Game Design Document

Game Design Document

I decided to make my GGD using a site called Dunroc there is a link to it Here

My GGD

For my Game Design Document I have decided to focus on the following aspects of the game as can be seen below.

Story: The story is about you ,one of two cops/ police officers that is tasked with catching swans that have escaped. Throughout the game trying to catch them across different levels. 

Characters: The characters you will see in the game are the two police officers of which will be the only two playable characters, the swans they are trying to catch along with the guy from the intro who gives you the task and random villager npcs that will be there mainly for aesthetic purposes 

environmental levels: The game will consist of 4 levels the first being the intro level on castle grounds, the second being the garden level taking place around a garden/ greenhouses with items such as gardening equipment you have to avoid, for the third it will be based around the back alleys of village estate and the final level will take place around the town square. Below are some visual perspectives to help imagine said settings and all were found from the site Movie locations, as can be found here

1. Level 1: Castle Grounds
2. Level 2: Garden level
3. Level 3: Back alleys of housing estates
4. Level 4 Final level: Town Square

Note: If you finish the game once you unlock both police officers which gives new dialog to the player for incentive to replay levels again.

Gameplay

"Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game" The way in which a player will interact within the game is by avoiding obstacles through levels by hopping over them or walking around them. By picking up power-ups such as ice cream cones to help the player in a way catch the swan easier, to even how the swan interacts when the player gets near it. It could also be how the players characters interact with each other, the swan or how differently the act when using a power up in the game.

Art Description

The art style of this game I feel should be a mix of colorful to match the village's warm countryside  feeling/ aesthetic, with an almost comic style to it also ,as it will match the action style of the hero the two examples I am getting inspiration from are linked below 

Inspiration 1 Untitled Goose game:The reason I chose this title again as I have mentioned it in many of my blogs is because I personally love how the creator/creators of the game gave it such a colorful almost pop are style to design as it really brings color and warmth to the setting.

Link to image here

Inspiration 2 Scott pilgrim vs the world game:  The reason I chose this title was because the art style they used which was a comic art format really helped improve the action scenes in the game aesthetically.This I feel could be very beneficial to the intense chasing scenes in my game ,as well as help show off the environments a lot more. 

Link to image 2 here

Sound/audio: For the sounds in the game I wish to keep the village soundtrack from the  actual hot fuzz movie as the main theme, But have placed a list below of considerations for other things.

• Main background soundtrack for each of the levels here ( I chose this as it has a comical beat to it ,which would help add a comical aspect to the levels as the two bumbling police officers chase after and try to catch the swan.
• The second sound I wanted to add was this more intense upbeat song here ,which would only play in the game when the character acquires a power-up 
• Other sounds I did consider having were morning village ambiance here to add a relaxing feeling before the intensity of the game soundtrack kicks in.
• One thing I have also considered was adding audio quotes from characters through out the movie with some of the npc's from the levels using them to make the environment more relatable to the film

User interface/ controls

The controls I will be using are the following as the game will be made as a mac/ pc game these are the following controls.

• Using the up don left right button to move in said direction
• Using the space button in order to jump over obstacles that may get in your was such as bins or walls
• Using the mouse to be able to look around the game environment as you move through it.
• Enter button to select between items, Characters/levels
• Pause button to pause game whenever you need it
• Mute button/ volume button to control games audio settings.

My thoughts

Overall I feel that I gained a lot more insight in the things I need to consider working on for the game as well as developing more of a structure for it using the site Dundoc. I feel more confident going forward with this game although there are still a few tweaks I need to work out also. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much as I enjoyed writing it .

Games GGD

Games GGD Dillon Eagers

Here is a link to where I found this image click here

For this weeks reading I am focusing on design considerations mainly in improving the UI and rules writing for board games. The piece I read was by Greg Aleknevicus and it focused on the following components.

• Make tiles smaller than the spaces they're placed upon
• Using highly contrasting/distinguishable colors for plavers pieces
• Use shape as well as color to distinguish pieces
• Use different components for different functions
• Making indices/ icons are distinct from each other
• Starting files should be back-printed in a different color
• Use legible and distinguishable font

My Items of interest

• I personally was interested in the part where aleknevicus talked about in the post such as using a white border to hide imperfections and greatly reduce the chance of the deck getting marked or damaged.
• I also like how he mentions adding extra components to a game so there is spare pieces in the event of one of the pieces being lost.
• Another one I found to be helpful was having A FAQ response page as it helps users to be able to have their questions answered as the issues arise over time.

"Game Vision Statement"

Game Vision Statement by Dillon Eagers

Link to image here

For this weeks project I am focusing on the following  items of interest.

Game Genre

From researching other games I wish to make is a puzzle game in which  you control one of two police officers trying to catch numerous swans around a village within a timer. This will give the players both challenge to complete the task within a time frame , as well as to give them incentive to play again to beat their score giving the game replay ability status. I chose this status due to looking up what the genre of "untitled goose game" was, as It was the biggest inspiration to my game idea due to the warm village art style through warm colors  of its environment to the capability that the unity game engine could give me in creating this environment.

