Author: cli

Software Developer

Enter Game, Switch Level, and Die

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To make my first couple of testable levels, I need a clear understanding of how to preserve the game state and how to reset the level when I die and also how many times I wanna die and where I will get reborn, and how I get reborn.

Soft Requirements

So I made a simple list of some soft requirements.

  • Making dying a painless thing
  • Getting reborn at a save spot to be able to try again
  • Seeing the relicts of past battles I fought
  • Picking up the game after a day without losing anything

Hard Requirements

The soft requirements lead to a set of hard requirements. The hard requirements are easier to make happen in code than a fluffy set of soft requirements.

Connect the Rooms
The rooms exit and entrance are connected that way I know where I have to place the player after he left the room through a certain door or exit.

Player Enters a New Game
If I start a new game I need a default entrance point for the player and this is only for the very first room anyway.

  • Drop the player at the rooms default location
  • Load the room in its initial state

Player Switch the Room
In case I die I wanna back the inial state of my ammo and weaponry to have a fair chance to be able to clear this room.

  • Store the state of the current room
  • Remove the current room
  • Keep all collected and not used up ammo and weapons
  • Load the room you switch either the saved or the initial one
  • Drop the player at the connected entrance of the new room
  • Store ammo and weapon state at this point

Player Dies
I must get back the state I had when I entered the room to be able to clear this room else I might run out of ammo over time and the chance to make it through that room goes to zero.

  • Drop the player on his last entrance
  • Remove all items the player collected in the current room
  • Load either the saved room or the initial room
  • Load ammo and weapon state

Player Dies in Not Finished Room
I have one special case, if I enter a new room collect ammo and weapons, go back to old rooms and use up all ammo in those old cleared rooms, I have no chance to make it through the new not yet cleared room. So I need the following rule.

  • If you die in a not yet cleared room reset that room to initial state

First Footage

A short footage about switching levels with the rules from above. Enjoy.

There is still some problems with falling stuff if I left a level. This falling stuff will stop falling if I leave the level and continue falling if I reenter the level.

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Lens #14: The Lens of the Problem Statement

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The lens #14, the lens of the problem statement from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell.

Design is about solving problems, but if you don’t know what problem you solve then it is pretty hard to design something, it’s like designing in a vacuum. This lens can be applied over and over again. Game development is based on iterations. I will just evolve this article over time.

The better the problem statement the better the solution for it. So what are the questions I have to answer

  • What problem do I really want to solve?
  • Did I make assumptions about these games that have nothing to do with its true purpose?
  • Is a game really the best solution?
  • How do I know if the problem is solved.

What problem do I really want to solve? How can I make an enjoyable gun game using minimalistic graphics?

Did I make assumptions about this game that has nothing to do with its true purpose? The assumption I made is it has to be a platform game as I initially wanted to explore this genre from a programming point of view. But it has nothing to do with its true purpose, I guess I could make even a full 3D game. But this is kind of a limitation I have as a one-person studio, I simply need a very simple way to do that game as I have to fill it with game content. So better it is a packed small platformer than an almost empty 3D game.

Is a game really the best solution? This is entirely about a video game. I think the question should be more is a platform game really the best solution? I just use a platform game as it is the cheapest way to make a game as a single person studio. But I want to focus on the action part and use the platform environment as battlefields and story elements.

How do I know if the problem is solved I think I only will know that by playtesting. I have to focus on playtesting very very soon with playable levels and evaluate the feedback.

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Lens #13: The Lens of Infinite Inspiration

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The lens #13, the lense of infinite inspiration from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell.

The core of this lens is to look everywhere else than to other games.

  • What experience in my life would I like to share with others?
  • In what small way can I capture the essence of that experience and put it into the game?

