Blog Post 5

My Final is to finish our game "Monster Escape"
We add another level for this game, with new art works, new stage and animations.
My role is still the art works, in addition make it into animation.

download monster escape 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wp5ggkvs0bz0tvz/Monster%20Escape%203.exe

Blog post 4

Name of our game: Monster Escape

I am the artist of this game.
Me and my partner Chin Pong Wong had came up with a basic prototype in our first discussion.
We kept adding items and ideas during the progress, in order to make this game more complete.

Chin Pong Wong is the programmer in this game. He set up the game prototype first, then I followed his setting and remake the items.
I've tried different version of our characters:

since our character will be only 32*32 pixels in our game, this monster will just be like this:

can't even see the face clearly. Also, the characters are just keep moving in the game, they shouldn't have too much detail on it.

and the original topic design was like this:

Since they are not proper to this size, I remake the hero and the monster, just like this:

However, I didn't abandon  my original monster design. Here are the places that you can still find it:

street lights

My partner turn it into our game icon

There are also some previous versions of background design:

Basically, I just tried different kinds of color combination to make the interface looks more comfortable, and make the color less intense to prevent that the background color could probably bother the player to control the character. This is the final decision:

I used the color gray as the main color to make the background can be less intense compared with the characters. Also, it will make that the environment is in a city with air pollution.

Ideas about rainbows:

My original concept of adding rainbows in this game, is that, for the monsters, they should exist in fantasy world. It will make the environment more interesting. We use rainbow as the portal door, bullet and the floor collision.  

Tutorial:

I made couples of simple animations as the how-to at the beginning of the game:

This is a really good experience to make our first video game. I am so excited to see my graphics turn into game items. 

I used to do graphic design for posters or other static works. During the process of making art for this video game, I learned about some design techniques about making graphics for a game, that was pretty helpful.

Download Monster Escape:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o3k66jqwnfluy5q/Monster%20Escape%201.11.exe

Blog post 3

-How to be happy
It's a funny game that seems really simple, just like a puzzle, but actually we were not able to figure out how to play this game at all. We tried couples of method to play it, even used the laptop equipped with touched screen to play this game but it's nothing different.
For some reason it's fun because you can try to figure out the game with your partner, just like children trying to know something that they don't understand.

-This is the only level
The prototype is actually not very complicated, and the stages are exactly looks the same. When we're plying on it, we found that there's more then one way for players to control the character and it actually bring more fun for players.

-Aegis Wing
We've spent some time on it because we were not quite sure if the game started already or not. We supposed that's kind of a RPG game because it's lots of reading things and selections involved. In my point of view it's actually like the thing that we can always see when we surf on internet, there's always lots of reference link on some words that you are able to click on it and link to more information. I suppose the designer just used this concept and turn it into a RPG game. In the game we've linked to youtube to watch a video, and a pig flying game. Sometimes it was just like messing up something but it's extraordinary for sure.

-Cum high
We didn't spend lots of time on it because it was run out of time.
We think this is an RPG game as well because it's still about lots of reading thing.

-Benthic's love
We played this game on our own because it was run out of time. It's like a RPG game also, but it's include more beautiful fish pictures. I think the images and the graphics are important for a game, which can help people to understand that we're now start playing game but not just reading something we're not really sure about.

Blog post 2

The game is about color mixing, players should use the color cards in order to mix into the special colors. This game can be played by two or more players, and each player can only do one action per turn. The action can be mixing colors or rolling the dice to decide how many cards that the player draws.

At the beginning, each player is given three special color cards secretly, and the player’s goal is to mix these colors. Then, each player should draw two primary color cards and start the game, whichever mix all (or more) of the selected special colors first wins.

Mixing colors:

The color mixing rule follows the rule of color-wheel, all the colors can be mixed by primary colors, so this game starts from primary colors as well. To mix a desired color, the player can use two or more of his color cards. For example, Red + Blue + Blue in sequence will result in Ultra Violet which is a Tertiary Color. Every time a player mixes a new color, the old primary colors should be discarded to the Discarded Pile. And Once the Draw Card Pile is out of cards, shuffle the Discard Pile back into Draw Card Pile. 

The Color Wheel 3 game play sessions:

First Model:

Mode:1v1, competitive,

Goal: To get the most points you can out of the Color Wheel. And have more points than your opponent

Basic Game Mechanics:

l  Every turn, player can choose to either draw a primary color card or spend the points to buy a primary color.

l  Mixing the Secondary color rewards 3 points, mixing Tertiary color rewards 5 points

l  You can only buy 1 color at a time, red, blue, yellow, they cost 2 points each from STORE PILE

l  Player starts with 2 random Primary colors in hand

Session Report:

As soon as we played, we see many flaws. First of all, we realized we did not set the rule for mixing the color, such as when can player mix the color and how many colors he can mix at a time.And we were not sure how will this affect game. We questioned ourselves that if giving players too much freedom a good thing or a bad thing?

Secondly, we did not consider if players should be able to see each others cards and what to do with cards that have been used as a source to mixed other colors. Should we have a TRASH PILE or do we give them to the STORE?

The next factor we forgot to think about is rather or not a Tertiary Color can be mixed more than once by the same player, and can the Player 2 mix the same Tertiary Color Player 1 mixed before. Because this will dramatically influence the fun factor of the game. Since players can purchase Primary colors from STORE, we do not want players to just copy the other players every turn.

