Reviewing what's possible...

I had my first meeting for my masters project the other day. One thing that the lecturer in charge said for us to consider with any idea we come up with are the resources we have available.

Now I'm going to apply that to this project. For just one person working on this I have achieved a lot, especially considering I built most of the graphics and recorded or manipulated most of the sound. I am pretty happy with my end result with the two level game. i would like to split that up into a four level game, with the instructions re what you will encounter on each level, but i would need an extra day to do that. And that's without even considering the other assignment aspects I need to complete (and considering I have to go to work on Friday!!)

So. I am going to quickly tidy what I can now before I go to bed, then tomorrow, priority goes to recording the video and creating the presentation. If by chance after that i find my time free, I will happily go back and see what I can achieve with the splitting of the levels and reassess my presentation based on that.

I don't want to find myself stuck at the end and not prepped for the presentation, or that will stress me out. If I at least have something prepared, i will feel way more relaxed about it.

Plus, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure splitting the levels won't actually take away from my intended game experience. The players I've had test it for the most part have expressed desire to keep at it to try to get through the level, rather than get discouraged - it seems to have a good balance between encouraging and seeming possible and not being too easy at all.

I think obviously long term it woudl get tiring (esp with the music, I can lay testament to that), but I actually think I'm quite happy with what I've developed at this point, particularly considering I went through stages of despair and loathing for it :-)

OK, enough ranting, I need sleep

Playtesting results final prototype v3

Playtester: Alastair

• Stated thought objective was "To survive and gain a high score. "
• "The strategy was mostly about patience. Avoid killing the trees by being too greedy. Only use your stink bug if you have to (i.e. prefer to avoid the enemies where ever possible)"
• "I did have to read the instructions to really understand the array of objects that the game presented you with, but I did understand it quickly after that. "
• "I understand it's more about the design that the graphics, but the representations of the birds and the farmer were especially confusing, and a small amount of time even just creating a stick man would have made it clearer as to what that object was supposed to be."
• "Also, after a while playing, I was no longer sure what my objective was. I was expecting to be taken to a new orchard, but this never occurred for me. After reading the instructions again, I realise there was a timer counting down. I think this time was far too long. If it was set much shorter I would have felt like I received a reward and would have been more encouraged to keep playing."
• Keyboard controls were easy to use
• "I like the idea that if you eat too much fruit, the tree dies, thus cutting off your food supply. I never actually found myself so low on energy that I *needed* to kill a tree, but I could see if the difficulty level went up, this would be one of the major tactics the player would have to consider."
• "I'd like to see more of a slow introduction (more on that below). Also, more rewards to the player to encourage them to keep playing. I feel having a timer until the level ends feels a little abstract, and doesn't pull the player in to the game. Possibly just reducing the timer would help here, but I wonder if having to eat a certain amount of fruit (or special fruit) would be more appealing. That way the player can visually see how far they are through the level, and how well they are doing. For example, pacman is a good example of this. With a glance the player can see how many dots are left to collect and thus how far from completion they are."
• "I wouldn't introduce everything at once. I'd start by letting the player get used to the controls and eat a bit of fruit, and then quickly reward them by moving to the next level. In between levels, I'd have a short explanation that now there is a bird that wants to eat you. So the second level you have to eat fruit and avoid the bird. Again, this would be quite quick before you move to the next level. Then... you introduce the farmer as a new enemy to avoid.
• This way, the player is slowly being introduced to the game elements, and is getting small rewards by progressing through the levels. I think this would encourage people to play for longer. "
• "Once I understood what all the graphical objects were supposed to be, I enjoyed the basic game mechanics of collecting fruit whilst avoiding enemies, however, as mentioned previously, not receiving any form of reward after a minute or two's play, in the form of progressing to the next level meant I got bored."

Playtester: Sharon

• Hey pesky bug, stop eating my oranges… haha I love it.
• Great game, and v addictive J I played it a couple of times, mainly cos the first time I played it I was expecting there to be another level so got confused when I couldn’t figure out how to move on.
  
• Objective: To last as long as possible
• Strategies for winning: If you hold down the spacebar while flying you can eat the fruit more efficiently. Also don’t eat all the fruit too quickly or you’ll die
• Able to learn quickly - v easy and straightforward
• I was expecting a second level so got a bit confused the first time I played as couldn’t figure out how to move on from level 1.
• Info that would have been useful at the start: What you have to do to move on to the next level. My initial reaction was to eat all the fruit as quickly as possible while avoiding the farmer and birds. It was not until I died from doing this that I realised that slow and steady wins the race as far as this game is concerned. Also, what effect does the stink bomb have on the farmer/birds?
• Controllers easy to use - It’s quite a basic, straightforward game. Perhaps you could add an element of challenge by including a list of special items the bug has to collect within each level. This could be incorporated in a couple of themes:

