huge impact with the player, this will be by changing the characters appearance, speed and size, this will also have other effects, this is because after playing evolve I found that it was fun because when the player evolve they truly felt that they had gotten more powerful and more fearsome, because of this the player should be able to constantly tell that because they have evolved their character has changed and become better, such by the difference in the characters speed, this is so the player can tell that it is important for the player to evolve and to progress in the game.

X-Men

The x-Men movies are a great way for inspiration for a game based around evolution, this is because the movies show how the world would react to animals that have evolved differently from others of the same species such as how humans hate the Xmen, because of this in  the game that I’m going to help create it could have aspects of creates from the  same species turning against their evolved offspring, X-men also gives a range of ways that a create could evolve such as devolving like the character beast does, this could be implemented in our game so there are ways to turn back into what the character previously was or other aspects that could happen though mutations such as hands for feet, showing how evolution can have problems.

Books with evolution

Charles Darwin the origin of species could be a great way of getting ideas for growth and evolution as the book explains his theory. One thing the book suggests is the idea of survival of the fittest from other scientists such as spencer which suggested only the strong survive by using power and its  abilities which could be a way evolution in a game could work, this could mean for example stronger enemies over time as the enemies would keep evolving and becoming stronger The book also suggests how one animal could have evolved into others slowly over time, for our game we could use the idea that one animal slowly thought different stages evolves to become another other time, such as a monkey to a human.

Digimon

Is a series that monsters battle other monsters; during the series the monsters must evolve to become stronger to defeat new threats; this is a concept that would be good to add to our game, as on the series the monsters grown in size, strength and speed; because of this they can defeat stronger enemies, to evolve the monsters need energy, this could be a feature of our game, it would work by if the player had gathered enough energy they could evolve to become something stronger and better.

Metamorphosis

Though not strictly evolution, metamorphosis is a huge type of growth and has qualities like evolution. It has a huge change from one animal into another which is similar to evolution, it also made me consider how one animal can evolve and become something completely different and unrecognisable, such as a caterpillar (land) to butterfly (flying), this could work really well in a boss battle, if a boss evolve and suddenly all of its mechanics changed like a caterpillar to a butterfly changes so it’s not just visually different, this could be an aspect that is implemented into the game.

Bloons

Bloons is a tower defence game that has enemies following a path to reach the players base to deal damage the enemies always spawn in the same location and follow the same path each time. Enemies following a path is extremely common for tower defence games however over time it becomes very easy and predictable, this makes the game quickly become repetitive and leads to the game becoming boring, however the enemies in the game have a varied health has indicated by their appearance; this makes the game more interesting and it makes sure the game is less repetitive. The game has sound effects such as the poping noise however this seems to be the only sound effect, this means the game can quickly get boring as there’s no sound to make the game more interesting.

The game also has no way of being paused unless the player has completed the level.

This game has given me inspiration in what to do and not do with a tower defence game. The game has a range of aspects that I am inspired from for example how the enemies have a range of health that the player can easily see the difference with by looking at the appearance of the enemies, the game also has a simple but effective interface which makes it easy for the player to understand which is a feature that I would want in my game so players will understand and be easily followed, also because the player can evolve their structures such as increasing the attack range and speed of a tower it makes the game more interesting as the player considers more what kind of strategy they want to use, this feature could be used in the game I’m going to help create for example the player could buy an upgrade for their base giving it more health or a turret that can be upgraded.

The game has also influenced me not do some features it has, for example the game would be more interesting if the player didn’t know the location that the enemies were coming from

as with the way the game works it quickly gets repetitive which makes the game become boring, the game also doesn’t have a pause button which is annoying if the player suddenly needs to stop playing and do something, because of this I intend on adding a way to pause the game. The game also becomes dull very quickly as there’s only 1 noise that is played, I believe that sound is a very important part of gaming and because of this I intended of having a range of sounds in the game instead of one; these will be triggered by a range of events and there will be a sound track in the background; the aim of this is to make the game less boring over time for the players.

