Prototypes Week 11

This week I thought we were lost on the project. Every time we met up we would just sit around and say “Hammer is good......Unreal is good” and that wasn’t moving us forward. Also we were not thinking about the project design and just about engines which I thought was the wrong thing to do, I tried explaining this on Tuesday, but I don’t think I was clear in expressing what I wanted to do next for the project .
So on Wednesday I went into the Library and looked up Game Design Books on Prototyping ideas to see if the techniques suggested in these books could help better explain what I wanted to do next in the project.

I came across a book called Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton and she had this term called “Physical Prototype” where you build out your Game Design on paper instead of using software. This way changes can be made easily if something doesn’t quite work out during the design process. The more I read, the more I felt this was the same situation our group is in and this is the next stage for our project.

Also discussed with the group was an example of a test we could try. With the mind set of finding out Misdirection Techniques for Prototype tests, I played “Borderlands” and thought about how there lots of Exploration, Colleting of Items and Side Quests that misdirect me from the Main Quest of the basic Mechanic of Shooting Enemies. This got me thinking about whether I would invest so much time if these extras weren’t in the game and it was just shooting enemies while trying to get from point A to B.

So I came up with this idea for a test in which one level is just a “Get from Point A to B” level with good level design and assets, etc, but the level is just shooting enemies and getting to the destination. The other level would be the same level, but with all the extra misdirection techniques like “Side Quest”, “Collecting of items”, etc.

The team seemed to agree on both a Physical Prototype and about the way we should go about testing for our question, which had to be structured a little differently based on this new test idea we came up with which is:
“Is there a link between immersion and misdirection and does being misdirected have an impact on players being immersed within a video game?”
Making two levels, one with these misdirection techniques and one without, we will test to see if that is the case or can good level design and the mechanic of shooting enemies string enough alone to immerse players into a video game.

So this week, is all about getting a Physical Prototype working based on our level so that over the Christmas break we can create the Digital version for the Milestone on January 13th.

Prototypes Week 10

This week has been focused on creating Prototypes. I know over the weeks I have mentioned that work towards a Design Document has been needed, advice was given to try out different game engines and create some prototypes for a project.

Buy creating simple Misdirection techniques in these game engines, the team can have a better understanding of which tool set is best to create our overall project.

I have been creating small prototypes in Unity while others in the team will be creating prototypes in tools such as Source Hammer, Unreal Engine and the Crysis Editor.

Come Monday we will present our ideas to each other and see if we are creating the right kind of Prototypes and decide on the engine. Then work towards level designs and the design Document will take place.

Over Christmas work towards these and more focused prototype level will be created to be presented in our 2nd Milestone presentation a month from around a month from today (Presentation date 13/1/2011).