Main Game Development

After we started working on the top down main game we had another meeting with the client to show them the current state of the project. They seemed like they were pleased with the prototype of our mini-game however the teachers didn't like the top down idea for the main game and suggested we use the IDM groups’ assets to create a 3D menu as a front to the mini-games. I don’t mind this idea because a 3D interactive menu would require less of my time so I can work on the mini-games as we are starting to fall behind.

Here is a mock-up of the planned 3D interactive menu:

Basically the scene would change from day to night and a school bus would come in the morning as a timer for all the pets to have been cared for.

First Presentation due – Prototype

The first game we decided to work on was the dog park sprinting game. We whipped up a quick version just in time for the prototype deadline. The graphics are all blocky with bold lines to try for a cartoon/hand drawn look.

The bar at the top is the dogs’ happiness level which impacts the score and speed in which the dog runs. The dog face would move across the bar and changes expression as an indicator as to how he feels. The items that come on screen are chosen at random however the good items only come on after 4 consecutive taps of the bad items to prevent spam taping the screen. The dogs’ movement is random so if the player misses an item then there’s a chance the dog will hit it. The background is made up of a tiling system that lays down a fence along the top and bottom of the screen then fills the space between with grass tiles and an occasional dirt patch. The tiling system was a challenging task for me and a lot of time searching the web for help as I had to find a way to get all the tiles to move at once without gaps and run smoothly but I’m happy with the outcome.

Below are a few screenshots of what the game looked like on the Prototype Stage:

The feedback we got from the teachers was that the game wasn't very fun and the graphics looked bad. They felt as if the storm was a pointless idea, and that the dog shouldn’t actually be moving randomly but maybe give the illusion. In response to the feedback I removed the storm cloud and tweaked with the speed increments and the timing of objects coming onto screen. I also reworked the dogs’ movement so now instead of moving randomly, he now moves up or down to the closest object coming his way so now the player has to tap the items otherwise the dog will get them. They suggested refining the scope of the game (make it about feeding the dog instead of avoiding bad things for dogs and collecting good things). They also said the game would look better if we used vector based graphics instead of bitmaps.

Our New Game Idea

Over the weekend I had thought up a few different ideas for games. Below is a picture of my preferred game idea. I tried to use the concept of subway surfer however have the dog move randomly on its own and have objects come onto the screen. The player would then have to tap on the good objects to make him run faster and clear bad objects to stop them hitting him which would make him run slower.

After we had our meeting on Monday, we were split into two concept groups. One half of us wanted to make a chicken running game, although it seemed fun it lacked the educational stuff that was required by the brief. I was in the other group with the idea of a matching tiles type of game that taught the children how to recognize animals and then gives them extra points for matching the correct food, and care to the animals.

We had a talk with the teachers to try and get help with our situation than was instructed to go and take both of the ideas and create something fun yet still educational from them. After another brainstorming session we had moved towards an arcade game based concept. Basically we decided to take a top down shot of a house and have the player run around the house caring for the animals. When the player gets close to an animal in need, they can interact with them in the form of a mini-game.

Here are a few concept images for the house and a few mini-games:

Fish bowl - the player feeds the fish, trying to keep the fish in a healthy weight range for as long as possible.

Cat backyard - The player uses a ball of yarn to lead a cat through the backyard hedge maze - avoiding dogs and sprinklers. The player also gets control of the sprinklers so they could prevent the patrolling dogs from reaching the cat.

Dog park – we decided to turn my game into one of the mini-games and added a storm to chase the dog so it gives the dog a reason to be running home.