Week 9 Reading and Writing
Over the past 8 weeks, I have read several articles and publications on Game Design and Development. Some have been difficult to digest, and others were a joy to read. All of them were informative, and contained valuable insight into game design. Writing about them in an academic manner has occasionally been a challenge, but has been as important as the reading itself. Academic writing is not always my strong point, as I am very expressive, and like to add opinion and personal touches to my writings. However, it is a skill that I will need in the future, and now is a good time to get some practice in.
I have learned and / or refreshed a great deal from the weekly readings. There are an awful lot of elements that seem quite obvious when reading about them. But when it is time to implement them myself, they are easily forgotten. For me, they stressed the importance of planning the game first, before even opening a game engine. This was very useful in my own design. I would definitely have opened Unity first and started playing around without creating a plan. Creating the Vision Statement and the Game Design Document made me consider smaller details that had a rippling effect on the design choices I made. These choices were helped along by information I learned from the readings.
My favourite Reading was Design Considerations, by Greg Aleknevicus. The points he makes in this article really affected my own design choices, and the whole time I was reading, I was mentally applying the advice to my own game. He speaks of many things that seem obvious like having an effective and clear box design and artwork, having numbers on cards both ways, and leaving room for player pieces on boards. The main theme is "Common Sense", but oftentimes it is rarer than it should be.
I am happy with my project so far. Since my last blog post, I have added an animated Player Graphic, an inventory, and interactable items that can be placed in the inventory. I have hit my stride, and I am thoroughly enjoying the process. I believe I can deliver a good portion of what I intended to create, however the scale of the game will be cut severely. I am still unsure how much Player Customisation I will actually be able to add. Classes, abilities and custom armour and weapons may be more of a stretch than I had accounted for. I would possibly have to learn how to use Blender to create different armours, but it is a feature I will try and make work if there is time. My top priority at this point in time is Gameplay, and making sure all of the systems work.
I have learned and / or refreshed a great deal from the weekly readings. There are an awful lot of elements that seem quite obvious when reading about them. But when it is time to implement them myself, they are easily forgotten. For me, they stressed the importance of planning the game first, before even opening a game engine. This was very useful in my own design. I would definitely have opened Unity first and started playing around without creating a plan. Creating the Vision Statement and the Game Design Document made me consider smaller details that had a rippling effect on the design choices I made. These choices were helped along by information I learned from the readings.
My favourite Reading was Design Considerations, by Greg Aleknevicus. The points he makes in this article really affected my own design choices, and the whole time I was reading, I was mentally applying the advice to my own game. He speaks of many things that seem obvious like having an effective and clear box design and artwork, having numbers on cards both ways, and leaving room for player pieces on boards. The main theme is "Common Sense", but oftentimes it is rarer than it should be.
I am happy with my project so far. Since my last blog post, I have added an animated Player Graphic, an inventory, and interactable items that can be placed in the inventory. I have hit my stride, and I am thoroughly enjoying the process. I believe I can deliver a good portion of what I intended to create, however the scale of the game will be cut severely. I am still unsure how much Player Customisation I will actually be able to add. Classes, abilities and custom armour and weapons may be more of a stretch than I had accounted for. I would possibly have to learn how to use Blender to create different armours, but it is a feature I will try and make work if there is time. My top priority at this point in time is Gameplay, and making sure all of the systems work.
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| This image is a favourite of mine. It captures what I would love my game to emanate Source: UHD Paper |
Above is one of my favourite images that I have shared in my blogs so far. Aside from the fact that it looks insanely cool (hats off to the artist linked above), it signifies the moment that my game took shape with the GDD. It encapsulates the feeling that I want players to feel when facing the final boss; Trepidation, excitement, awe. If I could achieve those things in my own game, I'd consider Inferno Lair to be a success.
I shall continue on with the weekly readings. If there's one thing that I could do going forward, it is giving more time to actually absorb the information in the readings, rather than try and scan for the important pieces of information to include in the blog. I will attempt to heed my own insight, and give myself more time.
- Ultan
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