Flying Bird
Game vision statement
The purpose of this document it to outline the plan for the upcoming game that I will be designing for this module, this document will provide a detailed outline of what is involved in the game, the game description and genre, concept art, information on how the game will be made, resources used, recommended platforms and a brief outline of my current game design skills.
Introduction:
“Can You make it through the Concrete City?”
Flying bird is the latest immersive platformer game, fly high through a city of skyscrapers of different lengths dodging the buildings as the game proceeds as you build your high score.
Description /Game Play
you will enter the world as a bird, you will be playing the game in a city simulated environment, there are buildings, skyscraper of various heights and width, your objective? Keep flying, keep flying through the world and avoiding the buildings, as you continue flying and as you pick up points you also pick up in speed, this new speed obstacle may make it difficult for you to progress. What happens if you crash? Then you start again from the original starting point, that’s as simple as it is, your aims and objectives of the game is to keep flying whilst increasing in speed and increasing your high score and flight time with each game.
Game genre –
Flying Bird is a platformer game, this game is heavily inspired from the original platformer game “Flappy Bird” the genre of platformer allowes the player to control a character whilst moving through a world, in this case we will be controlling an animal/ a bird flying through tall buildings in a city. The purpose of a platformer game is to conquer the obstacles, earn points and build on scores.
This game style originates in the early 1980s, this platformer games consists of 4 main characteristics, these include an interactive environment, a third person perspective, vertical and horizontal movement, and controlled jumping.
Platforms
This game will be mainly designed for a desktop or computer platform. I would like for this game to be used on mobile devices but due to my limited skills in game design, it will be designed for a desktop.
Conceptual Art
Below have some rough mock-ups displaying how I would like my game to appear, I have the flying bird asset which can be bought from the unity asset shop, and I also have an image of an animated city skyline which I have Photoshopped the 3D bird onto, these design mock-ups best represents how the game will turn out.
Resources required
In order to create this game, I will be using the unity hub, however as I am still in the early stages of game development, I will have to complete more unity tutorials in order to build my skills and understanding of game design.
Unity- links to create a platformer game
This source that I found on unity provides a guideline how to complete a 2D platformer game, of course in this case the game will be a 3D platformer, but the tutorial still proves useful. I will also be able to buy and create assets for the game on the unity store, these assets will include a city/skyscraper background environment, and 3D- flying bird. This unity tutorial will be useful as it gives guidelines on creating your own desirable game environment using the Tile map editor, this is essentially an artistic tool which allow users to paint directly in unity and to be able to create vast and complicate tile maps within unity.
Conclusion
This vison statement clearly outlines it purpose, which is to create a platformer game called Flying bird. The game will be presented in a third person view and the player will have control of the bird, moving it forwards and backwards and up and down to doge the obstacles. The purpose of the game will be to continue flying until you crash and with each flight you aim to beat your high score. In order for the player to record their high score I will put a timer within the game, so that witch each play the player can see and record their scores. I will create the game environment using the unity software. I feel confident in this game idea so far, I believe that I have the basics skills to create and set up he game environment and as the weeks progress I will gain more skills and become more confident using unity.
The Game “flappy
Bird” is something that I would like to recreate , however I would recreate
this game using a paper plane of some sort and the plane would have to fly
though and avoid obstacles similar to that in “Flappy Bird”
I’ve chosen
to look at platform game mechanics because it aligns with the type of game that
I would like to create. Platform games allow the player to control a character
in another world, this usually also involves other elements such as conquering
obstacles, collecting coins and earning points. There are 4 important features
required when it comes to designing a platform game, these can be listen as follows:
the game must have an Interactive environment, Third person perspective,(i.e.
the player can see the character their controlling in the screen in front of
them) Vertical and horizontal movement and controlled jumping.
Scoring systems
are another system in which I wanted to implement my game, as I would like to
make my game a neve ending style of game. The main purpose of the game will be
to keep playing each time and achieving a higher score than the last time. The scoring
mechanism Is a way of measuring success within the game. By having this quantitative
scoring system its adds to the enjoyment factor of the game whilst also enhancing
the gameplay (Lee et al 2017).
Movement mechanics
are important within a game, by impending enough controls the correct amount of
movement in a game can help improve the player experience, this video discusses
the importance of movement mechanics using the example of tomb raider. It can
be seen in the earliest version of the game
when the player is jumping, that it requires more buttons and more inputs in
order to jump, such as running building momentum, jumping, then using the hands
to pull up over the edge. But in the newest version of tomb raider it is not
quite the same , instead of the various inputs that were required to jump in
the old game copy, the game developers changed this, instead all you have to do
is simply press one button or input and the player will complete the whole processes
of jumping , I personally feel that this creates a disconnect between the
player and the Gameworld, this shortcut of jumping takes away from some of the
fun and reality aspects of the game, it can be concluded that movement in a game
is important and this is a game mechanic that I will definitely implement when
it comes to designing my game.
