Today, we completed a first draft of the three classes that are currently in our game, and I'd like to tell something about the process that went into designing them thus far. We'll be testing these as soon as we can to do some iterations.
We currently have three classes, aptly named Offense, Defense and Support. We generally want there to be a division (not all players can do the same thing, and so on) so we're defaulting to a standard archetype for now.
In building up the classes, we were considering what we wanted the classes to do exactly, and particularly how much. Games like Dragon Age and World and Warcraft have classes with a lot of abilities (around forty to fifty), where games like League of Legends have classes with around three to four. While incorporating a lot of abilities can add a great deal of depth and complexity, a well-balanced mix of a few can do the exact same.
Since we'll likely make the game controlled by an Xbox360-controller, we can't have more than three-ish abilities before youll run out of buttons. It also means that we can't use mouse targeting.
We decided on the following outline for all classes:
1. A main attack with a very short cooldown (under 3 seconds).
2. An ability that's useful in a lot of situations, on a moderate cooldown (around 10 seconds).
3. An uber-ability that can be saved for the right moment, with a longer cooldown (around 60)
4. An ability that's always active, like an aura, passive, or constant effect.
Also, we further defined the flavour for the three classes:
Offense: the guy who deals the damage. Enemies are scared of how effectively this guy is at killing things.
Defense: the guy to assist the sphere carrier or defend the base. Enemies are scared of how they are disabled.
Support: in charge of flag carrying and scouting. Enemies are worried of how fast this guy is.
I'll post again tomorrow with the exact abilities and why they are what they are. Stay tuned :)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Small map update
I just made a few map changes:
- front and back lanes are wider to create more moving space
- added a backdoor to the based + connected lanes
- bases are reduce to half their size
- player now spawn in front of their lane instead of inside
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Prototype newsflash
It’s been almost a week since we posted or last message, but we have not stood still at all. Last weeks prototype contained not much more then basic character navigation and the ability to collect orbs. Off course we added some mechanics in the meantime. Core mechanics are in place and working, the game has a win/lose condition. Overall, the game is playable and mostly enjoyable. So we are now mainly playtesting and iterating on what we have, focussing heavily on character class abilities,balance, and the level design obviously.
That’s all for now.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Pretty Little Game Jam
A few days ago I came up with this crazy idea to do a 48 hour game jam session to come up with a suitable game concept for both our projects.
We started this game jam yesterday and have now come up with the most original and epic multiplayer concept ever (sarcasm).
Lets say we took the harassment mechanics from League of Legends, the tiberium collecting from Command & Conquer 4 and de control set from Fat princes and put them in a giant blender to create sort of crossbreed. So it’s not a totally original concept, but it is going to be fun fun fun.
So how does it work? Well, there are two sides or factions or teams (it doesn’t really matter now what you call it) that compete against each other to gain these still unnamed orbs. The goal of the game is to gather these orbs and to mount them in the predetermined sockets in the player’s base. The team that has gathered and mounted all four orbs wins the game.
Note: orbs can be stolen back from the base. Collecting orbs isn’t as easy as it sound though because the orbs position gets shown on the mini map while it is carried. Another downside is the limited field of view, you may run into an unexpected ambush.
To give the combat (yes there is combat) a bit of depth we added three classes that will encourage the player to make use of a certain play style. The available classes are: Offence, Defence and Support. The class abilities will be defined later on.
Tom is working on a gameplay prototype in the good old Warcraft 3 editor ad I’m doing not that much (yet). I guest I will be working on the level design when most of the mechanics are in place, and off course there will be a lot of testing later on.
So, what’s next? Complete the prototype, level design, testing testing testing.
We’ll keep you posted.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Articles and Video on Game Sound
Below, you'll find several summaries of articles dedicated to the function of sound in games, and what kinds of audio there can be in a game. Each article offers a different model on how to map the kinds of sounds in any game.
The past few week, I've been mostly gathering and summarising articles (the result of which can be found below this post), playing and recording more games with which to make more mock-up videos.
One mockup is already done and can be found here: UT-CTF1.wmv (warning: large file - ~400 MB)
I'll explain. What I've done in the mockup is use fragments of a single song from The Dark Knight soundtrack, and paste them under a Capture the Flag battle in Unreal Tournament 2004. The music changes based on a few parameters:
- whether a flag is taken (visible in the center at the top of the screen)
- where the flag carrier is. If the guy carrying the enemy flag is in our base, naturally that's more intense than if he's just picked it up, and vice versa.
- whether you're near a flag carrier. If you're walking next to a flag carrier (friendly or enemy), you're doing something more important than just walking around.