Plants vs zombies

Plants verses zombies has a range of qualities that would be good to transfer into another game, for example the game has a nice play out that’s easy for new players to follow and understand which is important for a game as if players don’t understand something they may neglect it or dislike a game because of it. The game can also be paused which isn’t very common with tower defences however is a good feature as it means the player can pause the game and leave it for whatever reason they have, this is a useful feature as it doesn’t make the game any easier or harder and instead gives the player some freedom within the game. The zombies also come from a less predictable path as they can use a few lanes to attack the player from, this makes the game more interesting when compared to games such as bloons, however this is can still become repetitive over time, because of this I could either try to use a system like this so the enemies are semi-random or I could instead make the game fully random by having enemies come from all directions this is to attempt to make the game more interesting so people will want to play it for longer as it will be less boring over time.

Curse treasures don’t touch my gems!

This game has a range of positive features for example the sound effects in the game, there are a range of sounds that can easily be muted at any time, this is a good feature as some players dislike the sound/music I believe it’s a good idea to have lots of sounds in a game as it makes the game more interesting to play.

The game also has a good use of interface, by using a simple layout, this is something that I would like to implement into my game, this is because I believe it’s a good idea when using an interface to keep it simple for players. The fast forward feature it’s a very good idea for this game and works well, however I don’t believe it would be a good feature to have in our game this is because the player plays like the towers the game would be too hard if they enemies travelled faster this is because it would become hard for the player to keep up

Features that I won’t be using that the game has is micro transactions this is because it will ruin the game and the game isn’t supposed to be having any payment options from the player, this is because I feel the game would become too easy if the player could use real money to be at an advantage over someone that doesn’t and so they won’t be added to the game.

Age of War

Age of war has great audio that suit every action so nothing feels out of place, this is good as it makes the game more immersive which is a feature may game players some seeing, because of this we could try using realistic sounds that are used in an effective manner. In age of war both the players and the enemies can evolve this makes the game more challenging as both sides become stronger and so the player must change their strategy accordingly, I believe that this would be a good feature to transfer into our game as it will make the game more interesting when the player gets further into the game. The game also has a range of classes that the player must fight against, this makes the game more interesting as they must deal with each class according; this could be a feature that we could have in our game, such as having a boss battle or having an enemy that seeks out the player instead of the base. The game also uses turrets, these are placed onto the base to give it some way to defend itself, this could be an idea that we could expand upon and so the player maybe could buy a turret for their tower and upgrade the tower as they progress. The game also allows the player to evolve and use better units this is going to be a feature that I’m going to use in my game, as when the player evolves they are going to be stronger than what they were before.

Shop

From the games that I have been looking into the interfaces are always simple layouts that can be easily understood , these interfaces seem to always be on the screen, I may change this so that the player will have a pause like screen as they are shopping, although this is different from the games that I researched use I believe this will be an improvement this is because this way they will have more time to read what items do and not be rushed, this is because the game will not be using wave mechanics, so because of this there won’t be time for the player to read information between battles, so I believe having a similar interface is important so players can easily understand, however it’s also important to give the player some time  to have a look around the shop and because there would be an endless supply of enemies I believe pausing the game is the best way to do this so players don’t get frustrated.

Age of war could have an improved upon pause menu, this is because the pausing doesn’t stop any animations of the characters, this has a strange appearance as the characters appear like they are walking when they aren’t because of this I would create a pause menu that covers the game so the players can’t see still animations; the pause menu also doesn’t have any features on the game, such as returning to the main menu I believe this is a bad idea for a pause menu has it should not only pause the game but give the player some options such as quitting or other features such as resuming the game.

Player damage – hitting enemies

Not many tower defence games have mechanics so that the player can collide with enemies, because of this I looked into platformers such as Mario to see how they deal with player collision. After playing games such as Mario I found that when the player had been damage it became very easy for players to see that this had happened, this is because the player could visually see a difference with their character such as the character growing smaller and flashing for a few seconds, this could be a feature we could add to our game, this is would be done so when the player collides with enemies after this the player would be unable to shoot for a few seconds and could have visual effects so the player can tell that they have been damaged, this could be by making the character flash and also changing their appearance, this is to make the game harder and more interesting for the players.

