EVALUATION
Introduction
The project task was to to design and create a story based game for primary school children, based on the work of Crucial Crew. We were given a list of issues that children have to deal with early in life, such as knife crime, cyberbulling, etc. The final product will have to effectively teach the children a lesson/warn them against the dangers these topics will present. The intended audience is pupils in year 6, so children of ages 10/11. It should include relevant language and situations that children might find themselves in, without being too scary or forward with what are essentially very serious topics.
For my game I chose the topic of healthy relationships. This was because I felt like it would be the least likely topic to be picked by my peers, and is also something I think would be beneficial for children to understand. Sex education is a part of the curriculum and yet healthy relationships isn't - it should be taught at the same time. The plan was to create an interactive game that helped children to understand some of the differences between something being a healthy relationship and not. This was particularly difficult as the main dangers of an unhealthy relationship is with a partner, as it can then escalate to being abusive; children of 10 hopefully aren't in established relationships like that yet. However, the prevention would be as useful as the cure and it is not limited to romantic relationships - it should apply to being good friends, a good parent etc. I chose to work alone for this project, so I had complete creative control when it came to the game play, art style and production.
Research
The beginning of the research process was to first take a look at the work of Crucial Crew. I played the Crucial Crew game, which encapsulated a lot of the issues that children face, and teaches them about how to deal with it. Then I took a look at my target audience, what games they are playing, what their interests are; unfortunately, no matter how hard I try I definitely wouldn't be able to create a Healthy Relationship game at the calibre of Fortnite. I looked into character development theories and Flow Theory in order to better understand making effective characters and game play.
The research I did was beneficial in order to narrow down a style and theme for my game. Knowing the genres/interests of children allowed me to make informed decisions about the type of game I wanted to make. It started out as a Point and Click game, because I felt that I could communicate the chosen topic best in this game style. However, after completing the first level, I changed to a shooter as I felt that my target audience would find it more enjoyable to play. I continued to look at my research throughout the development process, as I had collected a lot of information about what games my audience liked, the colour schemes they used and the game play types.
I could improve my research by collecting primary research, asking human participants at a primary school about what they think a good game is, their understanding of the topic etc. This would allow me to have a more solid preface to start the game on, as well as get more accurate answers to what game type it should be. I think that more specific research about the game types, would also be beneficial. There was plenty of research on my chosen topic, so I don't feel like I needed to do anymore research on that side of things.
Playtest
During the playtesting stage I used a form in order to collect the responses from playing the game. While they were playing, as also asked them for any observations and noted them down - allowing me to get their first impressions before they went onto the form. This was limited by the fact that my playtesters were not the age of my target audience. (I have personally playtested the game so many times during development that I hate it). The game is too slow for an older audience to find fun - I wanted the game to be accessible for all of my target audience, even if they hadn't played a game before.
Main Positive Feedback:
-
It is suitable for the target audience
-
The controls are simple
-
The enemies weren't too difficult
-
They understood the scenarios and felt they were relevant
-
The enemies throw poop
-
Level 2 Music
Main Negative Feedback:
-
The green text on the first scenario is hard to read
-
Game is slow in parts (mainly level 2)
-
Level 3 is harder but doesn't follow the format set up by levels 1 & 2
-
Level 1 music
I agree with most of the feedback. As I said, the game is slow/not that fun because of the age of my participants, as well as the competition of games out there at the moment. The game was supposed to be a slower, educational version of a game.
I'm glad they found both the scenarios and game play suitable for the target audience. The fact that the enemies throw poop is like when you watch a children's film as a child, and then watch it again when you're older and realise there's an adult joke. It's people talking S@'"t. Also everyone's allowed to be a bit immature, sometimes.
Based on the feedback, I changed the font colour for a scenario in the first level to make it easier to read. I also adjusted some of the speed settings in Level 2, so that the blocks move faster down the page (but not too fast, so that a child with no gaming experience can still learn to play). I then changed the speed that the player moves, therefore making the character more responsive.
There were conflicting opinions on Level 3. On the one hand, it was criticised for being so different to the previous levels (no scenarios) and for being more difficult. On the other hand, some people liked that it was more fast paced, and that it was still thematically relevant but more like a traditional game. When I first started this project, there was supposed to be 4 Levels, Level 3 being the 'Console', the character of the game having fun. I also felt that due to my ineffective problem solving, the topic had to be put into the game in a heavy handed way. There are so many games that deal with difficult issues, Hellblade, Night In The Woods, God Of War, that subtly let you know what the theme of that chapter/game is. It doesn't have to be spelled out, however I think that I was so worried about making the topic relevant to the game, the game itself suffered.
The audio was made using a basic pre-made ambient sounds mixer. My options were limited and I was on a dead line, so I threw some things together that sounded vaguely space like. The music for Level 1 I agree feels lethargic and not that fun. I am much happier with how the background music for Level 2 came out. For any future project I will use an app such as Garage Band, or commission a musician to create a score for me.
The changes I made means that all the scenarios are easy to read. The difficultly level has changed slightly now as well, which should make it more engaging to play - too easy/too difficult is a turn off for most gamers. The actual content people agreed was appropriate, so hopefully the user changes I have made will make the game better to play and less boring. I am most happy with changing the player speed, as I think this has the most impact on the user experience.