I will make a collection of thoughts and in the end, I will apply lens #2

Here some inspirations

  • A smooth skateboard run in a bowl
  • Martial Art
  • Hellboy comics

Smooth Skateboard run in a Bowl

I love to watch skateboard clips, especially smooth bowl runs. With this slight scratch sound when the rider corrects his board with all four wheels on the ground. My aim here will be to make moving the character smooth, precise, and nice. The player should be able to move through a world smoothly and fluidly. This will include a lot of testing and adjusting. The problem I face here is that adjusting the player control will affect the existing levels. A slight change in the jump height, speed, or friction can have a great impact on the levels.

Applying lens #2 leads to the following 3 questions

  • What experience do I want the player to have?
  • What is essential to that experience?
  • How can I capture this essence in our game?

The player should get a feeling of great control over the character. The walkthrough must be fluid and to the point.

Like the smooth and almost effortless-looking run of a skateboarder in a bowl or skatepark, the player should be able to smoothly navigate through the levels. It should always give the player a very good control over the character.

To navigate through the levels smoothly the levels should be crafted in a way that the player doesn’t pump his head, the platforms are reachable without being pixel exact, as well you always see where you go, there is no blind rattlesnake hole. Whenever you have to jump blind, make sure it is always a safe jump without surprises on the landing spot, this could be a storytelling element.

Martial Art

Martial art is my choice of sport. It trains your brain, your body, and your balance. To watch skilled martial artist is a joy, the moves are seamless, almost effortless, the weapons are super precise. I love choreographed fight scene, compared to a real fight, that looks just beautiful, almost like a dance.

Let’s apply lens #2 here as well and answer the three questions.

  • What experience do I want the player to have?
  • What is essential to that experience?
  • How can I capture this essence in our game?

It’s important that the player feels always capable throughout the gameplay without feeling bored or overpowered. The control over the weapons and aiming while walking and shooting should be smooth and precise. Even if the controller isn’t that precise the game has to be, that should be an experience I want the player has.

Martial art is about a combination of attack and defense patterns nicely rowed up to defeat the opponent. The martial artist has great control over his weapons, everything is smooth, fast, and precise. There is no hesitation, no struggle, no fuss. Even modern action movies are filled with martial art and that makes them so enjoyable to watch. It’s not just the explosions and the fx, but as well the moves, attack, and defense during a gunfight.

The aiming of the guns should not be fully automated, but if you start shooting at an enemy it should keep track to a certain degree. The player has to point roughly in the direction of the enemies and the auto-aiming should then take part. I’m thinking of having an automated switch weapon, whenever you are too close to enemies, nevertheless the player should be able to oversteer the choice of the weapons. Maybe I can make this configurable.

Hellboy Comic

I admire the Hellboy comic style from Mike Mignola, it’s dark, simple in a way and hence full of little details. I like the sceneries he set’s up in those comics. One of the stories starts at a door and as soon hellboy opens it hell breaks loose. The battles are often short but intense. And it’s always a boss fight for hellboy.

Let’s tackle lens #2

  • What experience do I want the player to have?
  • What is essential to that experience?
  • How can I capture this essence in our game?

One of the things I like from Hellboy is the silent moment and the intense but short fights. Sometimes he gets catapulted to the next level of the story. I’m thinking of having some silent moments to tell a story in this game. But fights should be always intense, no matter if it is a boss fight or not. I’m not yet sure if it will work.

Essential to this experience is, that there is not continues battles going on like in a shmup but as well some story elements, like silent moments or falling down a hole and find your self in a new room, after battling a boss (which might have survived so he can show up later again).

I think by adding a transition from one battle to another and after boss fighting getting catapulted to another world even. Like in hellboy where he went to hell after the witch grabbed his heart. So actually hellboy looses but this doesn’t mean to be the end of the game. I like that very much and gives this dying a new perspective. I kinda have an idea, but not written in stone. I have to try this experience and see if that could work.

I like this idea and I accidentally stumbled over it in analyzing what exactly I like from this comic, what underlying mechanics which drives the story to the weirdest places on earth and the underworld.