This week’s
Unity tutorial involved building and creating a whole new game with completely
new assets, the game had a downward Arial facing view and it involved the player
moving side to side to avoid moving animal obstacles whilst throwing an object
at the animals. This game design was a little bit more complex than the other
game completed last week, it required a lot more code that the first game as it
had a lot of sections and attributes to it.
I learnt
many things in this new tutorial. Firstly, I was able to practice and repeat
some of my skills learnt in the last tutorial, such as changing the camera view
and moving an object horizontally. I learnt how to reposition objects and
players in the game in an accurate way using the x, and y axis tools, I learnt
how to resize an object in the game, i.e., to make it bigger or smaller, I learnt
how to create code to keep the game play within the designed frame and prevent the
player from going out of the boundaries of the game. I learnt about prefabs and
how to create one to make an object repeat which is important for this style of
game and will also be important when it comes to creating my individual game.
Although I believe that I am getting faster at completing the unity tutorials, I am still finding the understanding part of the code quite hard to grasp , there are a lot of new words and technical terms when it comes to coding that will take some time to learn and get comfortable with. Other than That, I find I exciting to be able to create these game in unity myself and put it into play!
This week’s
unity tutorial involved building off the skills that I had learnt from this last
week. In this week’s tutorial I learnt how to take control over the vehicle and
give it instructions to turn left or right. I learnt more about using the unity
interface and about inputs and how they work, for example to allow the vehicle
to move left or right, we had to input values which allow the user to make these
moves using the left or right arrow keys.
The second part
of this tutorial was a challenge and involved putting into practice all the skills
learn thus far without any instructions, I found this challenge quite useful as
it allowed me to really evaluate what I had learnt thus far in unity and what I
needed to work on. I still find the coding language quite difficult and
technical; I am beginning to understand that when doing the coding part of the
game that figures need to be exact otherwise the game will not operate (I learnt
this the hard way!)
but I think that will develop over time, I am a looking forward to working through more tutorials and improving my skills in unity and using the code to develop a game of my own.
The readings for this week discuss the topic of “fun” in games, what is fun and how is it defined when it comes to game design, the reading also discus the social aspects of gaming and how that is linked to “fun” and game interactivity. below I have included some highlights and thoughts from each reading piece.
Social context and its influence on the experience of games
This
reading discusses the social nature of games and how social context can
influence the user’s experience. The study summaries that use of games in social
contexts had a higher enjoyment factor than the latter. The study also has its limitations
and further understanding of the social processes and its experiences on
gameplay is required. This study has proved useful for this module especially regarding
the game design element, it is now beneficial to know that adding in a social
aspect such as a group play, or multiplayer option game can improve the user enjoyability
of the game
A theory of fun for game design
This was an educational Video Which outlined the theory of fun regarding game design. Some important points to take away from the video are as follow; the fun factor of a game comes from the possibility to provide a space for learning and also a space that will grab our attention and challenge us, this is further explained using Nicole Lazzaro’s 4 Keys to fun
Another element
that adds to the “fun” of a game is the provision of a sense of engagement, this
comes from having a challenge in the game that will rise in proportion with the
individuals abilities
This last reading provided information required for gamification Design, The reading can be summarised into the following:
These articles
all provided a useful piece of information regarding and gamification design.
When It
comes to designing the game for this module, these factors for implementing fun must be considered.
Assigned readings for This week involved the discussion around the topic of game design documents. The necessity and the instructions to create game design documents was also provided.
What is a Game Design Document?
This can be summarized as a tool that designers use to communicate their ideas regarding the game to team, their purposes can be summarized as a memory aid, defining the works of a game in detail, and noting each step/process of the game. Another purpose of the use of GDD is communication, using a GDD as a communication tool is a necessity for game developers, as there are many team members involved in the production of a game, having his document creates a good communication foundation for the team. There are many forms of game design documents and the type that the game developer will create will depend on the style of game being produced. These can include but are not limited to:
· Game Design Overview
· Detailed Design Doc
· Story Overview
· Concept Art Overview
How is a Game Design Document Written?
When writing a GDD a simple process is followed, you first begin by providing a game description. This is a Summary of what the game, the objective the summary is to give the readers and other team members a clear idea of the type of game that you are trying to produce.
Then depending on the game you are designing, for example an RPG, you would then need to introduce the storyline and plot, theme and plot progression etc.
Essentially, the GDD follows a typical structure, you would then complete the document by completing (but not limited to) the following sections in descending order; User skills, Game Mechanics, Items and power-ups, progression and challenges, losing, Art Style, Music and Sounds, demographics, marketing and funding and lastly platforms and monetization.
These articles will prove useful for moving forward in game development, the need for the use of GDD has been highlighted as an important one and moving forward it will be used in the development of games. It can be seen as essential for have this document especially during the early game idea generation stages, having a clear concise document will all the stages of the game process will help with the progression of idea generation.
After weeks of work and editing and writing and rewriting scripts I can successfully say that I have successfully completed my game! Thi...