Finished Product
My finished product follows quite closely to both my Level Designs (see pre production) and the concept art I produced while completing the coding for the game. I wanted the style to be simplistic, and for the goal of the each level to be obvious. I did this by having the player passively shooting bullets, and the enemies/blocks moving down the screen. I kept the paper from my concept in my final design, as it was royalty free and I had already animated it. In the second level, I wrote the story and decided not to animate it, as there was already the movement of the blocks coming down and I didn't want it to look too confusing with everything moving. The final level has stars that move, giving the illusion of the player moving through space. I wanted the rocket to resemble the generic/stereotypical rocket that everyone thinks of, as this is more suitable for my target audience. The enemies are very basic, mostly stick figures with little colour. Again, this was to match the style of a doodle that I was going for with the game.
The game communicates to the audience with clear and simple objectives. The first level has enemies that throw things at you, which can be destroyed while shooting. It then provides an interactive moment for the player where a correct/incorrect answer will give you or dock you points. The second level follows a similar theme, although it gives points for a right answer and takes health for a wrong answer. The third level has no interactivity of this kind, as it was supposed to be a break/fun moment where it's just a shooting game, while in keeping with the theme of Healthy Relationships - places you can encounter people being unhealthy: on the computer, over text, in game chat
The audio design in the levels is very basic. The background music changes for each level and should go along with what that level's theme is. The first level is purely imaginative, so there is shooting and space sounds. There's also audio for the correct/incorrect answer, which helps the player establish (other than points) when they've done something wrong. The second level has the scratching of pencils and children chattering, as it is supposed to be during reading time. This was a more relaxed sound design, keeping the same cheer/no sounds for correct/incorrect answers respectively. The fact that the ship makes a PEW sound in all the levels is most relevant for Level 3, where the background is actually space and there are bullets that come towards you. I didn't want to overdo the simplicity of the game by drowning it with audio, so removed the sounds for enemies shooting and paper rustling.
The most important aspect of the first two levels is the players choice for the right or wrong answer. The game is also interactive as it only has one set of controls, and it is up to the player to avoid obstacles/shoot the targets by being positioned correctly.
Personal Development
I think I have improved in how my design process works and researching the relevant information to help me make more informed decisions. There has also been an improvement in my decision making, for me to decide to scrap my whole first idea was an important part of me understanding my own boundaries. Also being able to take a step back and say, this is crap, I don't like this, and start again showed me that it's not worth putting effort into something you don't believe in. The idea of making a game that I don't even like isn't something I'd ever want to do again, and feel that for future reference, that feeling of deleting it will remind me to stick to my values.
I have now got a greater understanding of Construct, and of game logic in general. Having now made 2.25 games with Construct, I am more confident of my abilities to try out other programs. I'm going to look into Blender and Maya next to see what I can do graphically to improve my games, as well as Unity, which would allow more complex games and mechanics to be made. I also used Twine for the first time, which was beneficial for my planning process; this was something that helped me to improve the structure of my game and to map out the consequences for the mechanics.
Coding is always a challenge for me as it is not my strongest suit. There were many bugs that took me hours to figure out simple solutions for, and if nothing else the ultimate challenge when it comes to game design is overcoming your own frustration. A lot of the bugs were so specific, I couldn't even look them up. So, I went through a process of having multiple layouts for each level, changing the code to see if I could fix it without destroying my original coding. Through this frustration though, I discovered the use and importance of Families in Construct; one of the best things I could have found for this particular game.
I still need to develop the art style and making games that aren't so basic in nature. Creating games that are fun, interactive and take you on a journey without bullet pointing that journey right in front of you is going to be the greatest challenge. I want to improve my story telling ability, and the use of more complex programs like Unity to make games in the future.
The new skills and even the lessons in failure have opened my eyes into the actual game development sequence. For the future, I know that I definitely don't want to be a part of coding the game, but would love to be a part of the testing sequence and fixes bugs. Catharsis. I believe that besides the obvious things I have learnt in this process, using Construct, using Twine, researching, the real things that will help me with a future in education/the work place, as the lessons that can only come with practice, such as, problem solving, frustration, fixing a bug and feeling like you just solved the most important thing in the whole world but in reality all you did was stop the player going through a solid object.
Overall I felt this project went ok. I'm not really that happy with the result, for the things mentioned earlier. I feel as though I'm comfortable with Construct now, and what to do to fix it when it went wrong. The research has always been my strongest aspect and I feel I was prepared in theory for making this game. The coding was still the most difficult part for me and it took me longer than I thought to get this game made. I didn't get a chance to put my final level in, or the highscore mechanic. It's not a polished game and it's not particularly interesting, but it meets the brief and it's not that rubbish point and click game I started out with. If I could start again with greater skills, I'd use unity to make the game look better, and get better sounding audio. The levels don't have much substance to them, more because I didn't know to make healthy relationships work in a game like this for an audience like that. I had a lack of imagination for how to deal with the brief, but I gave it my best shot and it turned out just above ok.