Daniel Tinnion | March 21, 2016

Critique your GameASSIGNMENT 4

Daniel Tinnion

IntroductionIn this report, it will show both good and bad features of the game which was created by myself. It will discuss what features I like along with what I feel could be improved both in this game and what can be used for future games. It will also show examples of code which was used within the game along with a brief description of how I intended for the code to work. It will also show how it compares to other games like this one and how other games were used as inspiration to create this game.

Description of the GameThe dead have awoken and only you can save the world from the apocalypse. Stranded, alone and with nowhere to hide, ex-Marine Cpt. Jefferson must battle through the zombie horde to find civilization and to see if it stills exists. The only thing to remind him of civilization is the cap his son left behind, his son tragically lost his life 4 years ago in a car accident. Ever since, Cpt. Jefferson has worn this cap to give him luck through whatever he does.

Deadcap is an overlook zombie game where the player must fight through levels of zombies to progress to the next boss. Zombies get progressively harder as the player upgrades weapons to help kill higher strength enemies.

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Does the player object move as intended?As the game is a top down shooter, the intended movement was to move in four directions (up, down, left, right). WASD keys were assigned to the movement which is easily recognizable by PC players and also will give clear direction to where the player will walk. Sprint was an idea when creating the game but found that the speed of walking was enough for what the game is.

The shooting at first was also set to using the keys, but thanks to Jonti Sparrow of Making games 101 on YouTube (accessible at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEHvTxm7M3EhrvFB5-_-veQ/featured) arms were used to rotate around the character which follows the direction of the cursors location. Not only did this animate the hero more, but made it available to shoot in any direction, which worked great as the enemies came from every angle.

Above is the code used for the gun pointing towards where the cursor is pointing. “Sight” was an object created which was always over where the cursor was to look like a crosshair of gun which gave the game more effect. The player also cannot go through walls as they are coded for the player to not be able to go through them. This gave some challenge to the game as bullets could also not go through walls which meant the player would physically have to go round them to kill enemies and progress.

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Code used for player movement

Code used for rotation of gun towards cursor

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The only problem with the player’s movement was the animation of the legs when the keyboard was pressed. The enemies had the same code without a key being pressed and the legs animated perfectly fine. But with the hero, for some reason, would not go through the animations. When creating the next game, I will make sure that the animations work the way I want them too because the game will look smoother and will show more effort that I’ve put into it. Also, now that I can design the characters better, I also intend to make the characters more graphically better.

Is the game difficult to pick up and play?The game is very easy to get to grips with. It consists of simple key presses and mouse clicks. All the controls are explained when the game starts up as the first screen you see is the controls screen. For a change of weapons, it is done by simply using the mouse scroll either up or down. Looking back at this, I would have preferred to change weapons using the numbers on the keyboard as that may have been easier to select a certain weapon. Also, I may have been able to show a grid type box with the numbers and weapons at the top so that players knew what number each weapon was to select. As far as the game goes, the concept of killing zombies to reach a certain score is straight forward. However, It does not say anywhere on the game of what score to reach or how to progress to the next level. Therefore players could be wandering aroundaimlessly trying to find either a door or something to pick up to progress, when actually it’s just to reach a certain score. The game could have included some text which actually told the player what score had to be reached and how to obtain points to progress. It also doesn’t give information on how the currency works and what it’s used for. I intended to have some kind of upgrade system where you can purchase new weapons but simply didn’t have the time to add a feature which I wasn’t really used to. I would however use it for future planning as it would change the game in a way that players would keep on playing to have the chance to upgrade items.

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As you can see in the screenshot above, text is shown for the score, cash and what weapon is equipped. But, there is no explanation of how much score you need and what the goal is, which would mean that the win conditions are not that clear but it is easily achievable. The health bars however do assist the player in a big way. It gives clear information of how much the player has along with how much health the enemy has. The pickups are easily recognizable by simply what they look like. A coin is represented for cash and health is represented by a red cross. In most games they use the same type of design. Such games as left 4 dead use the same health symbol and the coin is always used in Super Mario.

Examples of coin and health used in Super Mario and Left 4 Dead

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In game Screenshot

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The FlawsSome aspects in this game aren’t too great with knowing what things are. For example, the houses don’t easily show the player that it is a building. Therefore when a player tries to walk into it, they may be confused when they find out that they can’t. The walls also do not appear to be walls at first until the player tries to walk through it. This is all down to how I’ve designed the objects and I personally know they are both rushed and haven’t had a lot of thought into them. This was because I was testing the code to see how effective they would be with the enemies and the player and were used as tests. Because the code was being tested, the design was kind of lost and was focused more on how the game functioned. I think if this game gave more explanation at the start of what the goals are, rather than guessing, it would make the game have more reason. I would also try harder with the graphics side of it so it would also appeal more when played. Also, because the enemies were from the YouTube channel I watched, I would have a go at making everything in the game so that it would actually be all my work rather than it showing it’s what I’ve seen rather than what I’ve created.

