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Week 2 – Vigilance – Post-Mortem

Glaxor2015/09/06 0 Comments

What went well? Is the theme well represented?

I was able to pull off the design I had come up with at the beginning of the week. I do feel that the design represents the theme of vigilance and that this final product does instill that sense in the player, if only a little bit.

What went wrong? Could the game better represent the theme?

It is not at first obvious what is going on. Players generally have to die at least once before they really get what is happening. There is also a technique that can be used to stay alive which undermines the vigilance theme that I’m not sure how I could change the design to guard against.

What did you learn?

I learned some things about ray casting in general and specifically in Phaser. I didn’t really iterate on this design like I did on the previous design. I did have my family play test it, but I didn’t get any actionable feedback from that this time. I had some ideas on how to improve this design but I didn’t get around to implementing them. This week re-enforced for me the need to play test and iterate on the design to make a better game.

Week 2 – Vigilance

Glaxor2015/08/31 0 Comments

A new week, a new theme. This time the theme I pulled out of the lunchbox was “Vigilance.” Let’s get started.

What is the first thing you thought of after reading the prompt for this week?

I thought of some of my experiences standing watch when I was in the Navy.

Can you think of a situation that you’ve been in that made you feel vigilant?

I was stationed on a ship that was in port in Bremerton, Wa. which is across the Puget Sound from Seattle. I was working in Ship’s Security at the time and there had been some trouble on one of the ferries that transports civilians between Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula a couple of days before. Someone had tried to hijack it. We got word on this night that there was trouble again on one of the ferries. The night passed without incident, but we were all extra vigilant throughout our watch, on edge, actually. Schmidt, one of the senior Master at Arms did a good job of making sure everyone was aware of the possibility of danger while at the same time making sure no one was so paranoid they would jump the gun and create an incident over nothing.

Can you think of any art, movies, literature or music that illustrate the theme?

Suspense and some horror films and novels do a good job of bringing out vigilance in their audience. Fear and vigilance seem to be tied together, actually. There is no reason for vigilance if there is nothing to fear.

How will you try to illustrate this theme in a video game?

I’ll give the player something to protect and then have the enemies try to take it away. I think that working with imperfect information in their task will help to induce a feeling of vigilance in the player.

You can read the post-mortem and play the game here.

Week 1 – Fear – Final

Glaxor2015/08/30 0 Comments

PLAY HERE

What went well? Is the theme well represented?

I built a game in an engine I have very little experience with and that has interactivity and sound all within the confines of one week. That went well. I do feel that the theme is represented to a small degree. The last time Aili playtested this game for me she was taking small steps when passing the openings in the pyramid. When I asked her about it she said she was doing that because she wanted to get past the openings. To me it seems she was apprehensive about passing the openings, which is similar to fear.

What went wrong? Could the game better represent the theme?

The game isn’t much of a game. You just go until you die, and not even in an infinite runner type way. There is no way to avoid dying when you pass the chosen opening, so there is no real player agency in the game. While the game does a better job of communicating to the player what is happening, I still think it is disappointing at the end for the player when they meet their fate and they realize there is nothing they could have done to avoid it. I think providing reason for the player to hope that they could escape their fate would help to amplify that feeling of fear when they are progressing through dangerous areas.

What did you learn?

It is important to communicate to the player, as soon as possible, the situation before them. In the first round with this game, when I asked my family to playtest it, Kheara saw the large dark openings in the pyramid as an opportunity for exploration. That is not at all what I put them there for. On the next round I had placed an animated monster tail/tentacle thing and a low growl and screenshake when the player approaches that first opening. This worked better in communicating the danger ahead than just having a dark opening.

Week 1 – Fear – Mid Week

Glaxor2015/08/25 3 Comments

It’s Tuesday and I have a very rough prototype of my fear game which you can “play” up on this site. Play is in quotes there because my preliminary play testing has shown me that this version is not very playable. So far my wife, Sarah, and my two daughters, Kheara and Aili, have played it and this is the feedback I gathered.

The player avatar looks like a tele-tubby
It is not clear what happens when you die, or how it happened
Kheara saw the large dark openings in the pyramid and immediately thought, “I should go in there.”
It is not scary, they felt no fear

Feel free to play it, and if you have any comments or feedback, please, leave a comment on this post. I have some ideas to try to fix the issues I can see from having my family play it. Hopefully by Sunday I’ll have a more fear inducing experience.

I feel kind of fortunate this week, as I am on vacation and was able to spend most of yesterday and today getting to know the Phaser engine and working on this game. I don’t know how much time I’ll be able to spend on these projects in the weeks ahead. But I’m committed to creating a game a week, and as long as I can keep it up I know I’ll get better at making games.

Week 1 – Fear

Glaxor2015/08/24 0 Comments

August 24th – 12:30am

I found myself up past midnight realizing it was technically Monday and that I could start on the first week of my game a week project, so I did. The theme I chose at random from my lunch box was fear.

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to the dark side.

To get myself started thinking about how to make a game based on this theme I’ll work through some questions I have prepared.

What is the first thing you thought of after reading the prompt for this week?

Jump scare games like Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Can you think of a situation that you’ve been in that made you feel fear strongly?

There is a small mountain in the town I grew up in called Mount Solo, it’s more of a big hill, really. A road runs through it, the mountain having been blasted some time before I was born to create the throughway. There are very steep hills on each side of the road, practically cliffs. When I was 7 or 8 I climbed up there with my brother and cousin and got stuck. I eventually got to safety, but I remember being terrified of falling and unable to move.

Can you think of any art, movies, literature or music that illustrate the theme?

I think of suspense movies like Cape Fear or Fatal Attraction. Books that I’ve read by Stephen King or Dean Koontz which also rely on the building of anticipation to produce the fear feeling. I associate the jaws theme with fear as well as some scores from horror movies.

How will you try to illustrate this theme in a video game?

I will try to make a game that builds suspense to create a feeling of apprehension and fear in the player.

10:30 pm

The avatar and companions will need to be expressive and easy for the player to identify with. The player’s sense of presence in the game will determine how strongly they feel what the game is designed to make them feel.

There should be a sense of uncertainty. The player should never know exactly what to expect.

You can read the post-mortem and play the game here.