Lens #17: The Lens of the Toy

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The lens #17, the lens of the toy from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

This lens is about my little character which can pick up weapons, ammo, and other stuff, which can walk, jump and shoot.

I have to answer the following questions

  • If the game had not goal, would it be fun at all? If not, how can I change that?
  • When people see my game, do they want to start interacting with it, even before they know what to do? If not, how can I change that?

It’s fun for me to walk around and shoot enemies. It is simple enough to “get it” and interact with it. Due to the COVID-19, there are no gameshows where I could test if people would like to interact with my game. But the bar should be pretty low to give it a try. But the game world is not interactive enough to just enjoy walking around and explore the levels without any goal.

The game world needs more things we can interact with. Like flying paper in an office space or dust and little debris when walking around. Also shooting should have more impact on the game world.

The outcome of this chapter will lead to a couple more topics for Lens #16: The Lens of Risk Mitigation as I have to try them out quickly which means more prototyping. Prototyping is a fun thing to do actually and with ESC (see also my articles about ESC) it is a piece of cake.

A selection of ideas

  • Destructible stuff
  • Attacking dash
  • Water which includes swimming and diving
  • Whirling paper when rushing through an office space
  • Whirling dust and debris along the way when we shoot
  • A sleeping animation if just standing around
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Risk Mitigation: Add more Details to Death Animation

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

I tried quickly if more details for death animation would give the game more depth.

And it does. Need some more fine-tuning and random but the idea is there and looks good and funny. But I need to add some random explosion if I kill a mass of soldiers. The blood fragments have to be more random in the depth axis so the helmet is not all behind the blood fragments. But this is fine-tuning for a prototype this is enough.

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Risk Mitigation: Test Primary and Secondary Weapon Switch

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

The next idea I tried quickly to pitch was having a primary and a secondary weapon for more advanced levels. But I needed first the implementation, was only an hour to implement this and define the primary and secondary weapons, so cheap enough. I tested with an M4 and a semi-automatic handgun (Glock).

If I use a gamepad, I will have to separate the switch button from the shoot button, so that I can shoot and independently switch the weapon. Feels good. But at the moment the handgun doesn’t give any advantage over the rifle for melee attacks or in any other situation than running out of ammo with the rifle. This isn’t too exciting. I have to extend this test and see if it is a good idea to make a rifle not operatable in very close range so that the player just has to switch to a melee weapon which is the main purpose of a secondary weapon. I made as well the handgun ineffective for long-distance, the bullets lose their power over time.

One thing I observe is if my rifles are not working in melee it is not visible or clear it just does not shoot. I need some feedback. Could drop some curses from the player. This leads to another test besides just implementing the weapon switch between rifle and melee weapon. I will test this idea shortly and see if I like it. I tried ejecting some skulls and bones when he curses.

It gives now an indication that something bogs this little man when he tries to shoot at something too close. Looks cute in a way so I will go with that.
And last but not least a mini level where a weapon swtich makes sense.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Risk Mitigation: Test Bloodstain for Bullet Exit Wounds

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

In this blog article I tested bloodstain for exit wounds, this makes it much crueler and in a weird way, satisfying to shoot those dummies. I took the damage into account to generate the amount of bloodstain when an enemy gets hit. But this is not just limited to the enemies but also the hero.

Looks quite satisfying but might be that it becomes a bit too violent. I apply to every character, robot, and object its own hit animation, so even when I shoot at a computer I can make some fitting nice animation for getting hit. I think this looks more interesting than just color the object flat white for one frame when get hit by bullets.

The test leads to a better-organized code and easier to add new hit and destroy animations for certain objects and characters.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Risk Mitigation: Test More Random for Shell Ejection

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

I will play with the random factor for shell ejection, they currently look a bit like a waterfall as I only have random for the vertical component of the ejection force. So I tried to add as well random for the horizontal force. I will have to do this comparison for all my weapons that I want to use in the game.

For me, B looks a bit more vivid and a bit more out of control, actually exactly what I want to achieve. Anyway, I made a tweet but this time no feedback. I guess it doesn’t make a big difference. I go with a tiny bit more random and that’s it, looks more vivid.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Risk Mitigation: Test Bigger Muzzles

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This is the follow-up article about lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links in this article I will get a small commission for that.

I will try different sizes of muzzles and add a bit more random to it to see if that could make a difference. As well as experiment with different sizes for every gun. As well add some random to make it more vivid.

For fast prototyping, I need a simple way to switch between the weapons. There are a couple of ways. I can make a pickup command and exchange the gun with the previous gun and just put all guns in a row. Or add them programmatically and make a switch weapon button for this test.

I made a four-panel gif image with https://www.kapwing.com labeled with A: Constant muzzle with a flashlight, B: Random muzzle with a flashlight, C: Constant muzzle no light, and D: Random muzzle no light.

And made a tweet to get some feedback which is the best variant.

I also asked friends and family members. The outcome is that a bit more of the votes like B the best as it looks more vivid. The second large group preferred A because the muzzle leaks through the floor if I use a random muzzle size, which is simple to fix. Many said a tiny less random would be beneficial. There was one vote for C as the gradient muzzle would not fit the art style.

Furthermore, that way I could engage many more people on my tweet, much more than I expected.

So thanks a lot for helping me out to find the best muzzle style which is important for my game as it lives from the weapon, shell ejection, recoil, and muzzle. I will have at least 3 different sizes of muzzles, one for nine-millimeter weapons I have, one for the soldier rifles like M1 or M4, and one for the bigger guns. I will probably have to fine-tune this further.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

Lens #16: The Lens of Risk Mitigation

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The lens #16, the lens of risk mitigation from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy books through the links int this article I will get a small commission for that.

