Bethke, Chapter 8: The Games Design Document

The games design document in short details all the information about the game. It can be a more fleshed out version of the skeleton games concept that it was before in the initial stages. This should also outline to all the team members what features need to be implemented for the game.

The Games design document is part of a suite of documents, which include:

· Proposal document
· Art design document
· Technical design document
· Project schedule
· Software testing plan
· Risk mitigation plan

Within i the design document are various sections:

· Section 1: defining the game

Bethke, Chapter 7: Key Design Elements

Key design elements are:

· The business context is important as is the design shape, both are used to refine each other after each stage.

· Finance is also a big factor, which determines to what detail the game can be designed to.

· The design of the whole game will be based on a concise games concept.

· The theoretical games design.

· The technical design side of it.

· The software and approach used for the actual implementation.

· Appropriate prototypes.

· The games development teams i.e. the programmers, animators, actors etc.

· User requirements. This needs to be captured so that the game is user orientated.

· Brainstorming the features of the game by doing use case diagrams.

Studio 10: Scoping your own games concept in AGS

For this term i am required to come up with a games concept which can be implemented into my chosen game engine.
After working with AGS throughout this term, i have become very familiar and comfortable with it, thus it is natural that i use game engine to create my game.
knowing that this games engine is restrited in many ways, i will have to make sure the games concept keeps within these restrictions.
the idea i have is simple (considering the games engine) yet may contain complex interactions giving the user an enjoyable experience.

Concept

Alot of the games pre made on AGS use rooms as the context. i wanted to do something a bit different so i decided to do it within a maze. the character simply has to get through the different mazes , which increase in difficulty throughout. on their way they must collect 4 keys which are used to unlock each passage to the next maze. the purpose of the game is for the hero to get to his beloved who the bad guy has locked away in the final fortress maze. so basically he has to resue her. their will be no combat involved as the games engine does not allow for this. to stop the hero from accomplishing his quest will be the bad guys evil henchman which are scattered on each maze ready to pounce and 'kill' the hero.

Reading Week 1

After reading through chapter 3 of the bethke book, i was able to come up with these points (shown below) which portray why games development is hard:

· Only a few games are profitable, even the big names.
· A substantial plan is needed as to waste the minimum time and money.
· It’s difficult to predict the market in the games industry affecting if your game does well or not.
· Most games fail to meet their financial expectations, thus creating a loss.
· It is difficult to compete against the bigger established names in the industry.

Studio 5 & 6: Exploring Playability

Group members

Ateeb Shah (Me) and Gurmeet Ghatora

Swish Basketball Game

Observer: Ateeb Shah (Me)
Player: Gurmeet Ghatora

• Not good as a first impression.
• Engaged more once player got more familiar with the controls.
• When a basket is scored, player triumphants with comments.
• After a couple of minutes, player finds it easy to score baskets, slightly becoming bored.
• Expression becomes slightly content.
• Wants the game to end.
• Is happy when a difficult basket is scored

The conceptual framework identified was easy fun. The game took hardly a minute to get used to and from there it was a repititive process of doing the same thing in the same way.

BR'S Rocket Rush

Observer: Ateeb Shah (Me)
Player: Gurmeet Ghatora

• First impression,'sik game' which means good in slang.
• Varied keyboard controls for the game.
• Little cut scenes to give user background information on the game.
• Player continously firing and enjoying 'destroying' opponents in the air.
• Slightly challenging as targets keep moving
• Engaging player to go quicker and to accomplish objective.
• Triumphs as player continously kills enemies.

Identified as easy fun, hard fun anad serious fn. game required concentration from player as the number of enemies and attacks increased. The controls for the game were easy to learn so getting into the game was no problem.

Air Hockey Game

Observer: Gurmeet Ghatora
Player: Ateeb Shah

Started to read the instructions before playing the game
Concentrating when playing
Starts laughing when he looses
Starts becoming enthusiastic when winning and making use of constructive language.
Relaxes, sits back and breaths out when he starts winning.
He kept on playing when he was loosing
It started getting easy and he got the grasp of it, Won overall.

As a result, you can clearly see that there are two fun concepts that have been demonstrated to us by the user. These are hard fun and Easy fun.

Arrows Game

Observer: Gurmeet Ghatora
Player: Ateeb Shah

Firstly, the player started reading the instructions carefully
Tensed facial expressions when having to reset the puzzle the fourth time
Got more focused when loosing – hard fun
Kept on playing when loosing on the twelfth go
10 minutes passed trying to solve the puzzle – unawareness of time
Finally gave up after becoming puzzled and irritated

As a result, the player was clearly defined to be having hard fun. The result ended with the player giving up after some time as he couldn’t solve the puzzle.

Studio 3: Use Cases

Use cases

• Use cases focus on users and their interactions with the game
• They help define and organise what users need to do
• They help with delegation of work

Use cases are:

-Individual
-Generalized

They help to:

-Focus on user
-Break down functionality
-Address scoping of the games concept
-Introduce parsimony

Player Input Use Case Diagram

This use case represents the input commands can do within the game

Game Object Interaction Use Case Diagram

This use case shows the different kinds of interactions the user will experience within the game

Display System Use Case Diagram

This use case diagram shows what displays the user will be able to view

Audio Interaction Use Case Diagram

This use case shows the audio elements of the game

References

Lecture 3 notes

Note

As i have had problems with uploading the use case diagrams onto blogger, instead i have placed them in a word document.

Studio 4: Starting Work on Assignment 1

Below i have given some bullet points of what i will be covering in my final key assignment. I have created this so i can get an idea on what elements of the concept i need to emphasise on.

Game Concept Idea

• Based on demons and monsters.
• Based in the asian world.
• Role play combined with combat
• Blood and gore
• Fight to save the human world from the demon world
• One player

Main Game View

• Different in game angles- birds eye view, angled view, 1st person
• 3D environment
• Mainly asian environment
• Rendered objects to look realistic

Core player Interactions

• Combat- blood and gory violence
• interactive storyline
• health attributes
• Types of weapon- gun or sword
• Potential for combos- infinite
• killing enemies in certain ways
• Demon trigger- transformation (attributes are increased)
• PS3 controller- in game controls
• interaction of environment, objects and other characters

Contextual Gameplay

• Starter menu- what will it contain? Story mode, Game options, Extras
• Options for when each area is selected
• Selecting difficulty level
• Opportunity to try out tutorial
• Will not be multiplayer game as it is just one main character the user will play as
• prohibits potential for being played online
• Tutorial machanics- how will player be teached? in what format? basic tutorial and advanced tutorial?
• Game machanics

Talk Story

• Narrate story
• Only narration on how game begins- introduction
• World background- what was the world like prior to the current situation
• War betweeen worlds
• Corrupt worlds
• How did it become like this
• Brief character backgrounds
• Level design- how many levels? mini bosses? main boss? experience points at the end of each level?
• Peaceful scenery at the beginning morphing into a more sincere environment
• Geography- shape of the world, countries, locations.
• Cut scenes- movie like story line

Assets

• Sound effects? love songs for touching moments? battle music
• Motion capture
• Martial arts moves captured to look smooth and realistic in the game

Team Members

Lead Designer (Head)
Lead Programmers (Team Leaders)
Games Mechanics Programmer (Games physics)
3D Graphics Programmer
AI Programmer
User Interface Programmer
Audio Programmer
Art Director (Team Leaders)
Concept Artist (Roughing art concepts)
2D Artist/Interface Designer
3D Modeller
Character Modeller