Soulsoup Devlog Week 2

Hi everyone! Already 2 weeks out of 12 down! This week have seen great advancement in the project as my work got propelled by the voice of the legendary David Bowie.

Current state of the Game. Still not pretty but more functional!

Prototypes & Tests

The goal of the week was to refine the games’ rules to find a pleasant balance between randomly mixing ingredient and attempting to create the perfect combination to maximise points. My goal was to get an easy progression in the recipes. I want players to have fun matching practically any ingredients together and get a final recipe out of it instead of forcing strict combinations. The game is primarily about discovery.

I tested a lot of different movement schemes and decided to go with my original plan of dragging tokens around with the mouse or touch screen. I spent a couple of hours polishing this mechanic so it is solid and fluid. It’s almost there. There is also an indicator now that shows when a combination of tokens creates something. This makes for a more fluid and easygoing game experience.

Blackboard items are almost all crossed out now.

I’ve also prototyped and tested the end conditions and pressure mechanics of the game. I’ve tried turn based, time based and error based. The best option for me at this moment for the score mode is time based. Nevertheless, I don’t want the player to feel too much rush, I want them to be relaxed and have enough time to experiment.

The mechanic is simple, as time goes by the Glutton gets hungrier. You need to make sure that enough food is given to him to lower his hunger or else you’re the one who gets eaten! The monster’s hunger is further satisfied when you give him what he wants. When you give him enough, you move to the next level.

A new Glutton

Talking about the Glutton, I’ve started sketching him on Friday. He was originally supposed to be just a head icon moving around the board. I’ve just recently decided to have a sprite of its full body at its “real” scale instead. Its hulking appearance will be very cool on the board compared to other tokens. Now I just need to figure out how to make it move around properly.

Sketching the Glutton (blue monster) standing and sitting.

NEXT WEEK

Next week is a big milestone as I will playtest the game with friends and colleagues to see where it needs refinements. If you are making a game yourself, know that planning and committing to do playtests is not only crucial to get feedback but is also a great way to motivate yourself. Working under a deadline do marvels!

For this playtest, I need to make sure there is enough recipes available in score mode for it to last more than 5 minutes. I also should make sure that 1 to 3 puzzle levels are available. I want to test both game modes. Talking about level design, I leave you with some sort of a spoiler 😉 The following are old level design I found this week. I’ll probably rebuild those levels in the game just for the kicks.

The following images show a bit of how I work. I always design on paper before doing anything in the engine. I find doing these analog designs a much easier task. Working with a pen, eraser and paper helps me think and focus.

See you next week. Until then, have fun!

 

January 17, 2016January 17, 2016 by Dave Richard Categories: Gamedev, SoulsoupTags: devlog, gamedev, Indiedev, Level Design, pixelart, Soulsoup Leave a comment

Tips for your first teaching/mentoring experience

Achievement unlocked! My classes in level design documentation shenanigans are done! I must say that even though it took a lot of time in my already jam-packed schedule, it was a fun experiment. (Yes students, you were an experiment 😉 ).

If you didn’t read my previous post on the subject, my mandate was to teach them about level (and game) design documentation. Overall it was a good experience. What I quickly witnessed is that, like in many cases, it’s not the ideas that make a good design/product, but rather how you communicate those ideas so that the final execution is closer to perfection.

The 5 students following the interactive media program at INIS had good ideas right off the bat. They just needed guidance to be organized and focused. They also needed some tips on how to communicate their ideas to a fictitious team so they would understand how they can achieve their ambitious game/level design. They still haven’t finished their work, which I will correct in about 2 weeks, but their documents are so much better than when they started. Kudos!

I believe the high point of the classes was the explanation of the design commandments, my personal list of design values. Basically, they are rules to try to follow when designing a game, level, or anything else really. I’ll post them on this blog later for anyone interested.

Here are guidelines I’ve noted on teaching and mentoring. Basic stuff really, but it might help if you’re planning on teaching or mentoring:

Have a strategy, plan ahead: I was glad to be prepared. Seriously, if you are going to give a class or a presentation, even if it’s as short as one hour, give it some thinking beforehand. Students don’t want to lose precious and expensive time.