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Lens #12: The Lens of Resonance

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I’m now at lens #12, the lense of resonance from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. It is about to elevate the game from craft to art. A quite an ambitious lens. Not sure if All Fucked Up has this resonance. I wanted it to be cute and simple and, well, doable. A resonating theme, but simple.

Let’s reach for the stars and tackle the four questions from the book.

  • What is it about my game that feels powerful and special?
  • When I describe my game to people, what ideas get them excited?
  • If I had no constraints of any kind, what would this game be like?
  • I have certain instincts about how this game should be. What is driving those instincts?

Firing weapons is one of the most powerful things in this game. It looks good, it feels good, it sounds good. I love the fact that I do not visualize the guns by applying it to the character but with how the shells get ejected. The shotgun makes a soft sound while ejecting the two shells after firing. Also, the sound when the shells fall on the ground gives a little extra. I watched quite some gun training videos on youtube and besides fast reload there is also gun switch from handgun to rifle and back. I was thinking of that and will make this part of the game that you can switch between a primary weapon (rifle) and a secondary weapon (handgun). Rifles are more precise on targets farther away than handguns. Handguns are better for close-range battles than rifles. But also if you run out of ammo a gun switch can save your ass.


M4 with a high fire rate, 30 rounds mags, fast reload

The very few feedback I got so far was mainly that firing the weapon looks good and to the point. My children and my girlfriend like the cuteness of the characters. The hero has a funny side which makes it fun to play but also to watch. Whenever we talk about that they have a bunch of ideas to make it more fun.


M249 with a fast fire rate, 100 rounds mags, slow reload

The imagination to be in a badass movie with the fun moments and cool quotes are something I want to craft. The gameplay has to be smooth and precise and the badass quotes to the point at the right time. The action should be loud and intense. But as well some silent and beautiful moments to add a strong contrast. Even with no constraints, I would like to have the levels simple with a focus on the cute characters. I would like to have a proper walk animation. Slapstick reactions like screaming, laughing, cursing, exciting, and more. But as well more details like falling leaves or flying paper when we rush through an office, grass which reacts, or fireflies.


M1 semi automatic, 8 rounds mags, slow reload

My instincts tell me that I’m on the right way I intensive the gun mechanics and the funny side of the hero. I simplified the tileset as I would like to add details differently and subtly. So my focus is entirely on

  1. Making the guns feel good, look good, sound good, and super precise
  2. Focus on cute animations, reactions, and design
  3. Add subtle small reacting things to add more love to the game

It is amazing how these lenses helped me to improve the game. I have a much better understanding now on how this game has to look and feel. It helps me to drop the things which do not help the game. The focus is so much sharper now than at the beginning of this experiment. I’m curious where I end up when I’m finished with this book.

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Shoot in All Directions

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I can now shoot in all directions with my little cute hero. And you can see he enjoys it a lot! My game goes now the action game path with a very simple level design. The idea is to improve the visuals with small little details. The ejected shells are one sample, the hearth if he collects new ammo, and the funny lauthter if he shoots like crazy. I plan to add more things which interacts with the hero or any NPC, like crickets which fly aroung and get disturbed in the the bullet hell.

I think it’s now quite hard to aim on something and as ammo is a limited resource I probably need kind of an automatic aim. The idea is that if there is something to shoot and I aim in a directions the automatic aim to the next shootable thing in that direction if it is in range. But I need to do first game testing. This is actually the next step any way to have a set of simple levels and let people play them so I can collect feedback. In the past I did that with steam, I probably also will look into itch.io as well.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #11: The Lens of Unification

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The lens of unification of The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses is the next lens I want to look at through on our game All Fucked Up. The book was written by Jesse Schell and is one of the most useful books about game design with its unique approach of lenses.
Unification is about finding a theme for All Fucked Up and reinforce that theme.

  • What is the theme of All Fucked Up?
  • Do I reinforce that theme in all ways possible?

