I want to create a 2.5D Platformer that draws a little inspiration from the character movement in the Super Smash Brothers franchise of games. I will also think of a unique mechanic to make it stand out so I'm not just copying.
Some key areas I want to develop on this semester...
- Maintaining focus and creating a game of a smaller scope. Allowing me to create a more complete and polished game for submission.
- A heavy focus on multiple play-tests. Creating a play-test build plan and getting game feedback at a faster pace, implementing changes with the feedback given to me.
- Improving animation skill by listening to feedback and making changes accordingly. Animation plays a big role into making a character feel good to play, very important.
Example Play-test Build Plan
Build 1: Simple player movement and controls with default unreal engine guy. No animations, really small environment to test in.
Build 2: Same as build 1 but with feedback changes implemented, gather more feedback and make changes accordingly
Build 3: Basic Character animations and sound effects implemented into the build (Idle, walk, run, jump)
Build 4: Touch up and polish animations, change movement and sound effects if needed using feedback from build 3.
Build 5: Add in various attacks, grounded and aerial with hitboxes. No animations, just functionality. Get feedback on attacks and controls.
Build 6: Implement animations and sounds for attacks, get feedback on how the animations flow with the movement mechanics they are associated with.
Build 7: Polished attack animations using feedback from build 6. Changed sound effects if needed, Gather further feedback on the new changes.
Build 8: Implement "special" moves. Functionality, no animations.
Build 9: Change special move functionality with the feedback given from build 8
Build 10: Implement animations and sounds to special moves. Gather feedback on how they look and feel during gameplay
Build 11: Polish animations, change sounds using feedback from build 10
Build 12: Give playtesters a very short level to play through, get further feedback
Etc. This is a basis of a plan, sounds good so far, subject to change should it need to however.
"Why am I doing this?"
There are a couple of reasons I want to create a 2.5D platformer this semester. One of the main reasons is by looking at what I got wrong in semester 1 and semester 2. While I was decently satisfied with the work I produced, there are obviously a lot of things that could of made them better. Looking back at these mistakes I can use them as lessons to formulate a plan and make sure it doesn't happen again in semester 3.
For Animation & Game Feel
During the masters course I have been going out of my way to model and animate my player characters. I've been getting better but I'm still only an amateur, but practice makes perfect. However, while animating my own character is all well and good I haven't spent nearly enough time gathering feedback and polishing animations. During semester 1 in my essay I talked all about what makes player movement so important to player enjoyment. One of the biggest aspects of getting character movement to feel right is the character animation. During semester 1 and 2 I didn't ask for feedback on my character animations at all, because I was thinking at the time "I'm still a beginner at animation, so I won't focus too much on it" but that is a really bad way of looking at things if I want to create a character that feels and looks good while in motion. I will remedy that mistake this semester by immediately asking for feedback when an animation is implemented into gameplay and polishing them using the feedback I am given.
Alongside character animation there are other aspects I need to work on such as game "juiciness". Which is a way to describe the little extra details that are added to a game to bolster player feedback and make a game feel much better to play.
Here's a youtube link to a great lecture called "Why your death animation sucks" by indie dev Nicolae Berbece who talks in depth about game feel. It's a brilliant lecture and one of the few I will always refer to if people want to see a visual example of the development process in making games feel good to play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmSAG51BybY
For Level Design & Scope
"Why am I doing this?"
There are a couple of reasons I want to create a 2.5D platformer this semester. One of the main reasons is by looking at what I got wrong in semester 1 and semester 2. While I was decently satisfied with the work I produced, there are obviously a lot of things that could of made them better. Looking back at these mistakes I can use them as lessons to formulate a plan and make sure it doesn't happen again in semester 3.
For Animation & Game Feel
During the masters course I have been going out of my way to model and animate my player characters. I've been getting better but I'm still only an amateur, but practice makes perfect. However, while animating my own character is all well and good I haven't spent nearly enough time gathering feedback and polishing animations. During semester 1 in my essay I talked all about what makes player movement so important to player enjoyment. One of the biggest aspects of getting character movement to feel right is the character animation. During semester 1 and 2 I didn't ask for feedback on my character animations at all, because I was thinking at the time "I'm still a beginner at animation, so I won't focus too much on it" but that is a really bad way of looking at things if I want to create a character that feels and looks good while in motion. I will remedy that mistake this semester by immediately asking for feedback when an animation is implemented into gameplay and polishing them using the feedback I am given.
Alongside character animation there are other aspects I need to work on such as game "juiciness". Which is a way to describe the little extra details that are added to a game to bolster player feedback and make a game feel much better to play.
Here's a youtube link to a great lecture called "Why your death animation sucks" by indie dev Nicolae Berbece who talks in depth about game feel. It's a brilliant lecture and one of the few I will always refer to if people want to see a visual example of the development process in making games feel good to play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmSAG51BybY
In semester 1 I didn't actually sit down and plan out a level design. I just created an open environment with a few places for the player to explore. While it served it's purpose for play-testing and was still enjoyable to move around in I would much prefer to properly think about and design my levels before developing them rather than winging it and quickly designing it on the fly.
In semester 2 one of my biggest focus' was in the level design. While I did successfully plan and design a level, it was way too big and ambitious. I didn't have nearly enough time to polish it properly. So when it came to development and finishing off the project I had 25+ minutes of gameplay, but it wasn't polished and was very rough around the edges.
Designing a 2D game will reduce work amount as in my opinion they are a lot easier to design. When designing a 3D game you have a whole other dimension of space to deal with which makes it harder. I will also learn from my mistakes in semester 2 by designing a level that is a lot smaller. This will give me enough time to spend working on polishing the game, I would much prefer my work to focus on quality over quantity.
For becoming a "Master" of Player Movement
At the end of the day since semester 1 my biggest interest and subject I felt I was most knowledgeable in was "what about player movement makes video games fun to play?" During semester 1 I researched into it, read game design books and watched online developer lectures and learned more about "What makes a player character fun to control?" Semester 2 I took what I had learned and tried to develop an ambitious game of a different genre with a focus on player movement as well as shifting the flow of gameplay through a level design. Semester 3 however I want to take everything I have learned in semester 1 and 2, and put it all into designing one last fun, polished game to show I know what makes a player character fun to control and also here is a game showing how I have made a character fun to control. Along the way I will further advance my development and design skills as always.
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