Start with the basics: Assume that your students don’t know squat about the subject you are going to talk about. Even if they do, it’s always good to get another perspective on a subject from the basics.

Find your pace and stick with it: About half way in, I discovered what my ideal pace was and realised that the first classes were way too fast and hectic. Take your time and relax.

Use support material: If they are prepared ahead, support material such as power points, graphs, drawings and tables are great tools to teach. Don’t hesitate to draw images to support what you are teaching. Use examples!

Adapt and adjust on the fly, don’t be rigid: Don’t hesitate to change what you have planed. If a student asks you a question in class 2 about content that you have planned for class 5, cover that question right away if it’s pertinent, don’t leave them in shadow.

Get better: There’s always a next class, next group, next session. Before starting a new cycle, adjust your strategy with what you’ve previously learned.

Relax, you are the teacher: No matter what you decide to do, keep in mind that if someone asked you to teach on a subject, it’s probably because you’re competent in that field. There are good chances (I hope for you) that you teach or mentor what you love and are passionate about. It’s like talking to a friend about your job but in technical terms, so relax.

As a conclusion, I’d like to note that tweed jacket or not, using a blackboard and a chalk is friggin cool. Even if they are dirty and leave your respiratory system dry, I would trade my white board anytime for one of those. Classic.

June 1, 2011June 1, 2011 by Dave Richard Categories: Game DesignTags: Document, INIS, Level Design, Mentoring, Teaching Leave a comment

First class done!

My first class at Inis was yesterday in which I met the group I am going to “teach” level design documentation. Again I use the word “teach” loosely. I don’t consider myself a teacher, not yet anyway. Even though it stretches my day (up at 5am, working until 4pm, teaching until 7:30pm) it went well and was fun. The group is consisted of 5 guys that either wishes to enter the video game industry as designers or to add another string to their bow for their respective interactive media expertise.

The goal of the class is to build a complete level design and the related documents based on their game concept. The pitch only constraints are as follows:

• The project is considered a high budget downloadable game (Xbla/Psn).
• The project is based on Neuroblaste, a web series of radio-Canada.

Neuroblaste is about young scientists that while researching for a cure to Alzheimer, mistakenly develop a serum that can control the human brain. A group of anonymous and powerful investors threatens them to continue their research and attempt to steal their knowledge by force. You can watch the 5 minutes episodes here, it’s worth a peek: http://www.tou.tv/neuroblaste.

Their concepts are interesting and the group is stimulated and asking a lot of questions, which is great! In the first class, we went over the basics of creating a level layout, the first high-level tool they need for their level creation. In the next class, they will present their level layout to the group for review and to learn the usual mistakes and problems faced in the industry.

Until then have fun gents!

May 10, 2011May 10, 2011 by Dave Richard Categories: Game DesignTags: Document, INIS, Level Design, Neuroblaste, Radio-Canada, Teaching 2 Comments

Call me Professor

Tomorrow is exciting! It marks a new milestone in my career in video game design as I will start to “teach” a class on level design documents. I use the word “teach” loosely as it is more a mentoring role than anything else. The small group of students are following the interactive media program at INIS, a professional school in Montreal. Their goal is to learn the “how to” of design, to get ready to tackle the various problems of the industry and being capable of representing themselves properly in a future interview with a game developer.

My specific class is about level design and it’s documentation in which I will play my own role, the client (game designer), who receives and criticizes the documentation. I will challenge their creativity with problems we usually face during the prod such as budget costs and re-scoping while helping them to build the best level document for their project.

During the next month, I will post my experience on this blog. Oh and I guess I will have to go buy myself a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows. BOOM!

The school and site of INIS are only in French but if it interests you here’s the link: http://www.inis.qc.ca/2-medias.php

May 8, 2011 by Dave Richard Categories: Game DesignTags: Document, INIS, Level Design, Teaching Leave a comment