Advanced Games Dev (AGD) Week #5

It's been a crazy couple of weeks with a mini crunch period from our AGD team. Firstly, the team have been on point in churning out assets, animations, programming and design elements. As such I'll update on what's been finished and what needs work from the last few weeks:

Controls

As the lead designer, I had originally decided to implement the combat system as our unique selling point, as such I designed a different method of combat from traditional dungeon crawler games. Whilst the game is simplistic in most forms, the combat can add a bit of variety in the combo system. This system works in alternating mouse clicks that will perform certain attacks, and clicking in a certain order will generate a combo dealing a unique move set:




As demonstrated with this simple image showcasing some of the combo styles that we want implemented for our demo test hand in (21st November). Initially I only created a few simple combos that will be used regularly, but as the game progresses and the player levels up, they will unlock new abilities and combos they can utilize. As such, I've only developed these select few due to animation and deadline constraints.


User Interface 

Another one of my tasks is to be the primary designer of the in game Heads Up Display (HUD) and User Interface (UI). I needed to produce a small mock up design for our programmer to map certain features, such as the inventory looting system, the kill streak system and so on. As such, the design is quite rudimentary and heavily subject to change, Though I wanted to keep it in line with traditional dungeon crawlers that most players are familiar with. Below is the image of my mock up user interface, it's main aim was to be minimalist during combat, with the option of showcasing additional information if/when needed:

Background image courtesy of TorchLight2™ 

Project Management

Completing this tasks has just been a small amount of what I've been working on. With the added work load of managing the team, I have to constantly delegate and sign off on work that is to be complete. Though the team as a whole work really, I don't need to be strict in setting deadlines or keeping to a stern project plan. We tend to meet weekly during our schedule lessons and talk about any pressing issues. After changing to the Unity engine, myself and Daz Farrell (Designer) have been limited into what we can implement into the game, so I've had to keep in close contact with the animator and programming during the crunch period.

Some issues that have occurred during these time are quite small, Mostly giving direct input on the way the animations are looking, the assets that need to be implemented and completed. Also outsourcing our sound from my Audio Engineer friend - Fraser Sutton - I have to create a list of sound effects and scripts that will be utilized for our game that need to be completed. A small screenshot of some of the sounds that have been created:

Level Design

For the design aspect we've reworked the levels, As such I've decided to create the first level that will serve as a small tutorial level implementing the combo system game play as well as showcasing enemies, a scripted event and a boss for the player to battle against.

Here is an extremely simple white-box showcasing the level flow, the top being the start of the level and leading in a linear path towards the end. I worked together with one of the lead artists (Cory Bamford) to create the initial layout of the level within unity. 

Here's a top down view of the assets created by Cory and implemented into unity, the level is not finalized as most white-boxed levels are, but as such I'm testing the pacing, flow and collision for the level so these are subject to change: 

A different view of the level that I implemented. The assets were extremely modular and snapped together easy, so big credits to the artist (Cory) for creating these and allowing me to create a quick and simple level. 

This level will also feature a scripted event in the way of a loot chest. The chest will house a collectible and loot for the player, but when opened will spawn enemies over a period of 30 seconds and the player must defeat them within 60 seconds, if enough enemies are defeated the player will recieve epic loot to increase their damage and such throughout the rest of the game. 

The boss that is featured in this level will be a rock Golem created by Chris Rumsey - 

The boss is simple in design as we didn't want to overburden our solo animator or programmer, but also wanted the encounter to be fun and fitting in with the motif of the level and genre.

The mechanics of the fight are simple enough, the boss will remain static in the middle of the platform that has 4 pillars located around it. A large boulder will be blocking the way so the player must engage in the encounter. The golem will utilize ranged attacks by throwing large boulders at the enemy, these can be dodged quite easily. The aim of the encounter is to get the boulders thrown by the boss to hit each of the 4 pillars, eventually collapsing the ceiling on the golem. The player will also have to avoid falling stalagmites from the ceiling that are constantly falling to stop the encounter being as simple.  A brief annotation showing the platform for the boss fight.

Whilst we're finalizing everything for our hand in this Friday (21st) we've been creating the Technical Specification. This was mainly down to myself, Cory Bamford and Chris Rumsey to create for the design and art side. We were tasked to create this giving an overview of the game, narrative, mechanics, level design, animation, asset list, assets created and so on. This was quite an extensive tasks to complete and is near 3000 words, but I feel it's allowed us to express what our game is about in a clear and concise manner.

For the remainder of the week we will be finalizing everyone's work, importing all the assets, animations, sounds and so on into the game as well as rendering out a video for our submission.