Update on... me!

What's up guys?!

I just want to update you on what's happening with me and my video game designing and such and such.

Currently I am in a bit of a high work period.

I have the programming task which has been in my recent updates, which I'm still behind on. I'm going to try to dedicate 2 days a week to it until it's due. That should catch me up.

Clo

I am mainly focusing on a group project for college - where the project is to make a complete game. My group's game is called "Clo". It's a puzzle platforming game based on the idea of changing the seasons around you to manipulate puzzles within a level.

We ended up with this as our final prototype that we submitted to the industry:

http://www.mediafire.com/?7odlo2ka4ew59al (Also included is our pitch presentation)

Copyright blah blah.

We went in with high hopes as the teachers and students seemed to like it, but, it didn't actually perform so well. The judges did not think that the prototype was fun - but, those are the breaks!

Their main suggestion for improving it was "Add more mechanics" - which we were planning to do anyway, so it wasn't so bad!

Either way, we're still struggling through the prototype. During the holidays, the group programmers did a substantial amount of work, now it's just down to finishing it up, and resubmitting the prototype this week.

Hopefully it does well this time!

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Captain Catnip and Challenges

I have found I am starting to enjoy prototyping and implementation more than typing up long hypotheticals on game design.

It is much more effective to code up a mechanic, and test it - rather than typing up how you hope it will work, and then finding it doesn't.

Plus, it's something you can really show people, and it makes me feel happy because I am programming. I enjoy both programming AND design - I don't like to focus on just one.

Anyway, each week I try to set myself a design and/or programming challenge - a few weeks ago I made the game "Captain Catnip" - it was a 7 hour, 40 minute prototype made by just me - and it was mainly made to see how fast I could code a game in Unity, rather than as a big design show-off.

That said, it does give some insights into design - such as, why boids need a lot of work to be a fun game mechanic - and not just something pretty to watch.

Here's Captain Catnip. Copyright blah blah.

http://www.mediafire.com/?w4v80757boi4h77

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Digital Alchemy

My project for this last week of the holidays (as said, I spent the first week focusing on our prototype), has been to make a Forum Adventure game. I am making it with a friend from my high school, another aspiring game designer.

Forum Adventures require no programming, and are mainly a design exercise. Also heavy on writing.

In fact, the first games I ever made were forum adventures, so this is a nice "back to my roots" exercise.

Forum Adventures are a fun genre as they are limitless - you give players the situation, and players say what they want the characters to do. Players generate their own content, and running these is an amazing way to study players and how they wish to interact with the environments presented to them.

Click here to check our Forum Adventure named "Digital Alchemy".

http://pokemon-universe.com/index.php/topic,3311.0.html

My forum name is Level5Pidgey, and my friend (Shadowfred) helps out mainly with pictures and behind the scenes as we decide the plot and what happens to the player.

It starts slow, but, the most recent part of the story details the main backstory to the game, and one of the main mechanics which is crafting. Upcoming are stats, and battles.

So far the whole experience has been great - as said, studying players!

The biggest thing I've noticed are that, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

I used to operate under the idea that, if you subtly hint to a player what they should do - they will probably get the idea and take your bait, while not feeling forced into it - but, as I have found, sometimes they just want to pick up heart rate monitors and smack guards around with them.

As said, I'm learning a lot about players - and something I really want to try to work out, is a solid method for both offering players as much control over the game as possible - while still telling a linear story that you set out.

Will be interesting.

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Pokemon Universe Balance

Pokemon Universe is going great on the balance side. We have set up a testing server for members to test on, and they seem to be having fun with the balanced Pokemon metagame.

We seem to be 40% of the way through, so, cool!

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Game Design Pitch - A History of Asskicking

I held another AIE Game Design Comp - and I submitted this game idea.

I hope you like it.

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Challenges

Anyway, so, I will leave you with a list of challenges I wish to carry out in the future:

- Make an RTS in one day.

- Make an Escape-The-Room game in one day.

- Make a Single-Button game in one day. (Bring it on, Tiny Wings)

- Try to make a fighting game in one day.

These challenges are meant to challenge me design-wise, and programming-wise. So, I'm sure I will fail a couple of these, and many challenges I set for myself in the future. But that's okay, because I'll be learning from my mistakes and successes all the way.

If you have any suggestions for challenges, send a message or leave a comment.

If you've been wondering where I've been...

That explains it,

Been doing lots of work on Pokemon Universe!

I will make a real blog post soon!

Upcoming articles.

I haven't updated in 3 months, and, well, it sucks a bit.

I need to motivate myself a little more, and so I figure that making a list of things to do will help with that somewhat.

- Make a 3 minute pitch for an idea I have, currently named "Sloth"

- Make a 3 minute pitch for an unnamed idea I have... it has zombie seals.

- An article on Game Introductions

- An article on maintaining your games.

- An article on tone (mainly humour) and music in games.

- An article on character depth.

- An article on rewarding players. (already touched on this)

If I don't get these done before Christmas, someone punch me in the balls.