Finding the theme is an important part to design All Fucked Up. Because it will help me to filter all the things which do not fit with my theme. A great decision tool. But it’s not easy to find a theme.
My game is about guns and ammo. It feels good to fire the guns. It feels good to shoot stuff in pieces. The player should have a lot of occasions to fire the collected guns. The theme will be gun-related. The theme is also about being cool and funny, like Eddie Murphy or Will Smith. Being highly skilled with guns like John Wick or Jason Bourne. The theme is about being a guy which is at the wrong time at the wrong place.

"Guns, Ammo, and Being a Funny Hero"

The guns feel good, the ammo has to fit the guns. The focus is on guns, ammo, and the hero. The environment should not be too distractive. Guns fired in the dark looks very cool. The following will reinforce the theme:

  • Dark levels
  • The guns with its kickback, shell ejection, and power
  • The relatively weak opponents make the guns feel very powerful
  • To have an excuse to use the weapons there will be plenty of enemies to shoot
  • The hero is minion like and funny, he loves collecting ammo and is skilled with the guns
  • The enemies have to be mean to make the hero look funny if he screams in fear or surprise
  • Jump, double jump, wall jumps, roles (dashing) to have improved action scenes

I would like to have a different environment which fits the theme but very simple

  • Concrete
  • Fire
  • Neon light
  • Dark
  • Tubes

Enforce the destruction with contrast like silence, action free transitions, butterflies, crickets, and more

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Lens #10: The Lens of Holographic Design

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The next lens I want to look through on our game All Fucked Up is the lens of holographic design from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. This lens is about seeing the four elements (Aestetics, Story, Technology, and Mechanics) and the player experience in a holistic way. Let’s tackle the following questions in this lens.

  • What elements of All Fucked Up make the experience enjoyable?
  • What elements of All Fucked Up detract from the experience?
  • How can I change game elements to improve the experience?

The cute characters, the little details, the smooth gamepad integration, and the guns make the experience enjoyable. To watch and experience guns in action is satisfactory. The gamepad optimized precise control makes the navigation of the character smooth and nice and does not distract from the game experience.

The double barrel shot gun with it’s late shell ejection, like in reality, as well the camera and character kickback makes the feel of the weapon nice and power full.

Here we see wall jumps in action. The control is smooth and lets you navigate quickly through levels.

The environment and the level-design do detract from the game experience. It looks nice but not brilliant. Quite flat and too simple. The levels don’t look exciting enough way to simple and linear. This can be improved, I need to design much more level also to get more experience on what works and what does not work. If I want to introduce the switch from rifles to handguns or knife I need to design the levels accordingly to make that a need. The same for shooting enemies, if I just can jump over them it makes no sense to shoot them except for the joy of using the collected weapons and ammo.

I think it is very clear that the element level needs a big improvement to make this game fun to play. I feel I’m far away from that. I probably first try to improve the existing levels not on the graphical level but on how I compose the platforms, weapons, ammo, and enemies. I need to make it impossible to jump over enemies and evade but have to design it in a way that they are a danger if not eliminated. As well I want to avoid that there is only one way to manage a level.

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Lens #8: The Lens of Problem Solving

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The next lens I want to look through on our game "All Fucked Up" is the lens of problem solving from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. Here I think about the problems the player has to solve in All Fucked Up

  • What problem does All Fucked Up offer to be solved?
  • Are there hidden problems which arise as part of the gameplay?
  • How can All Fucked Up generate new problems the make the player come back?

The player has to navigate our hero from the entrance of the level to the exit of the level. The way is blocked by military force, bad dudes with shotguns, traps, barbwire, explosives, old dudes with rifles, tanks, trucks, and more. It is a balance of having enough ammo, a loaded gun at the point, and avoidance of mines, barbwires, and other traps to clear the levels from enemies.

Kind of a hidden problem is that rifles like M1, M4, M249, shotgun, and others do not operate if the enemies are too close. You have to switch to any kind of handgun, revolver, semi-automatic, uzi, knife, or other close combat weapons in that case. I need to make close combat weapons ineffective on distance, don’t know how yet. Maybe let the bullet loose their damage power the farther they go.

