Cycle 3 – Activity 4 – Mechanics, Objects and Rules

Using the player stories from Activity 3, think about fundamental mechanics of game play

Fundamental mechanics

Physics

It’s a platformer where the player can move left, right and jump as well as swing their sword to fight enemies

Unreal gravity is applied to make the player fall and fall when jump with inaccurate jumping height for more fun

Economy

Keys that are needed to be collected to unlock the door to the next level

Very simple economy, manage health

Health packs at random locations to restore some health to the player

Customization on equipment for different swords.  Modifications statistic wise would include: range, power, speed.  More of a triangle scheme to make the player able to make choices depending on their preferred play style.  (This might not be able to be implemented in this version of the game, but would be implemented in later iterations)

Progression

There are set levels that the player must traverse through

Enemies provide a challenge with risk of death

Player is inclined to play through the levels to complete the predetermined storyline

Keys are used to unlock the door to the next level

Tactical manoeuvring

Positioning at a distance where the player can hit the enemy but the enemy can’t hit the player

 

Player stories

Provide example mechanics for 5 player stories

“As an owner of an artifact, I want my boots to support my jumping so I can jump over obstacles and traverse the world.”

The space bar is used to elevate the player in the air a set amount to stimulate jumping

“As a civilian of the village, I want to use my sword to defeat enemies and progress through the world.”

The ‘f’ key is used to swing your sword to simulate simple fighting physics

“As a player I wish to explore the game world to find fragments to open the door to the next level.”

Progress through the levels by collecting keys that are in the level

“As a prince, I will recover health packs so that I can survive through the worlds.”

Collect health packs to enable the player to stay alive for longer and progress through the level

“As a knight I will use my sword to assist me in finding the person who stole my artifact so I can recover it.”

e.g. using the sword to defeat enemies and progress through the story to get to the end

Game Objects and Rules

Objects	Attributes of Object	Player interaction	Relationship Between objects	Rules and events
Player	Object that holds the camera and allows the user to interact with the world	The user can move this character along the XY axis	Environment – Determines where the player goes Enemies – Player swings sword to damage enemies Sword – player holds sword and can use sword Health packs – Player can collect health packs to regain missing health Keys – Player must collect keys to unlock exit trigger door Exit Trigger – if all enemies defeated and key collected, player can progress to next level	Player is controlled by WASD, uses F to swing sword and space bar to jump
Player Weapon	Weapon can damage enemies	Player can swing weapon	Weapon will damage enemies	Weapon is used by player swinging sword (Pressing F)
Environment	Allows player to traverse levels	Player has collisions with environment	Health packs are in levels/environment   Enemies traverse environment   Player walks around environment	No object can pass through environment
Enemy 1	Standard enemy	Will cause standard damage to the player and can be destroyed with one hit	Traverses left and right along ‘ground’ between two points, attacking the player if they come in range	Deals 10 damage to player Takes one hit to kill
Enemy 2	Heavy Enemy	Will move and attack slower than the standard enemy but will deal twice as much damage and be twice as hard to kill	Traverses left and right along ‘ground’ between two points, attacking the player if they come in range	Deals 20 damage to player Takes two hits to kill Moves twice as slow as standard enemy Is twice as large as standard enemy
Boss	Boss Enemy	Moves faster than regular enemies	Traverses randomly around course	Takes five hits to kill Moves twice as fast as regular enemies Deals 20 damage per hit
Key	Once collected by player, player can progress to next level	Collision with player means player collects the key	Key cannot pass through level	Collision with player will unlock next level
Platforms	Used by player to traverse map	Players will not be able to pass through platforms	Enemies will not be able to pass through platforms	Cannot be passed through by players
Exit Trigger	Used by player to progress to the next level	Player uses this to progress to net level	Only the player can interact with the trigger	Collision with trigger while conditions met means that player will progress to the next level
Health Packs	Regains health of the player	Restores player health	Cannot pass through environment	Collision with the player will mean that the player will restore missing health
Spring	Bounces the player higher if jumped on	Player moves higher when jumped on	An immovable set object	Collision with the player when the player is jumping will result in increased jump height

 

Playing with objects and rules

• Change attributes, modify interactions and adjust rules
  • Increased Jump height
  • Increased walking speed
  • Increased enemy damage
  • Tweaking player range
• Try to get a feel for the consequences of these changes
  • Some consequences were good, others made the game unbearable
  • A good balance between fun and frustratingly difficult was aimed for

Future iterations

In future iterations it was discussed and believed to be ideal if the player could switch weapons to suit their play style(such as a faster sword that does more damage, or a slower sword that is more powerful), as well as perhaps a ranged weapon and ranged enemies.  Furthermore, power ups and abilities such as wall climbing or double jump could be iterated in future levels to allow for more world exploration and a greater range of challenges and puzzles

Cycle 3 – Activity 5 – Interactivity and Choice

This week we broke down the levels into the challenges they would encompass based off of our player stories.  We felt it was important to try and capture the gameplay and flow of our game by concisely defining the core mechanics in different parts of the game.  Below is the Hierarchy of goals that we created.From these goals, we then identified which of the players’ skills would be used to complete the challenge.  We completed this for five of the goals, and we wanted to highlight some of the skills and playstyles that would benefit a player of this game.

Game Challenges:

2.

Goal – Fight and Climb your way to the end of the level

Challenge – Use accuracy and precision to fight and jump to platforms.

4.

Goal – Fight the Final Boss to complete the Game

Challenge – Use Speed and Reactions to defeat the Final Boss.

Challenge 2.

• The player is given the choice of being tactful, and killing each enemy one by one while navigating the level – or, they can choose to challenge themselves by ignoring or fighting many enemies to find the key that will let them progress through that world.
• The player is given instructions on the overall goal of finding the key, and that using your sword and jumping are your tools to get there.
• Depending on the choice, the player will choose to jump and avoid enemies and reaching a safe place on the map – or, they can swing their sword and damage enemies and tactfully remove any threat.
• When an enemy is hit with the sword the game will reduce its health incrementally until it takes enough hits to die. If a player is navigating the level by jumping on platforms the game will detect the surface the player is jumping on to and the player will stay firmly on the platform.
• The player is notified of an enemy being hit by the enemy being knocked backwards slightly by each hit. The player character will also make a landing sound when they have jumped and successfully landed on a platform.

Challenge 4.

• In the game the boss has an attack animation with some recovery time. The player has the choice of playing it safe and getting one good shot in before the boss recovers and continues fighting – or, they may choose to play with more risk and try and get a few shots in to maximise damage; but maybe the boss will hit them.
• The player isn’t given a prompt to make a choice between these two things from the user interface. It is something that the player must decide when they have observed the attack pattern of the boss.
• For a quick single hit the player will tactfully time their attack and press the ‘f’ button once to get a good hit in. If the player wants to go for a lot of damage, they will press ‘f’ rapidly to get in as many attacks as possible.
• The game rules dictate the boss will take approximately 1 second to recover from their attack, and the boss will be depicted as being defenceless so that the player can swing their sword to inflict a small amount of damage.
• The boss will slowly withdraw his weapon in an animation that will be obvious to the player. The player is notified of a successful hit on the boss by knocking the boss back slightly, and with a sound.

We then finally got around to creating a beautiful storyboard for you fine tutors to observe and visualise the magnificence of what our game will be.  We chose Player Challenge two because we felt it captured the core gameplay mechanics very well.