EVALUATION
WHAT
Evaluating
WHEN
26/11/2018
The project was to create a Google Doodle and a companion mini game, in doing so we went through the process of concept, design, rules and playtesting.
I used Photoshop, Adobe Animate and Construct 3 to complete this project. Through Photoshop I was able to create all of the assets for my game, as well as a rough animatic for how I wanted the final animation to go. Adobe Animate is the best software to use in animation, with lots of tools and tricks that are implemented well and can really help when animating. Both of these can be quite complex tools to begin with, however my familiarity with Photoshop and the aid of YouTube tutorials, I was able to pick up how Animate works fairly quickly. This was my first time developing any sort of game, so at first I struggled with Construct. However, once I had the basics down it was fairly logical as to how to add new mechanics/assets. The way Construct is laid out is simple and easy to follow, even as a beginner. I especially found it beneficial to continuously play and replay my game, making changes with everything that I add. Problems and bugs that had bothered me early in the development cycle I found that I could now fix, having spent more time with the software.
I wanted to communicate to the audience the importance of 'Dogs With Jobs' within our society. Through the Google Doodle, I was able to include 6 different dog jobs: Police Dog, Guide Dog, Fire Rescue Dog, Sniffer Dog, Herding Dog and a Sled Dog. Several of these were more obscure and difficult to represent than others, for example here in the UK we don't have many dedicated sled/fire dogs, however in countries like America, fire rescue dogs are very common.
For a lot of people, both guide dogs and police dogs are the most recognisable dog job types. Initially, I wanted to create a game that had 7 mini games within it, giving each dog it's own curated game. It wasn't possible to do so, and therefore the other dog's inclusion to the game is less significant. I chose to put them on the loading screens when I didn't have time to create character selection, and included puns that indicated to the dog's job. This was so the people playing would hopefully be able to clearly identify the dog job I was trying to represent.
On social media, even small causes can become largely supported issues. It was there that I learned of Finn, a police dog that was brutally stabbed protecting his handler in 2016. In the UK, one of the available charges for someone who seriously injures or kills a service animal in the line of duty is criminal damage, as they are considered as being property. I find that horrifying, and it is an example of something that - to me - seems incredulous, but that I had not even thought of as a consequence to these animals. Due to this, I based the Police Dog character off of Finn; by including the web address upon completion of the game I would hope that many people who played it (if it were to be a real Google Doodle) would look it up.
I believe my Doodle clearly communicates the theme of dogs, and through the linked mini game an emphasis on the importance of dogs with jobs. There is a consistent style which is used in both the Doodle and my game. People should clearly be able to take away from it that dogs are an important part of our lives, especially the ones we use to assist us. I have also linked a current event in my game about a police dog named Finn and a law that's trying to change how service dogs are treated.
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My first dabble in Construct had me following a tutorial to make a very basic shooter. From this I learned about spawning enemies, fade effects and the 'bullet' behaviour. In my second practise, I made a platformer from which I took a lot of inspiration for my final game. Both of these practise games are incredibly simple and use royalty free graphics; the ideas for them are unoriginal and bland. Due to the fact that my game was linked to my Doodle, I was able to give it a bit of character and almost a story, which helped to flesh out what is essentially a very basic platformer.
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I chose purple for the tone of my game as I believe it gives a cool night-time feel to it. The darker foreground also helps the character to stand out, rather than getting lost in the background. I took heavy inspiration from Night In The Woods, which keeps a tonal pallet and geometric shapes in it's art style. I wanted to create something that was visually satisfying but simple, which I think I achieved. One of my grievances with the background is my choice to use blocks, as these quite often line up and can become lost in the shapes of the background. If I were to recreate this game, I would change the colour of the blocks, make them smaller and perhaps even outline them - as in one of my moodboard images with the neon platforms.
I targeted my game at children, 7 and above as some of the themes could be scary for children any younger. My research helped me with this as the character design and background are simple but clear, which helps to effectively communicate my idea.
The game itself contains collectable items, which are used as ammo in the later levels. This is a basic mechanic of all platformers and although it works, I feel like it wasn't particularly original to have the dog collect bones. I had considered changing it to something more nefarious, and having the dog fight a human robber at the end; I decided against it as this game would have to be suitable for all if it was truly representing Google. Cartoon animals and creatures help to dull the reality/true nature of the event. So although the cat is dressed as a robber, it seems less frightening or threatening than if it was depicted as a human.
