GameTools First Prototype Playtest

DEVLOG 1 OF 2

As a group, we decided on making all six of our prototypes with the idea of each game having elements inspired by the Dark Souls franchise by FROMSOFTWARE. We did this in order to make coming up with game ideas more natural as both of us are familiar with the series.

For my (Ben) first of the 3 prototypes I designed a 2d "Souls-Like" game with an element of skill to attacking to fit with our given prompt of game control. The combat was designed to have the player use their arrow keys to play musical notes in order to attack, with basic attacks having easier inputs. The idea for the game is that you play as a luet player, who can cast magic from playing sheets of music, which will be found throughout the game. In the full game you would be tasked to travel a semi-linear 2d sidescroller world and defeat bosses to progress till the end.

In order to fit with our theme of making Souls inspired games, the game has a similar combat loop of getting in quick attacks and dodging away to avoid attacks. If we chose to develop this game more, I would like to add proper enemy ai, aswell as expand the level and reward players for exploring alternate paths. I would also like to tie healing the player to playing notes aswell and add checkpoints that function similar to the Dark Souls franchises bonfires.

For my (Jacob) first of the 3 prototypes I designed a 3D First-person game. This game is a shooter in a pirate themed setting. The gameplay consists of shooting smaller respawning pirates and one big pirate who is the games boss type enemy. The player is equipped with two flintlock pistols in each hand, these pistols fire independently to one another. The player regains health and ammo from barrels which drop from the small respawning enemies. The player also has a dash ability inspired by the dodge/roll from Dark Souls in order to fit with our theme of making Souls inspired games.

The prompt “control” is evident in the two independent weapons which both require separate inputs. If we choose to develop this game more, I would like to add a melee option to each hand, allowing the player to use two guns, two swords or one of each. I would also expand on the boss’s behaviour and arena while expanding upon the variants of respawning enemies. The games environment would also be expanded upon with the addition of checkpoints that function similar to the Dark Souls franchises bonfires.

DEVLOG 2

As a group, we decided on making all six of our prototypes with the idea of each game having elements inspired by the Dark Souls franchise by FROM SOFTWARE. We did this to make coming up with game ideas more natural as both of us are familiar with the series. 

For my (Jacob) second of the 3 prototypes, I designed a 2D top-down shooter game. The gameplay consists of shooting smaller respawning pirates in order to survive. The player is equipped with two flintlock pistols in each hand, these pistols fire independently from one another. The player also has a dash ability inspired by the dodge/roll from Dark Souls to fit with our theme of making Soul-inspired games. The prompt “corrupted vision” is evident in the lighting of the game which obscures the player’s vision of the surrounding environment. If we choose to develop this game more, I would like to add a melee option to each hand, allowing the player to use two guns, two swords or one of each. I would also expand the arena to a series of pirate ships and pirate coves while expanding upon the variants of respawning enemies. The game environment would also be expanded with checkpoints that function similar to the Dark Souls franchise’s bonfires.

For my (Ben) second of my 3 prototypes, I decided to make a 3D action-platformer type game in which the player is tasked with getting through a linear level. I set up the level to be a straight line in which players will navigate with basic movement, paired with a jump in the form of dropping explosives to propel the player. If this game prototype is our chosen game to develop, I would like to add the ability to dodge attacks as well as checkpoints similar to the Dark Souls franchise.

To work with the prompt of "corrupted vision", I gave the game a mixed tone of an adult game and a children's game. To add a level of "jank" to fit the prompt, I made the players only source of attacking, shooting yourself in the head and having the entry point of the bullet be the damage hitbox. The world of the game was made to resemble a children's game with friendly looking bunnies as the main enemy. I then corrupted this idea of a children's game by changing the skybox to a crimson red and having bunnies impaled on giant lollypops to decorate the game. The idea I had was that this game was originally an adult game that was forced by a publisher to become a children's game and that the player is a remnant of the adult game fighting through the new children's game in order to find a way to kill themselves as being in a children's game doesn't allow the player character to die.

DEVLOG 3

As a group, we decided on making all six of our prototypes with the idea of each game having elements inspired by the Dark Souls franchise by FROM SOFTWARE. We did this to make coming up with game ideas more natural as both of us are familiar with the series.

For my (Jacob) third of the 3 prototypes, I designed a 2.5D side-view loot collection game. The gameplay consists of watering and collecting small plants around the map. The player also has a dash ability inspired by the dodge/roll from Dark Souls to fit with our theme of making Soul-inspired games.

The prompt “nature” is evident in the plant pot characters littered throughout environment. If we choose to develop this game more, I would like to add a ranged option to throw water. I would also expand the map while expanding upon the variants of respawning plants. The game environment would also be expanded with checkpoints that function similar to the Dark Souls franchise’s bonfires.

For my (Ben) third of my 3 prototypes, I made another 3D side-scroller game with a linear level. The gameplay in this game has you play as a lumberjack with an axe entering a forest and fighting rabbit enemies. The combat in this game was made to test combat ideas for our full games as we have an interest in making physics based combat of some kind. I however kept it simple and had the combat consist of holding down the attack button to ready the weapon and then spinning your character to swing the weapon. The player must also strike the weapon at the ground in order to jump. If developed I would like to tie weapon damage to velocity built up from spinning and to add a dodging system similar to dark souls.