I don’t know how I could generate new problems. What I can think of is having hidden doors or alternative ways to solve a level. A speed route for more skilled players is one thing I can think of. So there is a kind of an easy but slow route and a fast but difficult route. This part I would like to enhance.

I have a lot of loose ends here and I don’t know what will make it into the game and what will be dropped. I tend to rather minimize it and not maximize it. It would be cool if I can minimize it and maximize the outcome.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #9: The Lens of the Elemental Tetrad

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The next lens I want to look through on our game "All Fucked Up" is the lens of elemental tetrad from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. Elemental tetrad is the diamond shape of the four elements aesthetics, story, technology, and mechanics.

I will now answer the following four questions:

  • Is my game design using all four elements?
  • Could my design be improved by enhancing elements?
  • Are the four elements in harmony, reinforcing each other and working together toward a common theme?

Our game focus on gamepads rather than keyboard or joystick. For testing and development purposes it is currently also possible to play it with the keyboard. But the main focus will be the gamepad. We will not go into a twin-stick game, so you can only shoot vertical.

The mechanics are laid out for gamepads to have good control over the character while jumping around. As well all the buttons to make reload, switch weapon from rifle to handgun smooth. The mechanics are rather simple, you can walk, jump, double jump, wall jump, shoot, reload, and switch weapons. The levels support this as you often close to enemies you have to switch to the handgun, as rifles don’t work on man to man combat. As well you will need the reload mechanics to have always enough ammo when you enter a platform.

The story is around a man who has been dropped into a weird world full of people who want to shoot him. To go back to his normal life he has to go through all the levels. The man has amazing gun skills he didn’t even know.

The aesthetics are rather simple. We focus more on the little things to add love to the game, like shell ejection. Every weapon does have its shell ejection and reload behavior.

We plan to add more little animations like dust, falling leaves, papers which whirl up if the characters rush through a room, flickering neon, and many more. We focus on these little things and keep the overall graphic design simple.

The very simple graphics might need improvement, I’m not sure if it is enough to just have these little animations. It’s not really up to date graphic design but unique. The animations of the guns reinforce the theme a lot as it is kind of a gun porn game. The cuteness of the characters helps to improve the overall aesthetics I think.
The levels drive the story and the goal is that the player wants to finish a level to see what is coming in the next level. We plan to have different worlds, starting with a grass and bunker world. But as well an office world, tower world, and more. The gamepad should make it more attractive to game shows, it’s much more likely that somebody picks up a gamepad and give it a try than sit down in front of a computer and uses the keyboard. Gamepads also need much less introduction as it is so much more natural to play.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought

Lens #7: The Lens of Endogenous Value

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The next lens I want to look through on our game "All Fucked Up" is the lens of endogenous value from the book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. Endogenous value means the value which is generated in the value. The score is such a value.

I try to answer the following three questions:

  • What is valuable in our game for the players?
  • How can I make it more valuable to them?
  • What are the relationship between value in the game and the players’ motivation?

The internal value in my game are ammo and weapons, you need that to defeat the enemies. But also a grappling hook or grenades are things with an internal value. You simply need that to complete the level. Not sure if that is enough, but that’s pretty much it.

To make the ammo and weapons more valuable I probably have to place them strategically so that you can’t pass a certain point without them. At the moment you can outsmart the enemies and also the levels and reach the end of the level without any kill. It’s probably possible. So I need to find a way that you can’t just skip them. Maybe they follow you to a certain point? Or make the passage small enough, that you have no other choice? Maybe they protect a key or a smart card you need to leave the level? Or you simply can’t leave until you didn’t destroy everything (a cheap solution)?

Thanks for reading. I would appreciate your oppinion below in the comment section.

I get commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only put stuff in this section I also would buy or I already bought