Category: GDD740 – Module 3
Categories
Creating Games With Appeal
Week 3.1 – 1st October. 2021
This week, we have to focus on clarifying everything that will be included in our GDD (Game Design Document), and have it completed by the end of the week to help us move forward, to go towards the development of our individual Business Plans.
Iain Lobb’s video lists everything we must consider adding into our GDD, and in general to think about more carefully, to help us promote and market our games. The list below was only the starting point…
- 1) Finding Unique hooks – Surprising/Desirable
- 2) Creating a player fantasy
- 3) Anchoring to familiar mechanics
- 4) Knowing your Audience
- 5) Attracting customers through ‘Art Direction’
- 6) Keeping players engaged – Engagement mechanics
- 7) Designing multiplayer games
- 8) Developing Prototypes
- 9) Marketing – Look at what other titles have sold well.
- 10)Pre – animate GIF’s – post on Twitter to see the response to the art style…?
- 11) Mascot in games must be a cute/ attractive character
- 12) Think about your core gameplay loop – Prototype
- 13) User Experience – Think about the user interface, control system, and gameplay loops.
After going through the list – my main thoughts was to focus on creating an emotional story opening with a polished animation, and added narration at the beginning of the game.
Secondly, I would like to focus on getting a couple prototypes, posted on Twitter, as this is the indie game dev world. Ever since I have joined only in September, I have found such amazing, imaginative solo indie game devs, and more.
Games that have sold well…
I have researched more into the titles below, as they each have got elements in, of what I too, would like to add into my game. (More details in week 4: M740 to show how well they have sold.)
- 1) Lyn, The Girl Drawn on Puzzles / 2D Hand Drawn / Steam
- 2) Lost in Random / 2.5 D Emotional Story Telling / PS4/ PS5
- 3) Ori / 2D Mild Fantasy /Plat-former/ Switch
- 4) Hollow Knight. / 2D Epic Action Adventure / Steam
- 5) Unbound Worlds Apart / 2D Puzzle Plat-former / Steam
The five most common experiences…
In Steve Swinks book Game Feel, and the chapter on Experiences of Game Feel, he reveals that, although there are many different feelings you get when playing a game, the 5 most common ones are as follows;
- 1)The aesthetic sensation of control
- 2) The pleasure learning, practicing and mastering a skill
- 3) Extension of senses
- 4) Extension of identity
- 5) Interaction with a unique physical reality with the game
Swink continues to elaborate more on how we as players, the audience reciprocates individually in many different ways, to certain actions at particular times throughout a game.
“What we call game feel is the sum of all these experiences blended together, coming to the surface at different times.”
(Swink 2009)
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Personal Game Feel…
In relation to my list of games – from each category that I feel is relevant or has something similar to my game concept, that I have created. The below games are indeed ones that I have all different ‘game feels‘ too.
- 1) Lyn, The Girl Drawn on Puzzles / 2D Hand Drawn / Steam Relaxing / little emotional from the back ground music
- 2) Lost in Random / 2.5 D Emotional Story Telling / PS4/ PS5 Interaction with a unique physical reality with the game
- 3) Ori / 2D Mild Fantasy /Plat-former/ Switch Pleasure learning, practicing and mastering a skill
- 4) Hollow Knight. / 2D Epic Action Adventure / Steam On edge/ excited
- 5) Unbound Worlds Apart / 2D Puzzle Plat-former / Switch /Steam In a Fantasy world full of adventure / music exciting
Week 3.2 – 6th October. 2021
Prototyping
(Figure 1 : Norton 2021 2D Tree Illustration) 
(Figure 2 : Norton 2021 2D to 3D) 
(Figure 3 : Norton 2021 converted to 3D)
First Render
The below shows my first prototype for my game. This is the very first time also, that I have rendered an illustration and manipulated it. from 2D to 3D in blender.
The format is an MP4, so I have chose to display it, from how it looks when posted on Twitter. (next time I will aim for a GIF).
Game Design Document…
Once again this is yet…another first for me. I didn’t realise how much you need to consider when making a game, I knew the obvious things; like what moves the character will do, what art style you are going with, the kind of music to set the atmosphere, the story behind the game, and to have a points/ health system, but there is so many other elements to consider.
Below is the full Game Design Document. I have tried to consider everything very carefully.