Word Count!

I just did a word count of all of my blog posts, and the number was roughly 19500.
Cool I guess!

Quick Update

Well, life has exploded.

I am at college 3 days a week, and I work a day a week, leaving me 3 me-days.

On my me-days, I work on balancing Pokemon for Pokemon Universe when my Balance Team is on IRC, I work on The Undeadables (more about that in the next paragraph!), and I write for this blog.

I have also started playtesting for a local company called Convict Interactive, but I can't give out information due to the NDA. Exciting stuff from them, anyway. Visit their site: http://cg.stephenbarnes.net/

Sooo I'm busy with all the design and game-related stuff, but I love it. I've always liked designing games more than playing them - and well, I'm not missing gaming too much.

But yes - The Undeadables is in production as a Warcraft 3 map. It just myself and my friend Alex Hewitt (who made 3D images for the Undeadables video), but we're going okay. We started development on Friday - and we've already hit a couple of snags to do with subterfuge vs. in-game communication, but Alex's knowledge of the Warcraft 3 engine is driving the project. We will likely be working on the game once a week. So, there will be some updates on how we're setting up the balance and sorting out issues in that project.

Anyway, I have 4-5 blog posts planned:

• Pacing (a theoretical post)
• Balance Concerns Across Different Genres (I promised this one a while back)
• Canon vs. Gameplay (the problems with games and their pre-existing universe)
• Setting Up Balance (in depth strategies to starting a balanced game)
• Conservative Game Balancing (how to ensure minimal effects on the entire game when balancing a particular unit)

Pacing is just one I find fun, and Setting Up Balance has a lot to do with The Undeadables - as myself and Alex are trying to find magic balance numbers from scratch.

Conservative Game Balancing and Canon vs. Gameplay are both very much to do with Pokemon Universe. In that project, myself and the other Balance Team member (Gammal) have to isolate problems in Pokemon, so only that Pokemon is affected. We are trying to be as conservative as possible, to ensure we don't cause larger problems in the game.

Canon vs. Gameplay is an issue I've found in the project, as, many members do not want the Pokemon to change at all, as it will interfere with existing canon. As a firm believer of Gameplay > Canon, I will be listing reasons pertaining to why you should try to preserve Canon, but when change is needed for the sake of balance, or in the name of fun, you shouldn't hesitate.

Maintenance

Hey guys, haven't posted in a while - but I started at the AIE yesterday and I've been working.

Turns out, the costs of getting to the AIE each week really cuts down on the money I'm making. Dang.

But I'll update soon, probably Thursday night.

Woorrrk

Okay, I've been trying to get in an update, but I've worked the past 4 days in a row.

And...

All the time I've spent away from work has been sleeping or watching Dexter.

Good thing however, I just finished watching all the Dexter accessible to me, and I am off work for 3 days after tonight.

I know I planned to jump right into what I would call more advanced, or derived balance discussions - such as the nature of balance and such - though, I feel that I need to lay out the groundwork first. I don't want to be talking about X or Y, and leaving giant holes where I use a term that I've made up to describe a feature of the design.

I also want to just lay out the basics of what I have done in the past - this is just so I can refer to them and perhaps give updates with regards to various projects I have undertaken.

Anyway, I will update tomorrow with *something*,

Zanda

First post.

Well. I have been aiming to make this blog for a while but I suck at taking initiative.

It's 1:00 am and I am totally going to bed asap.

So, I'm Zanda, a teenager from New South Wales, Australia - and an aspiring Game Designer.

I'm attending the Game Development course at the AIE next year, with a major in Software.

I wish they'd teach design - but, as the programming teacher told me, you can't teach design - and you sure as hell won't get a job from it. So, being absolutely intolerant of 3D art, and with a natural curiosity and like of programming, I'm looking at code to get me an entry level job, then we'll see where I can go from there.

I want to get ahead in terms of design - and, I was told the best way to get there was to mod engines - and I may try it out, but, as I said, I suck at taking the initiative, and frankly I look at design from such a philosophical and egalitarian view point - it makes more sense to me to make a blog.

But hey, if anyone ends up reading this, and who knows how to mod an engine, or would like my mind on their modding team (I very much doubt it, but one can dream) - I guess you can give me a yell. I'd love to learn (and I need someone to beat the crap out of me until I do).

Anyway, just thought I'd initiate on this thing, as hopefully it'll actually lead to me continuing this blog and not just leaving it to be wasted. I already have some ideas for posts that I want to make, I'll list them below.

Wish me luck,

Zanda.

Ideas:

• A conservative, analytical view on changing your game's balance.
• A view on random achievement and reward.
• Where to start when balancing your game - a daunting task.
• Graphs and game design.
• Is the game fun?
• Role-based class balance.
• Achievement, rewards, and addiction.
• 'Balance' and redundancy.
• Balance vs. variety.

I think I forgot the others.

Oh, and I will be posting up game design ideas I have.