Week 9 RI 2

Well, this rapid ideation started with the energy that I had wanted however it ended pretty flat. Not having produced exactly what I wanted or set out to. My outcome is pretty rough around the edges and although it covers some aspects of what I initially intended to create it is far from my best work. A very rough prototype at best.

The concept of the game is that you play as Mrs. Victor Bruce a speed racer and daredevil that is tasked with rescuing all the wildlife and walkers from the oncoming storm in the Blackburn Meadows nature reserve/Sewage Treatment facility. Watch out for the piles of poo and bottomless ponds as you dodge and jump the obstacles. The longer you go the faster it gets.

Let us address the smart goals that I set out in week 7

RI2 Goals

S - Create a game that demonstrates an effective Game Play Loop.

M - Playtest the game to develop the mechanics

A - Keep the gameplay simple and direct

R - The activity should improve the fun factor of the game.

T - complete within the two-week session.

I decided on an infinite runner game, I know that this form of gameplay is successful and established which meant I could focus on further developing my skills within Unreal Engine. There are plenty of resources and guidance on this which would allow me to iterate on the gameplay and take the pressure off formulating a set of mechanics that would work together successfully.

One of the fundamental design principles of an endless runner is that there is no “end” or goal for players to achieve. Players continue running until they eventually die on every play. (Ingram, n.d.)

This would keep the gameplay simple and direct, the player would have a clear focus on the game, and including humor would keep it light-hearted ( everyone loves a poo joke). I implemented a high score to the game, this would be stored for each game until it was beaten. This was challenging to do and took several attempts as it seemed to affect the random generation of the objects on the track.

So that the game wouldn't become too repetitive in time I increase the speed of the player along the distance, this would build in difficulty and keep the gameplay short. The random generation of objects would make the game unique each play.

(Momoda, n.d.) suggests that Endless Runners are “snackable”, meaning games on average last less than three to five minutes. Fans of the genre are faithful to the gameplay and will at least give new runner games a try. Therefore keeping the game short and punchy was important in achieving its success with its target audience.

So where did this go wrong?

It started with the source control issues halfway through the project where I had lost a great deal of the work, I then got fixated on trying to solve the issues I had with the source control setup. This is detailed in week 7

This took a few days to fix and for me to understand the program and the procedures I had set up however by this time I had lost some motivation in the project and it had taken up too much of my Dev window that I had planned. This coupled with pressure from work meant that my time had reduced.

I am actually cringing writing this as I have heard this so many times from my own students and it feels like a bogus excuse. The project was pretty much a write off compared to the first one with regards to producing a final polished outcome. A workable prototype yes.

I would have like to implement a playtest during the process and failed to do this. I think this actually fell more towards confidence in passing this out to be played. It is crazy because I have an unbelievable resource of opportunity to enable me to playtest my games and yet confidence in this stopped me from doing so. I think I was less focused on gaining valuable feedback from the game and just wanted to get it finished which obviously didn't happen.

Going Forward, I enjoyed having a fixed genre of game, this allowed me to develop more in areas I had planned but I really could have benefited from playtesting and organising these in order to deliver on them. My time planning didn't account for the issue I had with source control and how this later impacted my motivation. I know the RI 2 session would be tight as it coincided with a busy element of my work so further improvement of time management and project planning is clear as well as expectations.

Download Link Quagmire_BlockOut by GameDevMatt (itch.io)

Ingram, D., n.d. What Makes Endless Runner Games Successful?. [online] Leviathyn. Available at: <https://leviathyn.com/34718/what-makes-endless-runner-games-successful/> [Accessed 3 December 2020].

Momoda, J., n.d. Endless Runner Games: Evolution And Future | Game Analysis. [online] Game Analysis. Available at: <http://jerrymomoda.com/analysis-endless-runners/> [Accessed 3 December 2020].