1. i) the more special items you collect the higher your score
2. ii) you have to collect x number of special items to move up to the next level
3. you can’t complete the game unless you have collected all the special items

• Some additional functionality for the bug would be good like the addition of alternatives to the stink bomb + more bonus items to pick up.
• The health bar went down too quickly.
• Had fun playing

Playtester: Maurice

• Objective: to outlast the clock for each level – whilst husbanding energy/fruit resources and dodging birds and sprayman
• Strategies: trying to find clusters of fruit, nibbling without denuding trees… and also taking into account the “seasons” as the fruit ripened etc.
• Were you able to learn how to play quickly? Very…. I read the instructions, just in case… but probably didn’t need to. Either way, I was playing within a minute
• I didn’t even try the stinkbomb itself, though… was too engrossed in trying to find the closest fruits
• The keyboard controls were fine (but I’m an old hand at cursor-arrow games)
• I found the mix of strategy (marshalling resources) and real-time action surprisingly engaging. More brainpower used than I would have anticipated (in a way, similar to how I found Tetris to be engaging). And the music was great, where’d you find that?? :-)
• For additional levels, maybe different tree layouts? Some fencing or other obstacles to consider whilst flying around the trees? Maybe scarecrows? Just to add another level of complexity J (unless of course, the game already does this but I just haven’t seen because I keep bombing out on level 1….)
• Probably have a “high score” page just like most arcade games…
• Had fun - I will probably play again when I have more time (I’m determined not to bomb out!)
  

Playtester: Sarah

• I've been having a play for the last 20 minutes or so. Anyway, I'm impressed! The gameplay is intuitive and easy to use and the game itself is addictive and challenging enough to keep you coming back (I still can't get past level 1, I keep getting killed by the square flying thing that I assume is a bird).
  
• Also love the voice over :P The only thing that really bugged me was the music, I think if I were to play the game more I would want an option to either mute it or turn it down.
  
• Oh yeah, and when I open the game there's a game builder link that pops up, is that meant to be there?

'Observer' notes:

• ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!! Why didnt' this feedback come sooner????
• The good news is people are getting all aspects of strategy I'd thought of when writing it. Even better, people are actually enjoying it!
• The sounds seem to be engaging, but perhaps a sound turn off option would be good (esp if you were playing it secretly at work!)
• I like the idea of needing to find a secret object to move to the next level. It could be a time released thing, which might work well.
• I like Alastair's point re splitting the levels into smaller ones - having intro pages for each with a new predator/concept might be a good way
• I really wish I had a high score table on display on the front page....
• Also glad I made the farmer sprite - will do the bird and only fix other stuff if I get time

Production plan (I can't believe this is due tomorrow!!!!)

• Create bird sprite
• split rooms
• New level intro page for each room
• Secret key to advance rooms
• Record the game/put together presentation
  

Prior

While I'm waiting...

Just put in the farmer sprite I created on the ferry - it's excellent! I love it!

I also just wrote code that worked! OMG! I figured it out all by myself!

re the farmer dodgy fix I had in, where the farmer just ran right (and sometimes into the bug) when the stink bomb was released (as it was getting stuck reversing horizontal direction every step in the hit area) - I wrote code for the collission that said - if the farmer x is less than the bug x, turn into an instance that just runs off in one direction, then change back after alarm ) goes off. I didn't think it was working, but with the new farmer sprite, I could see better what the object was doing - and realised I'd just forgotten to add in the sprite to the object (which is why it was disappearing :-)

Anyway - YAY!

Plus just got in playtesting results, v exciting. Some good advice (wish it had come through earlier! There's only so much I can achieve at this point...esp if I want to sleep as well...)

Evening session

Realised the stink bomb bonuses weren't turning up - forgot to change the tree references yesterday when I added the new trees. I like the new limes :-)

Just posted the final prototype on the website - hopefully people will have a chance to review it before noon tomorrow.

Tonight:

• sort out the farmer issues
• put in a pause button (couldn't open Yusuf's file - said it was corrupted?)
• Put in a high score table
• New graphics/sprites (made the farmer on the ferry home - I think it looks great!)
  

Afternoon session

• I'm tryign to add in lime trees for a bit of variety in the second level and to make it more interesting for players - let them try to work out - is it better to hang out in the lime tree area - more fruit (10 on tree), worth less (6 points) or better to fly through the orange trees? Set the reappear (400 steps) and mature times (400 steps to mature, 90 as mature) much lower and the mature fruit is only worth 9. Biggest decision at the moment is deciding if I should have them every second tree or bunched at the end...
• So, I'm creating three trees of limes. That means three lime objects, 3 matur lime objects and three controller limes (one for each tree). I'm also substituting the oranges for limes on the tree timelines
• Seems to be working OK. I can't help but hang out with the limes, they keep changing, but I wonder how long I can hang out there before I lose all my health? Its actually harder to stay in one spot anyway with the double birds and farmer covering less ground...
• I like it. For some reason there area million limes appearing, but they still don't give you that much energy...whihc is actually interesting
• Now trying to fix the farmer issue - it only rebounds off the stink bomb once and heads to the left only, which can run you over ie the stink bomb doesn't work. Now going to try temporarily changign it to a farmer object that doesn't impact the bug and changes back to the normal farmer after 100 steps. A bit like the way I set up the bird.
• So set up on collision wiht bug, if bug.x>farmer.x, farmer turns into farmerRL.
• It's not recognising the variable. I tried writing it in code but that doesn't work either. Will look at it again tonight - I'll update the instructions etc, which I know how to do...