Here is a link to the info page where I got the type of game genre "Untitled Goose Game" , as well as other information about the title was from. Click here

I also Placed this link as I also used Wikipedia to look up the definition for puzzle video games. Click here.

Gameplay

For this I first looked up the definition of gameplay  using Google ,as can be seen in the link here states that "gameplay is the feature of a video game , such as its plot and the way it is played, as distinct from the graphics to the sound effects."

Here is an example I got fro, Wikipedia of the "Untitled Goose game" Gameplay information

"Set in an apparently middle class English village, Untitled Goose Game sees players control a goose which can honk, run, flap its wings, and grab objects with their beak to bother various human villagers. The village is split up into multiple areas, which each have a to-do list of objectives to accomplish, such as stealing certain objects or tricking humans into doing certain actions. When enough of these objectives are cleared (one less than the total amount present), an additional objective is added which, once cleared, allows the goose to move onto the next area. After completing four areas, the goose enters a miniature model of the village. There, the goose steals a bell before going back through the previous areas while the villagers try to stop them. In the game’s ending, it is revealed the goose had previously stolen many bells prior to the game's events. There are also several hidden optional objectives, many of which require traversing between multiple areas or completing an area within a time limit."

Link to info here

I also made a link to a video of 11 minutes of gameplay from "Untitled goose game" I got from YouTube click here.

Resources Required

When researching essential Resources I would require I looked up "Resources required when making a 3D game" and I ended up coming across a person called David Arcila , The curator of the ZEEF game development research page, click here for information on page. He mentions the seven essential resources to have when making a 3D game. These are the following.

• Resource one: Lay out the plan so that you can do things such as define what your game is about.
• Resource two: Tell a good story using things such as twine as it allows you to structure your narrative in a visual structure.
• Resource three: Get Agile using a project management system to allow you to organise tasks and get things done.
• Resource four: Tools using programs such as Unity  to start  allowing yourself to make a 3D based game using the engines tools.
• Resource five: Prototypes will allow you to track your games progress, as well as to allow the creator or creators of the game to progress independently.
• Resource six: Audio and sound  as it can improve a game greatly to the user/player of the game.
• Resource seven: Knowledge as it is important to learn as you go along from mistakes to things that progress the progress of making your 3D game.

I found this list of resources to be very helpful in giving me a better idea of resources required and to be considered when making a 3D game or any game for that matter. You can find the page I gathered the information from here

Link to image here

Overall I feel this blog was very helpful to write out as it gave me a look into  new perspectives that I did not consider especially in the piece i read about resource. I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did.

"unity tutorial 03 "

Unity Clock Exercise

Link to image here

The Task for this week on Unity was to Build a clock using simple objects. I made the body of the clock by using the 3D shape of a cylinder and by removing its Cylinder (mesh filter) in the inspector menu. This overall helped in the process of making/form the shape of the clock. I personally found this weeks unity tutorial better than the previous two as I found it quite difficult to keep up with the Jimmy Vegas videos, were as this way was easier to keep it as it was just following the instructions from the document.  I am however still finding it find getting use to using scripts in Unity but am being optimistic that I will catch on soon enough. One more thing I m finding difficult getting use to is the controls in unity as for zooming in and out and moving up and down.

Overall this week made me feel better about unity as I have been struggling mainly in that part since starting back however. I still do not know how all the tools and settings work but feel I am am genuinely learning more as i go along with each week. I also place an image below i took with my phone camera of the program  while being made in Unity.

Dillon Eagers "Games MDA"

Games MDA

https://images.app.goo.gl/SAnwkS26Zs4xigAk6

The point of this weeks reading was to learn about MDA which stands for " Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics". This is a formal approach to understanding games one which attempts to bridge the gap between the following.

• Game Design
• Game Development
• Game criticism 
• Technical Game Research

This brief also goes onto detail on establishing their design counterparts. these counterparts can be seen below.

• Mechanics: Describes the particular component of the game through data representation and algorithms.
• Dynamics: which describes the players run time behaviors while  acting on players inputs to  each others outputs as time goes on.
• Aesthetics : this describes the emotional responses left by the player. (When describing the aesthetics of a game these are things to consider Sensation, Fantasy , Narrative , Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression and Submission).

1. Links to external site 1 here MDA framework by LeBlanc, Hunicki and Zabek. This link was very helpful in breaking down each of the things to consider in game MDA , as well as establishing their design counterparts.     
2.   Links to external site 2 here Designing to promote Intentional Play by Clint Hocking. Besides his Unique joke at the start I did like mainly how clink went into detail explaining the definition of words such as Intentionality and using examples through his playthroughs of games such as Donkey Kong 
3. Link to external site 3 here A brief description of MDA by Gamedeveloperstips.com. The reason I chose this one if it to me was much more clear and easy to understand the mechanics, Dynamics and aesthetics descriptions of Game Design. I overall felt it to be very much the same as the first link I read on MDA Framework by LeBlanc,Hunicki and Zabek.