References
Lobb, I. 2015. Creating Games with Appeal. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/924/pages/week-3-lecture-creating-games-with-appeal?module_item_id=57447 [Accessed 2/10/21]
SWINK, Steve. 2009. Game Feel ; Game Designer’s Guide to Virtual Sensation. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
Bucci, M. 2020. Turn a 2D painting into 3D environment – Powerful BLENDER Techniques Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff0aobJRSNc [Accessed 15/10/21]
Full List of Figures
Figure 1 : Norton 2021 2D Tree Illustration (created in Adobe PhotoShop)
Figure 2 : Norton 2021 2D to 3D (created in Blender)
Figure 3 : Norton 2021 converted to 3D (created in Blender)
Figure 4 : Norton 2021 GDD p.1 (created in Adobe PhotoShop)
Figure 5 : Norton 2021 GDD p.2 (created in Adobe PhotoShop)
Categories
Creating a Viable Game Product
Week 2.1 – 24th September. 2021
Warming up – Market research begins…
This week kicks off with watching videos, that will help us to understand the process of making a game that is ideally formed, from our background research and analysis of our target audience, age, genre, and by strategising ways of selling our products, and getting a better understanding of what sells and who the competition is.
Boxleiter Method
Heres an example of how the Boxleiter Method is displayed, when purchases has been made on Steam.
I understand this method, to be a way of helping the game developer to not only see how their sales are going on Steam, but to help you see, exactly how the total of games sold is worked out, compared to the total amount of views.
Factors Affecting Game Sales on Steam
This GDC talk in 2018, is a talk that I really enjoyed, its helped me clarify how popular each genre is. Infinite Monkeys Entertainment’s Erik Johnson analyses trends in the Steam marketplace;
References
Lobb, I. 2021. Creating a Viable Game Product. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/924/pages/week-2-lecture-creating-a-viable-game-product?module_item_id=57436 [Accessed 24/ 09/21]
Johnson, E. 2018. GDC Know Your Market: Making Indie Games That Sell. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/924/pages/week-2-factors-affecting-game-sales-on-steam?module_item_id=57437 [Accessed 24/09/21]
Futter, M. 2017. The Game Dev Business Handbook. Bithell
Categories
Indie Game Start up…
Week 1.1 – 3rd September. 2021
Why Start Doing?
I have chose to make a start on the new module 740 with a reading called; Stop Talking, Start Doing Action Book : Practical Tools and Exercises to Give You a Kick in the Pants. This book provides simple methodologies, to put into practice, with an easy to follow guide, to help you note down the absolute essentials, through to your future goals, highlighting key areas that need to be worked on. Diagram below;
I feel the book explains what I already know, but it almost reminds me of where I am in my life, with my own personal goals. It has helped me to revisit my own personal long term dream, and look at ways of building up a strong portfolio of work, creating new connections, and a social media reputation, which will show my development of my creations throughout, the Indie Game Dev Masters Degree.
The long term goal = Storyboard/Environment Artist, Junior Animation role, or just anything to do with Game Art in general.
“You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for people to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” Winnie the Pooh
(Wasmund 2016: 71)
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This quote is perfect, and gave me a “kick in the pants“, to finally create a Twitter account, especially for my Indie Game Dev and animation experiments, and hopefully to start collaborating on a new game project.
Twitter Avatar
Below is a new avatar especially for my Twitter account, never tried attempting a cartoon of me before, but here it is.
Starting and Running a Business
After reading the details for this module, I began my research with an extremely insightful book; “Starting & Running a Business All In One For Dummies“, which has helped me to make a start on the procedures involved.
Market Research
Week 1.2 – 10th – 17th September. 2021
Experimenting with Unreal for the first time…
Yes… Finally I have started tutorials with Unreal, this is key to helping me, to understand a more in depth look at character movement, game tile sets and sizes, adding atmosphere, and to create new assets from scratch. They advise you to choose one of the game learning kits/ templates already created by the Unreal team, to practice with.
Intention
My initial intention was to focus on getting a better understanding of the amazing 3D world. Below you will find all the screen shots of my process I have taken to; place the floor, character, add sky, clouds, and have learn’t the proper way how to make my own grass texture in Photoshop, following a Youtube tutorial…especially for games, as per the video link below.
1st Problem
- Placing the floor – This should have been straight forward, but each time I selected the floor from the content browser, when I placed the floor tile into the new “test level” I had started…It never seemed to be the correct angle, even when I changed the location axis X, Y and Z.
- I was concerned about the viewing angle, as it was completely different to what the tutorial was showing me. I was determined to get it right from the start…as I wanted to try and avoid bad habits arising.
Solution
- To change the floor tile, as this one was also in the content browser “SMkit“, I needed to change to the tile with the extension “floor” on the end. From here it was simple. I could easily duplicate the floor tiles, add the Player Start, make the character touch the floor, and not float in mid air.
- Plus adding atmosphere, like the sky and clouds, and playing with the basic directional lighting.
- I think the best part, was applying my grass “tileable texture“, to the floor, and brightening everything up.