Inventory

An inventory system could work well in our game, this could be added so that the player can use collected power ups as they are needed and store them until they are, although this isn’t common with tower defences games,  age of war and curse treasure get your hands off my gems! Have similar features such as the mana and volcano attack of the player which after they have collected enough energy they can use stored ablates to help defend their base from enemies, so because of this the feature could work well within our game as it does for them.

Pause

A pause menu is not always found in tower defence games however I believe is an important part of games and should be added; from looking at games such as curse treasure get your hands of my gems! It’s a good idea to add a useful pause menu to a game and give the player a range of features they can use such as muting the game, quitting or selecting another level. Also from looking at some tower defence games such as age of war it’s also important not to have a pause menu that only pauses the game, as age of war doesn’t stop the players animations, this has a strange effect because the characters are animated however aren’t moving, because of this I would plan on

Money

Money is an important part of tower defence games as the player has to spend points to upgrade their defences to make sure they don’t lose. From researching tower defence games I found out that they can have a range of ways they use money, the tower defence game curse treasure get your hands of my gems! The game automatically collects money for the player so they don’t need to keep track on it, however other tower defence games such as plants verses zombies the player must collect the sunlight (money) themselves, I believe this is an more interesting approach this is because it gives the player more they can be doing while playing the game as there can be moments where not much is happening so the player can have more fun by being involved, this also makes the game slightly harder because the player has more to be doing; because the game isn’t supposed to be really easy and tries to keep the player engaged as much as possible I believe the player collecting their own money will be a good way to gain money.

Enemy health

Enemy health is an important part of tower defence games, this is because the games are more interesting as most enemies are not 1 hit kill and instead require a few hits to be defeated as my research has shown games can present different health enemies in different ways, for example age of war uses different character sprites for each character and like cursed treasure don’t touch my gems! both games have health bars above the enemies this is a good  way to indicate to the player how much health each enemy has left, bloons has a different approach and uses different coloured balloons depending on how much health is remaining. Any of these methods would be a good idea to implement into our game, this could be done by having each enemy with the same amount of health for one class like used in age of war and for other types of enemies a different amount of health, the method isn’t too important as they would all work well.

Damage indication

Although my research didn’t show that tower defence games use shaking I believe it could be a good indication to players so they know when their base is damaged, this is because every game in my research had indications that the base had taken some damage, I believe by adding shake the players will feel more immersed within the game which would make the game more interesting, the game could also have an affect like the cursed treasure don’t touch my gems! by having a clear indication that the base has changed (the gems were taken) our game could have the base showing a different sprite so the player can easily tell they had taken some damage instead of trying to remember how many hits the base had taken.

Shop Chest Animation and layout

I fixed the issue with the shop chest, this resolved the issue that the chest would display the wrong animation when the player was in the shop and in the level; because this was fixed I also changed the keys to enter and leave the shop; they are now before left click to enter and leave, this is because after playing tower defence games such as bloons they don’t use the keyboard, because of this I decided both entering and leaving would have to be a mouse click; left mouse click is used a lot in gaming to interact with things so I decided to change the key to left click as players will most likely expect it to be left click to enter the shop, this makes more sense then having num lock 0.

We also updated the shops interface, this was to make the shops a lot neater like the ones I found in my research so because of this I took inspiration from the games that I research into such as bloons so because of this the items are now presented better and when the player hovers over the items the game informs the player its effects, players said that this was a huge improvement to the old shop as it looked more professional and it also made the items more useful because they stated the cost and the effects which before the player had to remember what each item did or make assumptions from the images. I believe this was a big improvement to the game as it had a much better appearance and looked like the shop you would find in a tower defence game as it was based around the ones that I researched into.

shop animation

Player Damage

I added a feature into the game that was suggested by a player; so that once the player had hit and object or an enemies bullet they would have a debuff effect, I also considered adding this into the game when I first research into how games deal with the player colliding with the enemy. I decided to make a few changes to the player once they had taken damage inspired from the game Mario.

First the players sprite will be translucent with each stage of the gif getting more and more transparent this is so the player can easily see that they are still damaged, this is also a feature that is commonly used in games such as Mario and the feature works well in that game so it should work well in ours, also because of how popular games like Mario are; even if the player doesn’t use the tutorial they can quickly understand what’s happening to their character.

