Tom's game design

Yesterday I came back after the half term with a game that didn't even run anymore. I had multiple problems with syntax and the code being completely wrong. So for most of the morning, I sat and looked through all of my code and events for this one little thing. I used the debug mode to help me with my search. the error was one wrong number as can be seen below, this number is looking for an argument in script command.  As you can see the if statement is looking for argument 0, but so is text, and "spd" needs to be an integer. So I changed it then proceeded to carry on with my work.

Today I have been trying to fix some problems I've had with my game. For one when my enemies are in wonder mode (out of the aggro range), they could go through the "crops" however, when they are in follow mode (in aggro range) they can't move in or get into the "crops". This almost drove me into madness until I figured it out, I just need to make the crops in the background instead of an object. but I wanted the enemies to spawn inside of the crops, so I got the pixel measurements and out the spawn inside of them. In the future I want them to change sprite so the player thinks that they are inside of the crops.

On Thursday I was working on my enemies and what they do in the basic game. I was working on the wolf enemy. I had some basic ideas for what I wanted them to do. I wanted them to wander around till the player gets into their "aggro range" and when once the player is in that aggro range for the wolf to cercal them and attack them at certain intervals, they should only attack the player if they are in their line of sight. I also wanted them to only spawn in the "farm crops" object and for them to change the sprite of the crop to show the player that its there.  So to start off with I had to make the wolfs move, I could have just used the drag and drop features that are in game maker studio but, wheres the fun in that. I chose to code the movement of the wolf by using scripts. This is the basic code for the movement, this makes the wolf object move towards the players x and y coordinates. I tried to make the enemy circle the player by adding 64 and subtra

Today I have been playing around with Soundation. Soundation is free online software that allows you to make music or sounds with either existing royalty free samples or your own recorded samples. I played around with the prerecorded sounds to get this.

Today as well as making the basic rooms for level one, I have managed to get smooth movement in my game and have managed to get my character to fire arrows. I did this through code as can be seen below. The bottom right is the code for movement. Since game makers, I'm gonna call it grid, starts at the top left instead of the bottom left, you have to make the x and y-axis the wrong way around.  Making the arrows fire I had to use an alarm so that the player wasn't firing them indefinitely. the alarm lets the player shoot every two seconds. 

Transitioning Rooms. Today I have started to develop my game so to start off I decided to draw out my first level where the player will help a farmer to kill some wolfs. The player goes around the farm, killing the wolfs as they are found. To do this I had to have the player go into different rooms from multiple  sides. transitioning the player from one side is simple enough you just put their sprite on the side where they are coming from, however, when they can come back into the room through a different side, it would spawn them in the same place. to fix this I have had to put multiple of the same room to put their sprite in the correct position. 

Everyone's Games Today we have sat and watched everyone present their power point about their game. This has to lead to some new ideas for more either to do with the story or gameplay. We gave them some feedback through questions and talking about their game. Personally, I think I could have done a number of things better, for example, I could have been more confident in myself when presenting the presentation. However, I did have lots of information and explained my work well. This is from my powerpoint/presentation. ------------>

Undertale Research  When I was playing through Undertale I decided to do a pacifist run, meaning I couldn't hurt a "monster" in the entire game. The point of such a playthrough is to cause the player to learn about and develop feelings for the "bosses" in the game, who turn into their friend rather than always being the conventional foe. The final boss is an old friend (sorry I'm trying not to ruin the game) who tries everything in his power to defeat you, but in this run, no matter what, you stay determined and continue to try and help him. He keeps attacking you and there's nothing you can do about it, getting to a point your health goes into fractions of 1 (another interesting and unique aspect of a game) This makes the player feel helpless and in that moment I realised that games can make the player feel emotions through gameplay. Many games in the past have done this before. For example, in mega man x (I know I keep bringing it up) at

Awesome scene I've just been playing through Undertale and forgot how good this scene is well I should say image.

Research  I have recently been listening to 16-32 bit game soundtracks to get a good feel for how a good chiptune soundtrack sounds. I have been listening to games like the legend of Zelda, a link to the past, Undtertale and final fantasy. Through this, I have figured out that to build suspense in a game and to set a certain mood it depends very much on the pace and pitch of a song. a slow and slightly high pitched song is happier and calm than a really fast song. I have also been replaying a number of games to see how they lead a player through their game. For example, Witcher 3 gives the player an objective that they must complete a story quest to proceed further into the game or do side quest to increase their level or earn money.

Presentation This is my powerpoint for pitching my game.

Target Audience The player will know whats happening in my game through a number of way in my game. For one I will lead them with subtle directions. For example if they were in a dungeon, rats could scurry into the room with loot in or even the boss room, or if they were in a massive nobleman's house and a guard is chasing after them, the guard would have a torch therefor the light would radiate of him telling the player which way not to go. The same can be done with the opposite, light can be used to show the play where to go.  Another way I will be leading my player is through dialogue. for example, the player goes to the town elder, the town elder will explain to the players what to do but without hand holding. What I mean by this is that most modem game just tells the player what to do, this will be more like LA, Noire where the player has to finger things out for themselves. For example, instead of marking a location on their map, the elder will tell the player that i

Skill Trees This is some concept ideas were skill trees would intertwine to make awesome new skills as can been seen about

Possible credit screen I could reuse this concept art as an idea for my title screen. The clouds floating by in the background, the rangers cape flowing in the wind. It sounds good to me.

Abilities and Skills I have been coming up with a few concept ideas for defence and attacking in my game. I have come up with the completely original idea of a force field, however, this force field won't be in front of you but follow behind you. This would make the player strafe away from incoming attacks. It's not only interesting gameplay but original. I have been playing with the idea of different types of arrows for different types of enemies. The blunt arrows will be for enemies with helmets and armour, it will only knock them out instead of killing them, the player will have to finish them with a dagger or sword. broadhead will inflict bleeding damage on a unarmored enemy but will not even hurt an armoured enemy. The AP (armour piercing) arrow will go through armour and kill the armoured enemy but will do little damage.

Pixel Art Concept Idea I was just seeing how my original drawing would look like if I did it in pixel art and I rather like the results. I mean this drawing below. 

Product Schedule I have developed this product schedule to assist me with my project time usage for my game. Each column represents a week.

Level Design I have been working on some ideas for the first level in my game. I have drew them up on some paper and made a few notes which can be seen below.