The biggest difference between this game design project and the previous ones I’ve completed in this and other CAGD classes is definitely the scope. Previous projects, such as paper prototype board games or individual digital levels, were a linear process that only took a few weeks at most. However, with the Game 2 project, we have to plan for a final product that will not be complete for two more months. This means that a lot of the first sprint was dedicated to things like level maps, paper prototypes, game design documents, and setting up unity and github.
One of the unique challenges we faced in the first sprint was dividing tasks into small enough pieces. With programming it was pretty easy for us to identify everything that needs to be in the game, but for aspects like building the levels, it took some thinking to figure out how to break them down into short tasks. Eventually we got things right, and broke up the level building into stages with drafts and final versions for both the map and digital level.
On the design side, we completed our treatment, paper prototype, and a level map for the first level. On the programming side, we completed almost all of the basic controls of the game, getting the movement and the ice skating physics working amazingly well.
The first task I had a large hand in was the game treatment. I wrote up what our group discussed and made the concept artwork for the game. Going into the project, the pitch gave us the idea of how the character should move, but we spent a while discussing how the rest of the game should be structured. One such element was the level design, which got clearer once we got some concept art.
There were a couple elements we compromised on, or somebody suggested it and then it was modified. For example, we discussed adding an upgrade system to the game. However, this might not fit the game too well since the levels have to be designed to precisely match the movement, and alterations in the player’s speed could make everything feel off. So we took that idea and tweaked it a little bit, agreeing on using power-ups instead.
The largest task I took on during the first sprint was constructing the paper prototype. At first, we struggled to come up with good ways to translate our game into a paper format, since it’s a 3D platformer. Eventually we decided to just focus on the skating mechanics. I figured that the best way to do that would be a game about acceleration, so our paper prototype focused on accelerating and decelerating your x and y velocities to maneuver around an icy course. It translated perfectly, and all of our playtesters found that it represented the concept very well.
We learned a few things from the paper prototype. It confirmed our hypothesis that maneuvering around a level on ice skates would be engaging for players. It also confirmed our hypothesis that acorns as bonus collectibles would be a good incentive for players. For the level design, we learned that since players will slide around, there should be some extra space on turns in case they slide too far.