First of all, this lens is about figuring out the worst-case scenarios, what could go wrong, or what could hold my game back from being great. This is to stop thinking positively about my game. Tim Ferriss also has this in his book The 4 Hour Workweek, to overcome the fear he suggest to write down the biggest nightmare you can imagine could happen if you, for example, quit your job and start an own business and from there mitigate those risks and find solutions. And it is also about testing your ideas with prototypes. There are similarities in these books. One is game design the other is about automating your company. About 80:20. Fascinating.

  • What could keep this game from being great?
  • How can I stop that from happening?

My levels might be boring to play. So I started a series of mini levels. My first mini levels are all about the double-barrel shotgun. I keep them minimalistic to test if the levels are fun or boring to play. they are super minimalistic and super quickly done. Perfect for prototyping. It’s already clear that this might be fun, as I can motivate people for speed runs. It’s fun because you can pick up the gun and ammo and while you jump up to the platform with enemies your gun is ready and loaded. This leads to a possible smooth speedrun through a level.

I don’t have enough surprises and interactive things. One of the problems is you can leave a room without killing anything in it. Not sure if I want that. To hinder that I could have doors that open after I killed all enemies. But is this fun? I will quickly implement a “reached goal system” to find out if this is the right way. The goal system can be triggered by enemies linked to it or a simple switch. The goal system simply opens the door to the next level.

The graphical appearance is probably my main problem. I will experiment with different styles of simple blocks. And make the battle engaging the player with massive effects. Keep an eye on small details like papers that whirl up in the air will you pass. Make the ejected shells more vivid by adding a bit more random.

So there are a couple of things I would like to test:

The levels have to be addictive and be playable in many different ways. This is not just the look but also the feel of it. The player needs a reward for every accomplished goal.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

M163 Vulcan from Sketch to Model

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I modeled my M163 Vulcan tank with blender 3D for my game. The plan is that a soldier can control that tank alone, which of curse in reality it needs more people at least a gunner and a driver. And because one soldier can control this tank the player can take out that soldier and take over the tank. The next step is to bring the tank into my game and do some shooting prototyping to see if it looks cool. The real old M163 Vulcan does eject the shells visibly which fits in my concept so well.

Lens #15: The Lens of the Eight Filters

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for the feedback.The lens #15, the lens of the eight filters from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses written by Jesse Schell. If you buy this book through this link I will get a small commission for that.

This lens is one of those which I have to evolve as not everything is already here to answer the questions. Some of them I can answer right now, others I can not yet and I have to do this later in the process. This is one thing I learned about these filters, they can not just be applied in a specific order, this is more an iterative process and I have to apply certain filters over and over again. I don’t know yet how I will do that. Probably I have to write follow-up articles for this.

My design has to pass eight filters

  • Does the game feel right?
  • Will the target audience like this game enough?
  • Is this a well-designed game?
  • Is this game novel enough?
  • Will this game sell?
  • Is it technically possible to build this game?
  • Does this game meet our social and community goals?
  • Doe the playtesters enjoy this game enough?

I did a lot of testing to get it fluid enough and test all the functionality and I didn’t get bored to play it through. Just jumping, shooting around is satisfying and fun to do.

I think I missed to write a game for a specific demographic audience, I didn’t think of that, but I still can change or figure out what this target audience could be. Is it more for retro gamers? It is a single-player game so far, that might limit the audience. At the game show, the previous prototype was played more by young people the age between 12 – 16 years old. But the violent content could make this a problem. I might have to make dying less bloody. Even though I do just eject red cubes it does look like the soldier exploded into meat chunks. But as it is not too violent it might be playable from the age of 14. The cuteness factor I plan to build in should also make this game playable for girls not only boys.

I need to think about make co-op an option in this game so that you can play it with a friend. But that would be challenging on many levels and I don’t have any idea how to balance the levels for co-op mode. It might even be much more challenging to play it in coop mode, as bullets are lethal for everybody.

Throughout the process, the game starts to be well designed and I have a very good understanding of where I want to go and how it has to look. I like the ideas of bosses that catapult me to the next room or level or world (see Lens #13).

I think the weapons I use for this shoot’em’up platform game is novel, most often you just have a gun and can shoot endless, no need to pick up ammo for that, no reloading, and often fantasy weapons. My weapons mimic real weapons and the shell ejection is different from weapon to weapon. And you have to pick up ammo as this is a limited resource. So I think this is kind of novel.

If this game will sell I don’t know. It is my first game I will sell at all. So I kinda can not answer this question properly or I don’t know how to figure out if it will sell or not.

It is technically possible to build this game. All the main features are already there including saving the game state, die and get reborn at the last entry point with a properly reset player state, and as well AI-driven entities. I don’t see hurdles on a technical level.

There is currently no community and I have to think about this aspect as well. I don’t know yet how to do that, but it needs probably a forum where the community can exchange ideas and expectations with me but as well with each other.

And last but not least the most important questions, do playtesters enjoy the game enough. I’m currently working hard on playable very rough levels without any eye candies as I want to do this later. I need to find playtesters that would like to just play the test levels through. I will write an article to organize that. And prepare a checklist for the feedback as well.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.

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.

I get a small commissions for purchases made through the following links, I only have books in this section which I bought myself and which I love. No bullshit.