Last but not least, we felt that the game is kind of repetitive and boring. We cant find not fun and exciting feelings in it. So in our next attempt we try solve this problem, as well as refining the rules for the games.

Second Model

Mode: 1 v 1 , 2 v 2  

Goal: To get the most points you can out of the Color Wheel. And have more points than your opponent

New basic game Mechanics

l  Every turn, player can choose to either roll a 6 sided dice to draw a primary color card or spend the points to buy a primary color.

l  Players can choose to can mix the color at the end of the turn, you can mix any amount of colors

l  Mixing the Secondary color rewards 1 points, mixing Tertiary color rewards 3 points, Special Color 5 points

l  You can only buy 2 color at a time, red, blue, yellow, they cost 2 points each from STORE PILE

l  Player starts with 2 random Primary colors in hand

l  The used primary colors go to Trash Pile, and shuffle back to Draw Pile when it is out of cards to draw.

l  A new type of Color is added called Special Color.

l  Special Color can only be mixed once, Other colors can be mixed unlimited times.

l  You cant see your opponent’s hand

2^nd Session Report:

In this revision, we added in some new major components, such as Special Color that can only be mixed once, Rolling a dice to draw Also some small changes on the rules such as points and color purchasing system.

These new rules are added so the game dynamics can be exciting since there are more than one way to lead to victory. We want players to think before make an action instead of fighting for points directly without considering in the First Model.

After we played it, we realized there are still many mechanic problems. For example, we realized there has to be a ending or limit as to how long this game will long. We did not realize with the rules we have now, the game can actually last forever. We just cant finish it! Because there are so many different colors out there to mix. Next, we realized that we have to set a limit on players  hand size as well as the Card Drawing pile. Why is this important? Because a player can just keep drawing cards and keep all the Primary cards in his hands to outsource his opponent. This can lead to victory but it is definitely CHEATING!

Third Model:

New Goal: To MIX your given Special Colors and STOP your opponent from mixing theirs.

Game ends when: player that mixed all or most of the given colors

New Mechanics:

l  Player can only take ONE action per turn, either to ROLL a dice and DRAW a card(s) from Primary Color Cards Pile, or to MIX color(s)

l  The number of cards the player DRAW each turn is determined by what he ROLL

l  Starting Hand size: 2 cards

l  Maximum Hand size: 8 cards, and players can not have more than 8 regardless of what they roll

l  Each color or card can only be used once, it means that players have to DISCARD the card after the mixing process is done.

l  All the Special Colors can only be mixed once in the whole game, once a special color is mixed, it may not be mixed again.

l  Primary, Secondary and Tertiary can be mixed unlimited times

l  Once the Primary Color Pile is out of cards, shuffle the Discard Piles (primary) back into Primary Color

l  Players have to show the color they mix.

l  For any Special Color mixed, and if a player owns it, he must reveal it.

l  Players can only have 3 tertiary colors on the play.

Session Report:

First of all, we get rid of the point earning system is because the game will be more interesting without directly after points and it can actually be “end-able” . Players have the options and ability to predict what colors his opponent is trying to mixing while he needs to be careful not showing any tells as well.This would implement more excitement thinking in the game play. And by having a limited hand size, players can no longer exploit monopolizing the primary cards. We are still making the actual color wheel with many new Special Colors to test more and more, please be patient wait for newer updates soon. Thanks. 

Blog post 1: Game lab

The games I played in class are UNO and Munchkin.
Since both games can be played by mutiple player, there were six members in our group.
Our group members:
Gabe Guevara
Malaak Hararah
Steven Strangio
(Leo) Leon Chen
(Sunny) Yung Ching Peng (me)
Zachary Daulton

The first game we played is UNO. After we gathered up our group members, we realize that all of us has the experience of play UNO.

Then we start! The interesting thing I've always seem when playing UNO is, no matter how many time we've play this game we still need the game instruction paper to make sure all the rules.
It means, for this game, there are lots of street rules are there be played all over the world. Therefore, the players should clarify the rules every time before the game starts, in addition to make sure the rule is fair.

For this time, we clarified some controversial rules while we were playing. It's easier for us to know the problem and try to solve it immediately.

The second game we played is Munchkin. I've never play this game, so does my teammates. Zachary was our leader, he led us play the whole game for one to two rounds, and we understand the rule gradually.
The outline of this game is, each of us flip the door card by turns then use the cards on hand to kill the monsters(or other things came out from the door) and then level up.

It's a little bit hard for me to play this game because we have to read the description of each card and understand what's the function of the cards. I read the words quite slow. But actually it's a funny board game.

We are playing.

Game leader and the complicated game instruction

I had looking for some information about Munchkin, I found the same one in my first language, it's cool.

 

Design a game

The game we designed in class is like a maze game.
This is the original one:

there are four(or more, depend on how many player)start choices in this game, players will choose one number as their start, keep going up, once the player reach the Horizontal line they have to follow and reach the finish.

We tried to make it harder. We tried to use dice to decide how many space that players can move, and put the treasure in one of the finish place.
Players can move with any directions they want, but can not move to the space which has being occupied by other players.