The players speed is also slightly reduced this is one of the debuff mechanics this is to penalize players for touching the enemies or blocking the base from a bullet, this is also a way that the player will be able to tell that they have touched an enemy and that, that leads to consequences.

Another debuff that I added is that the player can’t shoot for 2 seconds after they hit an enemy/bullet, this is big problem for the player as they will need to kill the enemies before they reach the base, because of this it will encourage the player to keep their distance from enemies.

These features will need a play test to see if players feel that the debuffs are to harsh and need any nerfs such as the players speed is too slow, or the time the effect is on for is too long and changes will be made depending on results of the feedback given.

After play tests players said that they liked the update however felt that the time of the debuff was too long, because of this the time will be lowered to 3/4 of the original value (2-1.5 seconds.) after this was tested again players felt that the time was long enough and so no more changes will be needed

Here is a video to show the players damage effect in game.

player damage

Play Tests

Every week we at least do one play test, we do one on a Thursday and any more before if we have added something large into the game; we do this to make sure that content is working and so players are enjoying the game.

I believe it has been a good idea for us to do at least 1 weekly play tests as over the weeks we have been doing them we have updated the game in a range of ways from how we found people were playing the game and suggestions we were given; which has changed a range of areas of the game which is what we wanted them to do.

How the play tests work:

We ask people if they would like to play the game and record anything they might do/not do or say, this can be a range of things for example if the player starts shooting power ups instead of collecting them, if any bugs are found during the tests, or if the player likes or dislikes a part of the game.

These images shows bugs that players found while playing the game, if it wasn’t for the play tests we might not have found the bugs as easily and created a way to remove it.

These images show play tests at different stages of development  from these we got a range of feedback such as mechanics for the game such as players didn’t like that when they tried to move around their base they kept bashing into the base its self, the players thought they would be able to travel though the base.

We also got feedback to how a player suggested that the shop should look like so we created a few ideas and got the players to pick which layout they preferred and use that for our game.

One suggestion we got from a few players which the development team didn’t consider was making the sprites larger which after we tried made a huge improvement to the interface and other plays also liked the new sizes, because of this we kept the players idea in the game as it wasn’t a huge change to make to the game and so didn’t go against any of the games fundamentals.

Another player suggested that if the player is hit by an enemy or a bullet they should have some sort of damage effect to make a penalty and to stop players from sitting on top of enemies, because of this I plan on adding this feature so the player’s speed will be lowered, their sprite will be translucent with a gif so they get more and more transparent the reasons why I’m doing two features is so the player can easily see they are damaged instead of not knowing what’s happening, and I will also restrict the player from shooting to make the game slightly harder for the player, once this has been produced I plan on asking players what they think of the new feature and depending on the majority make changes depending on results.

 

  

Weekly evaluation (4)

This week hasn’t been a big changing week like previous weeks for the game and mainly has had changes to make game play nicer for players such has fixing bugs.

I made the shop have an animation so when the players hover over the shop it slightly opens and then when they enter it is fully open this was to make it easier for the players to be able to tell that the shop is a shop and so the player will click it and enter, it also makes shop more interesting.

Changed the button to enter the shop as now the shop is animated there are currently a few problems so the button to enter the shop is now 0 and to leave is left click, this is only a temporary change as left click to enter isn’t vital for the shop and I believe changing this later down the line would be better than now so I can change other content that needs fixing first as others may be more important to resolve as they could stop the game from working which is more important than making a slight difference to the shop.

Fixed a problem with the random base healing power up that could cause the player to lose the game when collected when the player already had around 7 hits left and fixed a bug that cause the power up to display the wrong image index as instead of healing the base it appeared like the base was taking damage. (This was after the damage bug was fixed.)

Fixed an issue where when the boss on the 3rd level was defeated it didn’t respawn the enemies that are in the 3rd level as it made the 3rd level unplayable.

Fixed an issue with strong bullets so when the enemies were attacked by multiple bullets at the same time their health would fall below 0 so the player wouldn’t be able to defeat them.