- where you are in the map, if no flags have been taken.
There are probably some more rules I followed and as you can see this is still a bit all over the place, but it's an indication of what kind of thing I want my end product to be / to do. I'll be making more mockups with more specific rulesets in the coming week(s) to explore further.
The past few week, I've been mostly gathering and summarising articles (the result of which can be found below this post), playing and recording more games with which to make more mock-up videos.
One mockup is already done and can be found here: UT-CTF1.wmv (warning: large file - ~400 MB)
I'll explain. What I've done in the mockup is use fragments of a single song from The Dark Knight soundtrack, and paste them under a Capture the Flag battle in Unreal Tournament 2004. The music changes based on a few parameters:
- whether a flag is taken (visible in the center at the top of the screen)
- where the flag carrier is. If the guy carrying the enemy flag is in our base, naturally that's more intense than if he's just picked it up, and vice versa.
- whether you're near a flag carrier. If you're walking next to a flag carrier (friendly or enemy), you're doing something more important than just walking around.
- where you are in the map, if no flags have been taken.
There are probably some more rules I followed and as you can see this is still a bit all over the place, but it's an indication of what kind of thing I want my end product to be / to do. I'll be making more mockups with more specific rulesets in the coming week(s) to explore further.
Summary - An Introduction to the Participatory and Non-Linear Aspects of Video Games Audio
Karen Collins
An Introduction to the Participatory and Non-Linear Aspects of Video Games Audio
(retrieved from http://gamessound.com/texts/interactive.pdf, 2010)
Audio in games is different from audio in movies. Movies are linear; games are generally not. Games are less predictable in what audio will be played at what time. This property of games creates new possible roles for audio, as well as providing problems when designing it and handling it in the game. The article constructs a theoretical framework that includes degree of interactivity, articulates problems that can occur both during design and when playing the game, and offers a list of possibilities roles for game audio that it can fulfill beside its traditional role in film.
Read the full, lengthier summary right here.
An Introduction to the Participatory and Non-Linear Aspects of Video Games Audio
(retrieved from http://gamessound.com/texts/interactive.pdf, 2010)
Audio in games is different from audio in movies. Movies are linear; games are generally not. Games are less predictable in what audio will be played at what time. This property of games creates new possible roles for audio, as well as providing problems when designing it and handling it in the game. The article constructs a theoretical framework that includes degree of interactivity, articulates problems that can occur both during design and when playing the game, and offers a list of possibilities roles for game audio that it can fulfill beside its traditional role in film.
Read the full, lengthier summary right here.
Summary - What Makes Great Game Sound?
George Spanos
What Makes Great Game Sound?
(retrieved from http://www.gamesounddesign.com/WhatMakesGreatGameSound.html)
Sound is generally recognised as an important part of games. But on what scale can you measure that quality?
Obviously, composing techniques are important in enhancing your sound files to a certain level of quality. But at the heart of good game sound stands a good idea, a central theme, in the way that all forms of entertainment each have a central theme. Without this theme, game audio can only be so much.
A technique to support this central theme is by breaking situations in a game down into separate, very specific, cues, and then support those cues as well as possible with sound, and leaving out everything that does not directly support that cue at the time. This focuses the player on the events you deem important as a game designer, and that can keep the player aware of the essence of what is happening at any time in the game.
Besides greatly focusing on the supportive role of audio, this has some other advantages. By reducing the number of sound files heard at once, memory is saved in both file size and RAM load. More importantly however, is that by supporting important game cues, it is easier to attain a higher degree of adaptivity, since the cues are all the game system would care about when determining what sound to play.
What Makes Great Game Sound?
(retrieved from http://www.gamesounddesign.com/WhatMakesGreatGameSound.html)
Sound is generally recognised as an important part of games. But on what scale can you measure that quality?
Obviously, composing techniques are important in enhancing your sound files to a certain level of quality. But at the heart of good game sound stands a good idea, a central theme, in the way that all forms of entertainment each have a central theme. Without this theme, game audio can only be so much.
A technique to support this central theme is by breaking situations in a game down into separate, very specific, cues, and then support those cues as well as possible with sound, and leaving out everything that does not directly support that cue at the time. This focuses the player on the events you deem important as a game designer, and that can keep the player aware of the essence of what is happening at any time in the game.
Besides greatly focusing on the supportive role of audio, this has some other advantages. By reducing the number of sound files heard at once, memory is saved in both file size and RAM load. More importantly however, is that by supporting important game cues, it is easier to attain a higher degree of adaptivity, since the cues are all the game system would care about when determining what sound to play.
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