Feedback Strategies

Feedback Articles

Link to image here 

For this week I focuses on reading  and focusing on two main articles .These articles included

Link to "what kind of message help a child grow"here

Link to "Five Reasons to stop saying Good Job" here

• "What kinds of messages help a kid grow".This article by Deborah Farmer Kris and focuses on the type of praise that should be given to preschoolers/kids from a young age  in order to shape a healthy mindset of how people learn and grow from it. I personally like how the article notes to replace Generic praise with Process Praise , as generic praise lacks instructional value. For example replacing things such as "good job" with "good job sharing with your sister" ,as these will tie the child's actions to their specific success and helping the child from a young age to Learn what is to be praised for and what is not to be praised for in the future for things such as school and work.The article also mentions the power of the word yet being used to encourage the child to keep trying and not give up on a task. This can be by using it when a child says something like "I cant do it" and responding with "you cant do it "yet". I feel this to be very true ,as I know plenty of people who could have used this type of advice in the past ,me included when not being able to do something in work, or on an assignment allowing me to learn and progress as a person and mainly allowing me a way / drive to conquer my setbacks.
• "Five Reasons to stop saying good Job" This article by Alfie Kohn focuses on  Five reasons  we need to stop saying "good gob" These reasons include

1. Manipulating children- Referred to as sugar-coated control by Rheta DeVries as it praises them for complying with our wishes at that moment as it may have a long lasting effect in the long run. With children being so hungry for our approval  people have made a habit of exploiting praise for our own convenience and will not prepare them for how things actually work in school and work life in their future.
2. Creating praise Junkies - This means that kids will be come so use to praise that they will become dependent  on them making it hard for them to learn valuable life skill such as learning from criticism and conquering challenges in the process.
3. Stealing a child's pleasure - This highlights that in constantly praising a child's actions we take away the pleasure/delight a child may feel for actually completing their accomplishments. and to feel pride in what they learned to do.
4. Losing Interest -This states that a person may only keep doing something as long as they are being watched and praised for it meaning this may seem like it is helping them but is instead making the individual attention towards this thing more distant. "the more we tend to reward people to things the more they lose interest" I found this phase in the reading to really capture the point the writer was trying to get across about this issue.
5. Reducing achievement-This highlighted that a person may do a certain action in order to gain approval. It also highlights three possible responses that may  improve the situation without praising the individual. these three Items were  say nothing,  Talk less and ask more and to say what you saw  mainly focusing on things that we can say to our kids so that we do not affect them in the long run without fake praise for things that should not be praised. Helping them to develop in the future as people.

"game Idea research"

Dillon Eagers Game research Ideas

Link to the image here 

For this blog I am doing research into the project topic "Game Mechanics".  The Idea I chose to continue researching was  my first idea which was a simulator where you  are trying to catch a swan as two goofy police officers as a parody of the iconic/comedic scene from hot fuzz where both police officers are trying to catch an escaped swan for one of the towns locals.  It would be a 3D game ,with an environment styled after the town of Wells where the film was made, or at least parts of the town. I also want to find a way to make the game more challenging so I considered  giving the levels time limits and goals keeping the player alert and focused on passing the level and giving it a challenge.

Overall I am finding it hard to describe 3 possible game mechanics as when I was looking up it I found it hard to find examples due to their being no definitive answer to what game mechanics are between academics and game designers . The only way I found to describe it is as an item/object/ moving platform and how the player responds/reacts to it. Like how Mario had to avoid being hit by barrels in "Donkeykong". The three Mechanics I decided to focus on today was

• How my character chasing the swan reacts to the powerups, (Which is by increasing his speed  or reach when chasing the swan).
• Having obstacles such as hedges,bushes, bikes and water that the player must avoid or it will slow them down giving the swan more distance to escape (adding challenge).
• How the swan(antagonist reacts) when the player grows nearer to it.

For inspiration on this idea/concept I came across a trailer for a PS4 game titled "The Unfinished swan" which when I watched it reminded me of the type of environment I would love to make in unity for my title which judging by the similarities is very doable  with the 3D options given to us by unity. I feel like This trailer really catches the perspective of  how I want to design the city/ Town in my game. I also took inspiration from a game called "Untitled goose game" as it was  a great use of design and color , as i feel it would really add the warm country village style I am interested in presenting in my game. 

• The unfinished swan trailer link here
• The untitled goose game game-play link here
• The Unfinished swan wiki page here
• The Untitled goose game Wikipedia here
• Film locations from the movie hot fuzz here

Possible ideas for the game

1. Add Cornetto Cones as Power ups  or ice-cream cones as a reference to the trilogy the movie is based off ( possibly aiding players speed/agility)
2. Make cover for game of game using hot fuzz logo but add swan recapture in red to add intensity and make it look more sinister for comedic purposes.
3. Use bits from movie soundtrack to edit into game to help with intro ,outre or upgrade sounds for protagonist.Soundtrack 1 here, Soundtrack 2 here
4. Add small references to the movie to bits from the movie (Easter eggs for the fans to find props ,characters, phrases etc.)

I feel good about this Idea overall and am looking forward to Researching and making it with unity in the coming weeks.

So in finishing up this blog I shall leave a link below tho the scene that inspired me to do this , as my game idea in the first place.Click here