Next week

Next week I plan on doing QA testing and getting players to test the game and suggest any improvements then afterwards, I plan on adding any improvements suggested by players and fix any bugs that may become apparent, this is because we have done everything that we planned on adding up to now so the week will be to minor improvements as all the crucial parts of the game have already ready been developed and so I can just work on minor things to improve the game such as adding more items to the shop, fixing any bugs and adding an effect if the player collides with an enemy so they player can’t shoot for a few seconds; I also intend on fixing the issue with the shops animation and entry key as I shouldn’t have any bigger more important changes to make next week.

Weekly evaluation (3)

The work produced this week worked well as we all focused on our own areas and then added to each others work for example Tyler created the shop interface, while I added the interface and moved the items around and made some changes Sam created the displayed text for each time, because of this we could quickly improve areas of the game and move on to other content.

Shop display

The shop display was a huge improvement from what we had before as it made the shop appear more professional as shops in games don’t just have items in a row at the bottom of the screen and nothing else. Now each item explains what they do, and are larger and so easier to see what the item is and are presented in a better way. This was a improvement to the old layout as there wasn’t any space for text to explain what the item does and also most of the screen was very bare which players disliked, where as now the shops interface takes up most of the screen giving it a more shop like appearance which from player feedback is an improvement from before.

Adding audio

Adding audio to the game was a huge improvement to the game as it gave the game more of an atmosphere and made it more interesting to play so it was a good idea to add audio to the game, and from playing tower defence games for my research it was vital to make the game more enjoyable and to keep players playing for longer..

Fixing bugs

Like every week bugs are fixed to make sure the game work as expected and to make sure the game can be played, this week a larger bug was fixed to prevent the game having issues and going from full screen to windowed; this made issues with the rooms size so the game didn’t display the entire room which was a problem, to fix this I made sure the game was no longer in full screen, this didn’t create any problems and fixed bugs it was causing; I believe fixing the game like this was a good idea as it will prevent any other problems from occurring and it also was a very quick fix to make to the game; which allowed me to quickly fix the problem and then move onto other areas of the game to keep expanding instead of constantly fixing any bugs.

Next Week

Because the work we intended to do has been completed next week will mainly be forced around patching any bugs and play tests to get any suggests from players to improve the game; this way we can make sure content that is being developed is what players want to see in the game and make sure the game can successfully run without any problems.

Full screen – windowed

When the game is in windowed mode the game has had some bugs such as when the game displays a windowed message the game goes from full screen to windowed this has been problematic as after the game goes into windowed the player can no longer see everything in the room anymore for example the energy counter should say “Energy:” however after the player has either paused the game or had a message appear they can only read “gy:” Which is a problem because of this I stopped the game from being in full screen which caused the problems to no longer be an issue, I decided to do this because full screen wasn’t needed for our game and it wouldn’t make much difference without it; and from my research I also found that not all tower defences are in full screen and games such as plants vs zombies have the option to go into windowed, and when they are played from an online client they are in windowed rather than full screen so the change from full screen to windowed shouldn’t become a problem with players and will remove bugs.

Adding Audio

My research showed that tower defences generally have sound, this is an important part of the game as it makes the game more interesting and less dull than a game without sound, because of this it was crucial to add audio to our game, so after some audio was created we added audio to a range of events to make the game more interesting. The audio is mainly 8 bit and we believe the audio suits what makes them play such as the power up sound track, this is because old classic games had sounds like these and they were very effective and iconic to what made them play, we also chose 8 bit as it suited the art pixel style we are using for our game.

Shop display

I have improved the shops appearance more so it looks more like a shop, this is an improvement from before as the sprites were small, because of this most of the screen was bare, which didn’t make the shop look like it was a shop, this would also make the game appear more professional, to change this I added a background that was created for the shop and placed the power ups into the empty slots in the interface. Next I removed the windowed messages that were displayed after the player had gotten an item, this is for a few reasons. One, it wasn’t really required as the player could easily see that they had gotten an item. Two, it caused a problem with the game being in full screen as it caused the game to become windowed which cut some of the screen off so the player could no longer read “Energy:” and could only see “gy:” Three, The message didn’t look professional, from my research shops didn’t inform the player when they had bought an item, so it wasn’t needed in the first place as it wasn’t required for a tower defence. Below is a video of the new shop that also shows information on each power up.