Games Design

27th of Aug '18
Gilbert Evander Aligoey (0332508)
Games Design
Exercises

Lecture Notes

Week 1

27th of Aug 2018

Mr. Kannan started off the class briefly explained what this module is about. He told us what applications you can use to create games, what pieces that you need in order to make a game like characters, the purpose of items, story, UX design, etc.

Below is the Module Outline.

Then he showed some of the examples that our seniors did before, and told us to write down the pros and cons of it, like the reasons of why you won't buy the game if it is being sold.

Below is my points that I got from senior works.

 1. Wish Upon a Star by Vivien Christian Cahyadi

Pros  :

• Sound Editing
• Animation
• Art Style and Details
• Story Intro (the way to tell the story)
• Story Concept
• UX Design

Cons :

• Enemy is not that challenging (passive)
• The Game could do more
• Game Concept

2. Oni Hime

Pros  : None

Cons :

• Felt "Empty" as there's not really much into it
• No Goal or Purpose to play it
• No Reward
• No Interaction with Enemy nor any of the other object
• Color Scheme doesn't match

3. Tanuki Nin by Liam Yue Wei

Pros  :

• Sound Editing
• Animation

Cons :

• Coin Purpose is unknown
• Color schemes too dull
• Enemy is not challenging
• No interaction with any of the objects 
• No goal / purpose
• No reward

Week 2

3rd of Sep 2018

Mr. Kannan started off the second week of class with showing us a google sheet that contains our timeline that was proposed by him and Mr. Razif for us to have a clear goals of what needs to be finished in week time. Then Mr. Kannan gives us an example of a prototype of a game design concept for us to make in the first concept by using simple shape and the layout of a game.

He then explained about the levels of details on game design,

• 2D Design : Sprite Sheet, texture sheet, and materials (optional). Both texture and sprite sheet should always have equal dimensions (ex : 2x2 px, 4x4 px, etc.)
• 3D Design : Texture Sheet, Poly Counts, and Materials.

After that he goes on about FOV (Field of View), there's always a depth, it has foreground, middle ground, and background. Something that is on the foreground field will always have more details than the middle and foreground unless the focus is not on foreground itself. 

For example, when you see a face uplose, you would see the skin, pores, thin hairs, and others. But when you see a head a bit further, you don't see those details, instead you would just see the shape of the head itself, maybe details can go as far as the shape of eyes, nose, and other facial features can be visible. But when you see it on the background field, you can only see the overall shape, which is the whole body. 

So based on that information, we know that we don't have to put much effort into details if it is going to be putted into the middle or background. 

Beside that, Mr. Kannan asked us why people play games. We came up with some answers like for exntertainment purposes, having fun, kill time, relieve stress, and others. Then Mr. Kannan told us that the purpose of playing games is basically to escape, it's known as escapism.

The last discussion comes into an exercise where we have to identify the elements which are considered as priorities in designing or creating a game.

• Priority 1 : The game cannot be completed without these elements
• Priority 2 : Supports the gameplay
• Priority 3 : Complements the game

Fig 1.a Sample of a level from the game Ori and The Blind Forest

From the picture, we identified a few elements:

• Platforms
• Character
• Items
• HUD (heads up display)
• Depth of field
• Environment/background
• Level of details
• Portals
• Rewards
• Obstacles
• Checkpoints
• Power up

Things classified as Priority 1 are:

• Platforms
• Characters
• Checkpoints
• Obstacles

Things classified as Priority 2 are:

• Items
• HUD ( Heads Up Display)
• Rewards 

Things classified as Priority 3 are:

• Power ups
• Depth of field
• Portals
• LOD (Level of details)
• Background

5th of Sep 2018

For Mr. Razif Class, he just gave us a pack of cards for each group after dividing us into 3 groups. He wanted us to create a game by using this car, we can use some cards game as reference for it, maybe change the rules, invert it or combine it. My group want to create something that is a good time waster and fun at the same time, that kind of making it a bit addictive to play.

The First Group created a game where two cards are placed in the middle side by side, then the rest are evenly distributed among all the players. The rule is to place either a number higher or lower than the number that was placed in the middle. The card can only be seen once, then it is placed upside down. The only way to know the number is through memorizing. The way to play it is to make a truth or bluff, if the number that the player say either higher or lower is not a match than it's a bluff and he have to take all the cards on the card that he/she bluffed on.

Group 1

Second Group (my group) created 2 levels of the game. First, all the cards are evenly distributed among all players, and were not allowed to see their own/other's cards. Winner of the game is determined by the one that finished all their cards.

• Level 1 : Each player will have to start counting numbers from 1-12 and repeat all throughout the game. If a player mentioned a number and the card that they put out in front of them is the same, everyone should place their hand on the card. The last person to do so will have to keep all the cards on the table.
• Level 2: Each player will have to say the color of the card, starting from red then black. If the cards placed in front has the same color as mentioned, players can only place their hand on the card if the number is even (2,4,6,...).

Group 2

The third group created a game where to win the game, the player will have to collect 3-5 points. Each point is represented by 3 cards of the same symbol and they will have to place the card out for people to see that they have the same symbol in order to acquire 1 point. The flow of the game is, a player will have two moves, where the first move is always to draw a card from another player's cards, while the second move has options. The first option is to either place out their points (if they have the same symbol) or to draw a card from the deck. While the card joker has a special power where if a player present that card, they will be able to steal a point from a player.

Group 3

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All activities after this week are mostly focused on the final outcome, which is our own game. It is continued on another post titled "GAMES DESIGN (WHERE'S MY SANDWICH)"