Content with Hours (Examples included):
During class last week, as a team, we ran down the list of
mini/micro-game ideas that were brainstormed at the meeting that I was unable
to attend. After all of the ideas were explained, I chose to take the ‘Claw
Game’ idea along with a pun that John came up with for the name, Abducktion, and
run with it. Just to note, from my understanding, the initial idea was a 2D
experience where one of the humans would aim the claw at aliens hanging from
the top of the screen to try to get the duck being passed between them by one
of the players outside of the ride. In addition, I was provided the quick
mock-up shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Mock-up for
initial ‘Claw Game’/Abducktion idea
The first thing I did was take some time to brainstorm exactly
how the game should be presented as well as how the flow of the game would work.
Below is a list of some of the thoughts I had that influenced the design I went
with. (1.50 hrs)
- Given the first-person perspective of the Drexel Ride and the angle in which this game would need to take place to get decent motion, it made much more sense to make the game 3D as opposed 2D.
- Since the humans are in a spaceship and the name of the game is Abducktion, having a traditional tractor beam seems to make more sense than a claw.
- Since tractor beams aim at a downward angle, having aliens at the top of the screen passing the duck would not work. Therefore, given the carnival atmosphere, shuffling cups with one containing the duck seems to work.
- Although this is a micro-game, I did not like idea of excluding the second human, so I thought of an X-Ray ability that can be used to show where the duck is for a very short time during the game.
With the brainstorming out of the way, I worked on creating
a functional greybox for Abducktion. This included adding a temporary icon to
the game select screen, setting up the scene with placeholder art, adding the
appropriate UI, and writing scripts to work out the mechanics of the game. Below
are the scripts I wrote and what their purposes are. (4.00 hrs)
- AbducktionMaster
- Handles UI for timer and score
- Keeps track of whether the game has started/ended
- CupSwapper (Alien input)
- Keeps track of positions of the cups and receives keyboard inputs to swap the positions
- After time expires, raises duck cup, adds points if necessary and removes the TransformWrapper
- Updates cup materials when entering/exiting X-Ray mode
- StartTrigger
- Determines when the cups have fully lowered at the start, triggering the game/time to begin
- TractorBeam (Human input)
- Keeps track of the current beam position and receives controller input to move to new position
- Receives controller input to enter X-Ray mode as well as handles the logic and UI for X-Ray mode
Therefore, at this time, the flow of the game starts with
the cups being lowered and the middle one covering the duck (Figure 2). After
it is covered, the aliens use F, G, H and J to swap the cups, while Human #1
uses left and right on the Left Analog stick of the controller to move the
tractor beam to keep track of the cup containing the duck (Figure 3). This
continues for about 7 seconds, at which point the cup containing the duck is
raised. If the tractor beam is on the duck, the Humans win, otherwise they
lose. In terms of Human #2, at any point during the 7 seconds, they can press
the ‘A’ button on their controller to go into X-Ray mode for 1 second, which
causes the cups to go semi-transparent revealing the current position of the
duck (Figure 4).
Figure 2. Start of
Abducktion micro-game
Figure 3. Swapping of
cups and differing position of tractor beam
Figure 4. X-Ray mode
triggered by Human #2
Content Positive:
- Brainstormed and modified the given ‘Claw Game’ idea into
the current Abducktion
- Completed a greybox for my first mini/micro-game
Content Negative:
- N/A
Total Hours for the week: 5.50 hrs
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