To begin with I had issues with a glitch when the player moved, the character would jump backward/forward. I have since (to my own multiple play-throughs) fixed this problem by moving the origin point on the animations. This is an issue that was created in the drawing process as I didn't make the character sprites the same size, and they therefore had different origin points. In the future I will ensure that sprites I create are the same height and width to avoid this problem.
The bones spawning randomly was not what I initially wanted to happen; I wanted the bones that I placed in the level to respawn five seconds after they had been collected. I could not find a way to do that without resetting the level (and therefore the player and enemies too) so decided to randomly spawn bones in selected parts of the level. This has caused a lot of them to overlap - however, it is necessary otherwise the shooting/ammo mechanic wouldn't work.
The enemies I created have simple set moves and patterns that do not make them particularly interesting. I would like to have given them more complex move sets and animations if I had the skill to do so. An issue with the fourth level (with the hoovers) is that because the enemies randomly spawn, the player can be hit and die - even somehow taking three hits of damage and moving them back to the previous level - if they are standing there.
I asked this question rather than 'did you enjoy the game' because if a person is enjoying themselves it should feel like a short period of time has passed. If they feel a long period of time has passed, it is likely that they felt the experience dragged on. Some people didn't know what to put, and in hindsight for a game that is short like the one I created, it doesn't reflect as well as a question.
Everyone felt that they could play the game again without looking at the instructions which is a good indicator that my game is suitable for my target audience. Only one of the players was a gamer themselves, and they asked me after why the control scheme wasn't WASD. I felt that for people who don't regularly play games, they would be more accustomed to the arrow keys, and would be more comfortable using two hands to control the player rather than one.
This was another question designed to see whether the game was too difficult or not; granted the enemies I have are very basic so it would be perhaps more useful in larger scale projects. It also shows that having the 'loading screens' proved to be useful for some people.
People generally enjoyed shooting things, which is perhaps a reflection on what people get out of games. Someone also commented on the artstyle which was nice to see, as I drew everything myself. Overall, the levels that included shooting were the most popular; deciding to add that in was beneficial to the game.
People enjoyed the hoover enemies the least. I think I already anticipated that as I had found on my own playthroughs that their random spawning could lead to what could be perceived as unfair death. However, you could also argue that it forces you to have a strategy to use the platforms above to wait for them to spawn, as they do have a pattern.
The respondents found this difficult to answer, as for non gamers it's an odd question to try to think of other mechanics for the game. The common consensus was that it was too short and too simple, which I could fix by redesigning the levels to be more difficult and have smaller platforms so the game space was larger.
People found the game mechanics easy to understand, which means that the objective to collect the bones was easy and the enemies were basic enough that you can learn how to defeat them. Everyone I asked in my test group were adults, and they would therefore find the game targets/mechanics too easy to understand. The function of this game was not supposed to be difficult though, so this is more of a reflection on how an older audience would view the game. A novel gaunt, probably.
The enemy intelligence question was simply conformation on what I was already concerned about. The lack of a functioning AI, and my limited understanding of construct meant that the enemy movements were janky and simple.
People gave my game a 3 or above for it's fun level, and I'm happy with that. In order for it to be more fun I would have to present more challenges and fix the hoover situation. I think that changing the platforms style and size, therefore increasing the playable area of the game, would fix the length issue. I'm not sure how to fix the hoovers, whether it would be possible to implement an initial flash animation of the player being hurt when first hit, and then having a second hit kill the player. It is something that I will take into account on future projects.
Another issue that people identified were the bugs/glitches that they encountered in the game. The majority were caused by the player animation becoming stuck when walking/jumping into objects, and that the hit box for the player doesn't work properly.
Having bugs in the game is a diminishing factor in player's positive experience.
Some of the bugs could be fixed given more time, and if this were a game for release I would constantly playtest and bug fix until there is a polished product.
In this project I have learned to use two new pieces of software: Consruct 3 and Adobe Animate. Although there is still much to learn, I feel as though I have a solid foundation to build on now. From Construct, I have learned the importance of iteration, and how the changes to what appears to be a simple line of code can affect how the game works. Animation is a far more complicated matter, as it takes a lot of time to master. However, the skills from both will surly aid me in future personal and professional projects.