Also, as I explained previously, the animation of the player’s movement frustrates me as the game would look a lot nicer if it worked along with the weapons. The weapons created so many problem in the design process of this game. The code for each gun was set at different fire rates and damage but when a weapon was changed, no matter what gun you used, it dealt the same damage at the same speed. Eventually I ran out of time to fix the problem but would have felt a lot prouder in myself if I got this function to work. The origin of the bullets was also a problem as the gun were different sizes. But, the bullet code was the same for each code so therefore would have the same origin. After a few hours of trying to change the origin, it then wasn’t right for the next gun. The bullets for the machine gun were coming out near the player’s feet but for the pistol it was fine. I also made two separate bullets so that it would even change objects when a different weapon was selected, but it didn’t switch and in the end decided to leave it.

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Also, the boss at the end doesn’t work correctly. I doubled the size of a normal enemy but for some reason when it flips around, its size is halved vertically. Also, the speed of how fast it runs at the player was originally an error because of the mask it had, which is now removed. The enemies also started spawning inside walls and building even though the code written should of stopped this. After attempts of fixing it, I finally decided to leave it as time was becoming an issue.

As you can see in the picture above, the enemies have spawned on top of the building and are now stuck. Even walking past them won’t trigger them. This may have been because of the depth of the objects as I can see that the text is behind the building. But, the enemies did have bounce code on the buildings so therefore got confused as to why they were still spawning on top of them.

Below is the code I used for the enemy spawn. It checks the place meeting and if it’s a wall or a house (building) the enemy therefore should not spawn where that object is. But obviously

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there was an error either within the game or within the code which overrides this.

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Does the art style and audio fit with the game?When the title screen opens up, the music which plays creates a sense of action which I intended to have as the player will get ready to fight zombies and be in a big fight. When the game starts however, the background music is of wind whistling to create an eerie effect. Being a fan of The Walking dead, I know that natural sound effects like wind and creaks create a sense of eeriness and danger when the sound plays. I kind of went for the same effect but I think now that some music may have worked in the levels, especially in the boss battle. If music had been added to the boss battle, then maybe there would have been more sense of danger, but the final product is actually boring looking back at it.

As far as the art is concerned, I wanted a cartoon approach to make it look fun. It was originally created so everyone could play it so the art design wasn’t too scary for kids. At the same time though I wasn’t as confident creating something which was graphically amazing. But, due to some recent work I am confident in making the next game more appealing and realistic. With the audio included in the game however, I guess the music doesn’t fit in with the cartoon style. If it included some sounds which were funny, it may have been more suitable. I quoted earlier as saying that the game creates a sense of being eerie, but if it was designed for everybody, then maybe it wouldn’t be suitable for kids.

Also, as the zombies had their own audio, the player however does not. I originally intended for the gun to make a sound when fired, but could not stop the sound when the left mouse button was released. In the end I decided to leave it out as the zombies made enough noise already. I will look at this in future reference and see how much the game changes if I include simple sound like gun fire.

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Does the game really have replayability?

From which I created, so far the game has potential but not much as replayability is concerned. So far the game does not have enough levels and the enemies are far too easy. To make it have more replay value, new enemies need to be introduced and the weapon system needs to be introduced (upgrades). Also personally I think the buildings and walls have to be better graphically and the weapons need to be altered so that the damage is different when the gun changes. When I tested the game after finishing it, even I didn’t like playing it over and over again and I know a lot of changes need to be made for the game to have replay value, such as the problems I’ve discussed in this report. The game however doe have the sense of panic and can be fun, but I know that everything has to be working perfectly for the game to be so fun that players would keep coming back.

Conclusion After reviewing every aspect of the game, I’ve came to the conclusion that this game need a lot of work done to it to be complete. It needs more levels added and needs new features such as weapons and more enemies. Every bit of code needs to work properly and it needs to look both graphically better and smoother when played. I am however happy with the knowledge I learned through this with the coding of the game. However, the final product doesn’t really amaze me and I know personally that I can make a game which is so much better. There are far too many errors in which the game works such as the spawning and the bullets and as a result the game just looks rushed. However, as my first game, I am happy with how it looks and am happy that it can be considered fun to play. I just know I have to put a lot more effort and time into making the next game.

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Bibliography

Coin (no date) Available at: http://mariokart.wikia.com/wiki/Coin (Accessed: 22 March 2016).

Making games 101 (no date) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEHvTxm7M3EhrvFB5-_-veQ/featured (Accessed: 22 March 2016).

Health pack - Steam community: Guide: Doing a pacifist run on cold stream (no date) Available at: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410438583 (Accessed: 22 March 2016).

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