Ryan - Games Design

This week is a quick update to mention that I have finalised the design! I'm super proud of this work and feel like simplifying the design and limiting it to just a couple of mechanics and only highlighting a simple gameplay loop was absolutely the best idea. You can hear more of my thoughts on the design process in this video: Reflecting on this design I feel like I've learnt a lot. I think I'll be adding more sequencers to my levels to highlight more information where I can in future as well as creating more visual cues for players to learn from. If I were to work on this project again or develop it further, I would probably like to add an AI of a security guard or something that would give players more tension in other areas. But for the sake of this loop, I don't think it needed it at this stage!

On the penultimate week I spent a lot of time with small tweaks to get things to a final position. After feedback from my lecturers I focused most of my attention on signposting directionality for players as well as clearing other sections up. My Lecturer Peter Bottomley spent some time with my project looking at the opening cutscene and gave some great direction with making things clearer for the players by slowing it down and reversing it's direction. He also advised me to add more movement to retrieving the artefact so the pay off is a bit less anticlimactic. Overall I think this project is nearing the finish line. But, as always, I'll await more feedback to see if there's anything else missing!

We're finished! I'm really pleased with the way this one turned out. Obviously if I were doing this again there's a ton about the process I'd change. For example, I might not have any climbable surfaces as the blueprint pack I used caused a lot of issues with the character model. There is still the issue with the drone flying through all of the floors and walls. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to fix it. But I felt prolonging finishing the project was not worth the time! I'm excited to start preparations for the next project now. I'm thinking of doing something outdoors, potentially within a forest. Just to completely change directions from this project!

Not a lot to report this week. More playtesting! Mostly it feels as though I'm reaching a state of completion. I'll probably spend this week sorting out recordings of playthroughs and hopefully getting the drone issue sorted! Nearly there!

This week I spent my time really tightening the mechanics, tidying the blockout and really getting to grips with how the level feels . I added cutscenes and more moving parts to give players direction and also added a simple UI to highlight certain skills and areas for progression. This has made the whole experience feel more cohesive and fluid. I have also added a win state so the level is playable from start to finish! The next week will involve me playtesting with others to see if there are enough hints to allow the player to progress through to where they need to be without holding their hand through the scene. I'll also be getting feedback from my lecturers which will be vital to improve the overall quality of what's here!

All features of the game are now built! The next week or two will be spent playtesting and tweaking spaces until I get a sense from players that the space makes sense when traversing and that it's fun to play! I've added a few UI elements to highlight controls also. One aspect I've not been able to fix is that the drone can pass through all of the walls/floors/etc. It's not something I've come across before and I'm unsure as to whether I'll be able to repair it. I shall continue to try to fix this along with other playtesting, etc. For now there's not a lot I can write in terms of updates! I shall write something new when it comes up.

I've been really enjoying this brief! Initially I decided that I was just going to block the level out and get the core gameplay loop tight before trying to "pretty" it up. Fortunately, however, I seem to be managing my time well and I had the initial gameplay loop built (with funtioning mechanics) finialised by the end of last week. This gave me the opportunity to play with different elements such as lighting, animation, cutscenes and other such things! Over the next week I'll be tightening everything up and making sure each element of gameplay is functioning exactly as I'd like it. I'll also potentially be giving players more visual instructions through cutscenes and on screen UI.

This week I have been focused on my AI systems. They seem to be going fairly well and I have almost finished the initial patrol/chase element of it. I'll be adding a feature where the enemies will search for the player around the area they last spotted them in the coming days. I've also started working on level progression features too. Toward the end of this level, players will pick up a keycard for the elevator they pass earlier in the game. But on picking it up they will cause some of the doors they passed through to close. Forcing them to use forward progression rather than backtrack too much. The flow of the level seems to be working quite well as it is currently, But I'm hopefully going to be in a position to start playtesting with others next week so I can make tweaks and improve gameplay overall.

After a brief hiatus for Reflection Week, I came back inspired to work on something I find fascinating! A breaking and entering game based around the repatriation of artefacts in the British Museum that were stolen by the British Empire. I'll admit, it's a very "hear me out" concept, but I felt like it didn't have enough to warrent interesting gameplay. This is where I came up with the "through time" idea. Imagine replacing artefacts with fakes in the museum, they'd clock on eventually, right? What if, you had time travel capabilities, but it was limited to a single location per device? Such as, the British Museum. This is where my "hear me out" went up another level. I started thinking about the kind of gameplay you could use if you had a device to manipulate time (in some ways) for a short period. Boosting time around yourself to allow you to run really fast for a short jump? This could let you boost over small gaps. Pausing tim...