Blog Post 9: Course Reflection

Wow, and just like that, my time in CS108 has finished. This not only marks the start of the break, but also marks the start of my new adult life as I will (hopefully) graduate with my Computer Science degree.

The course provided a plethora of knowledge for me Seeing what people had to show for the final presentation game me insight on how different people's design philosophy for games were. Being part of making Blink was a very unique experience of me, allowing me to have a great degree of creative liberty in terms of inserting my creative vision for the game.




As the final minutes tick down for the class, the question remains. What else? What else is out there? What other feats can I accomplish? Given the knowledge I was given so far, one would think I will know most, if not all there is about game development. But I have slowly came to the realization that there is a unlimited plethora of more things out there to learn and discover.

What was most interesting for me was discussing about the deeper aspects and deconstruction of video games. Watching the snippets of Extra Credit, and adding to the discussion about game theory added a novel part of the course that would be hard to discuss inside of a conventional CS course.

Playing other people's games while in their development was an eye-opening experience as you soon find out that game development is an iterative process, each with their individual journeys and challenges. In a way you find a sense of unity within the process itself, which is a nice feeling.

Overall, this whole ordeal was a hell of a ride. Thanks James for the pleasant glass, and may you have greater adventures in the future.

-Kevin B.

Blog Post 8: Final Project.

For my final project, I used Unity to create a game known as "Blink" a puzzle platformer where you take control a character known as "Donny", who apparently ate some magic mushrooms he shouldn't had! Help him find his way home as you navigate through levels, jump through obstacles, all while listening to some nice vapor-wave tunes.

The game assets utilize 2D sprites in combination with a 3D environment.



Being part of "Blink" 's developmental process was a lot of hard work. There was a lot of thought into placing the individual blocks as well as setting collision detection for the blocks themselves.

Each aspect presents a unique challenge all onto itself.  One being to make sure the platforms were placed in such a way that Donny is able to reach them. Also another challenge was making sure each audiolistener within Unity was able to process Donny's collision detection.



Another focus with the level design is making for a multi-faceted approach for how the player navigates the level. While we are working within 2D space, the player is encouraged to find new pathways in order to discover new switches. This encourages the player to experiment in the manner how Donny navigates the world.

The additional mechanic in the works in the “Blink” mechanic for Donny. This is essentially a teleportation mechanic that makes it so Donny can be in position across from him horizontally. This opens up mechanics for closing traps, falling obstacle avoidance, and means by which Donny can traverse the entire level by means of skipping tiles. 

Blog 7 GPS Game: Playing Pokemon Go

The previous day I took the time to play Pokemon GO, a mobile game by Niantic using the Unity Engine. The game revolves around using your phone's built-in GPS map to be used as an over-world for you, the player, to go out and start catching Pokemon!

The game initially starts you off with choosing your player, to choose either from a boy or a girl. (Sorry non-binary folks). Then choosing their accessories, clothing etc. After some brief introductions with the initial starting NPCs, you then are thrust out to your adventure!

So here is where I make the confession: I actually have been playing roughly around the game was initially released. During this play session I walked around campus and noticed that there was someone that actually placed lures on all the poke-stops! I found that actually really refreshing considering I thought there would be less people playing the game this point, I was very mistaken. (Perhaps it was due to the people playing for this blog post?). So far, the current mechanics have not changed, but there is seem to be improvements for net-code for Pokemon battles.

To initiate a Pokemon battle, you must be in the vicinity of a Pokemon gym. From there you can choose to activate the 'battle sequence' which make it so your Pokemon will teleport to an arena where you need to tap your screen as fast as you can to win the battle. Victory will depend on your Pokemon level, stats, and overall 'CP', which dictates how strong your Pokemon is.

Overall it was a nice venture back to a game that received both hype and controversy. I am aware that there is a form of player vs player interaction in a later patch coming soon, which should make things interesting! 

Blog Post 6: Video Game Prototype

Title of Game: DragonARCade

Game Credits: Kevin Bui

Link to downloadable: DragonARCade 

Known Issues: Bomb control doesn't work, Inability to restart game after death.

How to Play the game:



The game itself was a rough experience to make. Before we barely had any assets, or barely a sense of direction. But given an entirely new and unfamiliar game engine, it took a while to learn the ropes around it. The original alpha did not even have proper shooting mechanics or proper level design, our current iterations now has actual enemies, and even a boss! Definitely quite a stretch from where we were before!