2) Place Character 
1) Begin with the floor 
3) Add Sky 
4) Add Clouds
5) Add Grass texture I made in Photoshop
Next Stage of Development
From here the next stage was adding the landscape, sculpting hills, and experimenting with the height map.
Sculpting seems to be a very straight forward process, and very easy to do wrong. (You can get carried away with creating rocky areas, hills that are so steep or just a slope, but if you want a certain look to your landscape you must choose your brush size carefully)
Mini Learning Curve – or should I say bump?
When I first attempted sculpting, the experiment used a medium sized brush, so my hills/ bumps were very small, but when I continued they become a little more angular or pointed, which was the opposite, of what I was trying to achieve. I had to really play around with the size of the brush and the brush fall off.
More Screenshots of Unreal
6) Adding a landscape 
7) Sculpting the landscape 
8) Finished “extra hilly” landscape
This was great practice with helping me to start uncovering what Unreal’s Engine can offer. The next stage is looking into learning, Blue Prints and Coding if possible…?
Week 1.3 – 20th September. 2021
The Indie Games Industry
In Lobb’s video presentation, he helps to identify the key aspects of the processes involved when approaching an ‘Indie Game Start up‘.
The 5 main points to focus on are;
- Find a Gap in the Market for your Product
- Raise Funding
- Recruit a Team / or Solo
- Execute Successfully – (build the game well/ make nice art work/ Assets/ Environments/ Characters etc.)
From the above, finding the gap in the market is my main priority currently, and after joining Twitter and the world of gamers, I know there is a gap for every kind of game out there, it just seems that it all depends on what audience you want to attract? Plus the way you choose to market your product.
This is why I am slowly, but surely, following more and more solo game devs, small team game devs that all work remote, game devs that are both using Unity and Unreal, and of course learning about Blueprints and coding with Unreal, to test myself before I start creating my game.
Indiepocalypse
In Smith’s GDC talk 2016, and other developers discuss how their sales increased, decreased, what it was they were releasing at the time. They all agree that, “there is no Indiepocalypse“, and some really useful points that I feel I could use.
- don’t try and make double the content – and focus on large games, because they sell just as well as the smaller games.
- Make radically different games, give you a better chance of succeeding
In Rohrer’s GDC talk, 2019 he relays, what it is like to make so many games and not make any money from them, to not give up, and reviews how making games today have changed. He explains that you need to focus on failing to improve in making games, and to focus on making what gamers like to play.
He discusses how when “word of mouth” got out and he started to talk to more people and mention the game that he was due to release…This is when game sales for him improved, and compares different types of non indie game sales too.
“Make Unique Situation Generators”
Jonas
Screenshots
trailers
Gifs
Text
Week 1.4 – 23rd September. 2021
Mini Retrospective…
- What needs to be Started?
- What needs to stopped?
- What needs to be developed / continued?
Next Stage – Blue Prints/ Coding
Never before have I attempted coding and the way Unreal’s tutorials work, are just fantastic! As much as I love learning new things, I am putting my self under pressure to learn all the basics I need, ideally to create my own vertical slice, for this module.
I will be working solo and I am enjoying the challenge of practicing with templates from Unreal’s Engine and amending the code as I go.
The real challenge will be applying all what I have learn’t to my own concept art, characters, background/environment, objects, adding the UI design, effects and movement smoothly…
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References
Barrow, C. 2011. Starting and Running a Business All-in-One for Dummies. (2nd ed.) Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Foddy, B. 2014. Indiecade East 2014: State of the Union. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/924/pages/week-1-a-history-of-indie-games?module_item_id=57428 [Accessed 20/09/21]
Wasmund, S. 2016. Stop Talking, Start Doing Action Book : Practical Tools and Exercises to Give You a Kick in the Pants. Available at : https://www.proquest.com/legacydocview/EBC/4406045?accountid=15894. [Accessed 3/09/21]
Lobb, I. 2021. The Indie Games Industry. Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/924/pages/week-1-lecture-the-indie-games-industry?module_item_id=57427 [Accessed 20/09/21]
Kleon, A. 2012. Steal Like an Artist : 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative New York: Workman Pub. Co.
Smith, R. 2016. What Do We Mean When We Say Indiepocalypse? Available at : https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/924/pages/week-1-understanding-the-indiepocalypse?module_item_id=57429 [Accessed 20/09/21]
Tyroller, J. Jonas Tyroller on Indie Games Development
Practical Law 101 For Indie Developers: Not Scary Edition. 2016. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eAW-7Js7NA [Accessed 21/09/21]
Full List of Figures
Figure 1 : Norton 2021 Twitter Avatar – Adobe Illustrator.
RALPHY GETS ANIMATED..? 