Game Development Blog

Puzzle Practice

Level HERE. My goal was to create a moderately challenging level that forces the player to observe the environment and figure out how to make multiple mechanics work together to solve the puzzle. I had Nick play my puzzle, and he solved it fairly quickly, with the whole thing taking him less than 5 minutes. He said it was a solid level, and he liked the use of the blue gel and the placement of the water in limiting the player's movement. He said he wished there was more to it. He also couldn't find any way to break it, so it was well designed in that regard.

Game Development Roles

Monster Squad is offering a job for a Unreal Engine 4 Gameplay Programmer. This job intersts me because it is both programming and game design, so I would have the chance to build my technical skills as well as design skills and I would have a say in shaping the games I'm working on. The main thing I would need for this job is much more experience. They want people who have shipped at least one game and have experience in Unreal engine, neither of which I have. I also feel I would need to work on honing my design skills on a few games before I would consider myself a competent enough to take on a professional role as a designer. They also list that creative skills beyond programming are a plus, so it would serve me well to work on my drawing/digital art skills.

Level Design Assessment

For my level design analysis, I will be analyzing the city of Whiterun from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. From the opening scenes of the game, you are shepherded through a scripted sequence where you escape from the dragon in Helgen, run to nearby Riverwood, and are then sent to Whiterun, which to me is where the game really opens up. Whiterun is the first major city the player encounters, and serves to teach the player many important lessons about the game. Firstly, it teaches the player about the structure of cities, and the power structures of Skyrim in general. You are immediately informed of the presence of guards (if you didn’t already find out after killing a chicken in Riverwood) when you are halted and momentarily denied entry by them before you explain the situation. After entering the city, the first thing the player’s eye is guided to is Dragon’s Reach. It is a massive keep that both dwarfs and sits above all the other structures in the town. This is also where your quest directs you, so the game does a good job of making sure that the player will arrive there no matter what. Upon entering, you meet the Jarl, his housecarl, and his wizard. You learn that the Jarls govern the holds of Skyrim, and that the keeps are a center of military force and information. The player is then sent to retrieve the Dragonstone, which serves as an introduction to dungeon delving. Upon returning, the player is rewarded, giving them incentive to continue to take up quests, and is then sent to fight their first dragon (with plenty of assistance from the local military). This fight both shows the player the danger of dragons as well as introduces them to the core concept that they are a Dragonborn. After absorbing the dragon’s flesh and soul and the guards are rightly taken aback, and the Jarl explains what this means. Talking to the wizard acts as an introduction to the magical arts, and can set you on the path to the College of Winterhold (magic school). Lastly, there are many other people to meet, buildings to explore, and as a result quests to take up throughout the city. Vendors call out in the streets, the blacksmith forges outside his shop, and the citizenry go about their daily lives. This rewards the player for exploring and teaches them that there is plenty to discover that might not be obviously pointed to by the game. By the time the player is ready to leave Whiterun and explore the wider world, the game does a great job of ensuring they have all the basic knowledge and skills they need to navigate Skyrim. The does have some shortcomings, while minor. It is easy to feel like you are being led around by the nose. Whenever you receive information, the game flashes the quest name in big letters with a dramatic music cue, as if to say THIS IS WHERE YOU ARE GOING AND WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW. CONGRATULATIONS. It then provides you with a floating arrow where you are going next, and in case you forget, the minutes of dialogue you just went through are distilled down to the one sentence essence and recorded in your journal. I think it would be cool if the game forced you to pay a bit more attention to your surroundings. Instead of a marker floating above the head of the person you have to talk to that you’ve never met before but somehow you know exactly where to go, maybe the game will highlight an area based on the information you’ve been given, and it’s up to the player to find out exactly where they need to go. For example, when you are told to find the Jarl at Dragon’s Reach in Whiterun, the player doesn’t know what those things are, only that there’s a city called Whiterun up ahead. You go to the city, and maybe you notice the huge building on the hill, so you go there, and low and behold, that’s Dragon’s Reach. Maybe you’re less sure, so you ask around the town, and a citizen points you to the building, and the marker on your map narrows to the building instead of the city. You find your way there through your own ingenuity rather than being pointed there by a magic, all knowing arrow. In any case, the game erred on the side of being too understandable rather than overwhelming the player with a massive space, so it still works.

Level Design Excercise 2

I tried to ramp down the difficulty significantly for this level, as well and to make the level more cohesive. I focused on two main challenges: navigating around saws while on moving platforms and getting over piranha plants with enemies in the middle. I then combined the two obstacles at the end into one challenge, trying to incorporate what I learned about cadence.

Observations and Conclusions

Using floating platforms effectively is hard. They don't start moving until they come onto the screen, so when there were multiple of them in a row, sometimes they would be out of phase and much more difficult to navigate. Some of the ones with longer paths required a lot of waiting if you missed it, which can be really annoying when you are on the dozenth try. I tried to use a moving platform to create a vertical gauntlet where you have to jump over a saw and run back and forth on the platform to avoid piranha plants, but he found that he could just wait for the platform to clear most of the obstacles and jump down to avoid them. Overall, the level was better designed and more cohesive, but still not very fun to play.

Mind Maps

Puzzle platformer. 2D game where the player has the ability to run, jump, and grab/activate objects. They must navigate momentum and physics based puzzles in themed environments. Like N or Super Meat Boy with puzzles.

Ant simulator. Take control of your own completely normal ant colony, and develop the means to dominate the world. Start with a queen, birth different ants of different types, expand the colony, find/research new abilities and technologies, and defend against/attack other life forms that would stand in your way.

Human court. It is an indeterminate amount of time in the future, and robots have been tasked with many menial tasks, incuding dealing out justice to foolish human criminals. You have been crafted to manipulate the defendent and the jury to extract punishment on all who would stand before you. Use your infalliable logic to create an airtight case, or manipulate the feeble emotions and credibility of the human on trial. Different humans have their own quirks that can be avoided or exploited.

Level Design Excercise 1

My level focuses on jumping precision and enemy avoidance. During play testing, he couldn't get past the first jump before I had to leave, so all I learned was that the first jump was hard, which was intentional. He also didn't seem to have a grasp of the mechanics of Mario, since he wasn't jumping as far as he should have with sprint jumping. I guess I learned that player skill varies wildly, so what's easy for some might be difficult to others, and in this case, what was difficult for me would have taken significant time for him to surmount. I also realized that this is a drawback of the Mario Maker System; unlike a full game that eases you into the mechanics and gradually challenges you, Mario Maker's individual levels can be played in any order.

Journal Entry 1: 5 Game Concepts

Side on 2d platformer with puzzles. The player has the ability to run, jump, and grab/activate objects in the environment. They must navigate momentum and physics based puzzles in themed environments. Like N or Super Meat Boy with puzzles.

Destroy the Universe. Turn based strategy game where the goal is to annihillate everything one planet at a time. The board starts filled with planets, where some are empty and can be harvested for resources, some have natural dangers, and some are part of civilizations that fight back.

The last postman. You must run and jump your way through a desolate wasteland to deliver the mail. Could be 2d or 3d, a runner where you must place/throw the mail into boxes as you dodge obstacles and enemies.

Little robot. You are a toy robot, and you awaken alone in an empty and remote house. Point and click adventure to escape the house, explore the world, and find out where you came from.