Blog Post 5: First Playable: DragonArc

Make sure that there is at least one image and no less than 200 words in the post for it to count.




Name of Game: DragonARC

To play the game: Here

Role: Producer

I did the fundamental programming for the game. From the main menu to the 

Questions:

What kind of mechanics of top-down shooters would be interesting, perhaps something that would be a novel idea?

What kind of enemies/bosses would you like to see?

What would be an interesting mechanic for sound to come into play? 

What would you add? All feedback is appreciated!

one of the questions that was asked

Are you going to include dragon roars or similar sounds?

We will intend to include sound bits such as dragon roars and such, especially for the cases of boss battles and instances. The sounds would definitely serve as hit indicator and noises for death animations. Additional miscellaneous sounds will be added for the regular mobs and for minibosses in the near future. 

Some of the ideas being thrown is the idea of being able to choose the type of starting dragon you play as. This could be implemented in a future date. Notable optinos would be perhaps a smaller hit box, or even faster projectiles; definitely worth thinking about.

However the alpha does still need more polish, a more immersive level design, as well as a providing a more diverse set of enemies, this can definitely serve to enhance the player's experience as they play the game. Will definitely work towards better this as we go forward.

Blog Post 4: Video Game Lab

This is the only level
-Extremely creative approach on level design, not only did they modify the space the player plays in, but they took creative liberties to change the perspective of how the level is played

Wizard Wizard
-Reminds me of SuperMeatBoy, heavy emphasis on platforming and timing. Intuition was key

The source code is intuitive enough that is was organized to distinguish between methods and provided context for those who wanted to observe the events that is going on.

Don’t Sh*T Your Pants
-A simple command-type game where you instruct your character on how to enter to his bathroom without spoiling himself. The game emphasizes heavily on syntax and critical timing.

Madness Combat
-Flash game that is based off a flash animation. Reminds me of Metal slug. 

Katawa Shoujo (Dating Sim)
-I am actually fond of this game. Mainly because I knew members of 4chan actually. The Dating Sim revolves around alternative routes based on your decisions within the game. You take the role of a young male protagonist in a school where all the other characters suffer from some sort of chronic illness or disability. Note while there is [slight] sexual content, the game has been given critical acclaim for a very healthy, yet emotional approach on the subject matter of disability and empathy.

StarWhals

-The game is essentially like JOUST, but rather than on a 2D plane you instead are a narwhal and you have to impale the opposing player, while avoiding his lance as well. And yes, touching tips is fine.

Being watched as I play kind of reminds me how Twitch streamers must feel. In a way it kind of makes me think about the voyeuristic nature of our society at large. I think as we’re being watched we are incentivized to do better, perhaps even be daring in our play.

Note that I understand this is late submission, however I just had my first hyperglycemic attack the day when it was due, which debilitated me severely.

                                                                                                                                                    

Prototyping: An attempt at making a board game that is (sort of) fun.

Cards Against Millennials is a card-based game in which you play with a group of 2-6 players where the overall objective is to survive the hellish landscape which is the educational institution. The game is to mimic the absurdness and politically turbulent times that millennials often face in their time in. Each player has a stress level from 1 -10. Going beyond means you are out of the game and are 'eliminated'. This is to represent  the student "dropping out" or "going postal" depending on how dark your humor is.

On the on-set of the game in-class, we decided to team up with Peter and Andrei to try out the game with Four players. I chose the Women Studies student, Andrei chose the STEM major, Peter chose the Philosophy major, and Michael chose the Janitor.

-We all had our initial modifiers and stress levels placed out. Janitors had the higher modifier starting out, which we though was pretty funny. (Given how they often have to deal with our crap as students).
-A lot of cards we drew leaned heavily against playing against SJWs and those on the left-liberal sides.

-However our "wild" cards tended to favor screwing over STEM degrees. I definitely played to my favor by playing "Stress Cards" such as 'Computer Crash' against Andrei. Safe to say, this made for very interesting interactions.

In the end, The Janitor (Michael) ended up winning. Guess the Millennials and faculty weren't cut out to survive the educational bubble after all.

I also played the game with my uncle as a Test subject. Even though there was a language barrier, we got around having him getting familiar with the core mechanics. I gave him an edge as a handicap, turns out to work out alright for him. My uncle ended up winning against me with a one point lead. Granted we were often stale-mated on one-card draws. An improvement on current mechanics will definitely fix it.