Today's progess - ironing out the bugs

• Created run out of food sequence. At the end of both the end_success sequence and the end_treekill sequence, I show the high score table and then return to the intro page. Destroyed controller life in each end sequence so it doesn't sit at the top of the page
• Now want to try to have the high score table on the front page, but having trouble setting it up.
• Reset the timeline to 5401 when bug 2 is created (it was resetting it back to 0)
• when all trees were gone, the bug didn't die straight away - it had to run out of health. Put in a test for presence of trees - if none, send to end_treekill sequence, on each
• Added ticking sound to last 20 seconds of each level to make player aware of time runnign out. Wasnt loud enough over teh background music. Amplified it in Audacity to a much better level. Had to add stop sound everywhere there was stop background music
• Stink bomb wasn't working for level 2 - realised had only set to go off for bug not bug 2
• Tried to add warning text to the scoreboard for when health is low as per playtest suggestion. Tried to add in a variable test into the draw event of the score board. Got it to appear by adding in the test health variable, but couldn't get it to stick to the one place. Tried to set it to appear relative to the health bar, but couldnt work out what the health bar variable name was. Set up a beeping sound instead like a heart monitor. This might work better as it will stop the players from having to take their eyes off the screen or be distracted by moe stuf going on in the scoreboard. But I'm worried I'm relying on too much sound as it is in the game.
• Had troubles implementing the sound as it set it off every step so just sounded like noise. Set up alarm to try setting it off every 10 steps if health is low, but couldn't get it to start playing at all...

Playtest reports from prototype level 1

OK - got it working to a point. Now going to publish what i've done and post it to my website for playtesting.

I'm currently going through a hate cycle with the game - I jut don't have the time or the know-how to make it do what I want it to do. The good news is, even with the simple format, people seems to be enjoying it. I have to say, even as I'm playing it, I am as well (most of the time). I still haven't worked out if it's worth hanging out and conserving energy and risk having all of the oranges die at the same time, or better to go on an eating spree...

Playtester 1: Richard (30yrs)
Spotted bug in stinkbomb bonus timeline

• "as for the game it has the potential to be v addictive then v annoying"
• Identified objective of the game: eat the fruit and fart on birds
• Strategies in the game: don't get eaten or killed
• Said he picked up how to play quickly and didn't find anything confusing
• Said the keyboard controllers were pretty good
• Said the game play was "alright considering the simplicity of the game"
• Missing from the game: "yes, at some point make the farmer have a ciggy, so then if you fart near him, you vapourise him for 30 secs while he's on fire"
• Had fun playing the game while it was working
• Got high score 1800ish

Playtester 2: Racquel (30ish yrs)
Also found the stink bomb bonus timeline error

• Not a big computer game player but gave it a go
• "Got all the way to the end of the row and let off a couple of stink bombs - that was fun :-)"
• Felt the error was her fault as she's useless at computer games" Didn't understand how the break in the line of trees came about
  

Playtester 3: Vera
"Very cute! It's cool! Mind you.. I'm not very good at playing game so my stink bug got exploded before I figure out to move...=)"

Playtester 3: Amar (8yrs)
Seemed to enjoy the game most out of all testers. His mum tells me it kept him awake past bedtime! And that was just level 1! Particularly liked the name of the game. Perhaps this is the target market? Here are some quotes:

• “ I liked being able to move easily around with the arrow keys”.

• “The music was really good and I liked eating the oranges and the idea of the spray was cool.”

• “The birds made it difficult to get a high score because you lose lives and then the game was over. Three lives would be better.”

• “Earning 2 thousand points to earn another life is quite hard.”

Tester's notes

• Everyone seemed to like the stinkbombs and again, the music seems to have hit the right note
• Everyone also seemed to bomb out quite quickly, but I think that's unfamiliarity with the game. I think once you had a bit of practice with it and started to get to know where the birds were coming from, it would be easier to master. I'm wary of changing anything re bonus lives at this point.
• I can't tell you how pleased I am to have people respond well to the game - particularly Amar, who i think is most like a target market I can identify. His mother is in another of my classes and when she saw what I was developing, she said it was the exact kind of thing he liked playing - I'm glad I gave her the website address now!
• All up a good confidence booster re the game play, but no substantial development ideas to come from this playtest session. Now on to the next stage...