Game Design Megathread

[McJob]

Edit: I played through the demo and when ever I was jumping through the air it felt like I had little to no control over where I was headed after making the jump.

Thanks for the headups. I'll get some feedback at our next playtesting session on Wednesday. It's a very simple value change; my guess is that we changed the character's mass and friction, we forgot to compensate with the air control. Don't want it too high though, else you could probably cheat your way anywhere.


Bad news, guys. We've had to cut the turret level. Turrets will now be implemented into this current level.

That said, CS6_1200 includes a metric stuff-ton of performance increases, including reduced lightmaps, level streaming and less post-processing effects (toggles coming in a later version).

Again, we won't be releasing this version, but instead plan to launch the latest version on the Friday. Our final submission date is Friday next week, so that will be the full vertical slice release.

[Ad Bot]

[Rainzx¹]

[Glass Joe]

Very cool, reminds me of the wedge blocks from Mario World except as an entire game.

[ßlöükfáce]

i assume you can't touch the red? it's looking good so far

[McJob]

I need priority level help. This has become as major as the name implies.

Firstly, here's some now useless concept art and logo design. forget me sideways, these weren't easy to make either.

This WAS my Major Project for about 7 weeks. On Monday I did my final presentation; I got torn to absolute shreds. Every bit of criticism (which was fair, necessary and helpful) was leveraged at me and now I'm in a real forgetin' pickle. I need to redesign my entire game in 2 days so I can submit a game design document and not have to retake MP1.

The original gameplay idea was that there were three stages to gameplay; first words would appear on screen at the bottom and you would need to choose the most appropriate given the situation (for example, typing the word "bridge" or "jump" when they appear onscreen and you can see a hole in the floor). The the words would be integrated into the world itself, and they would lead to different story paths. Finally, you would need to quickly recite coding syntax sequences, almost like those rapid button mashing games.

I have to scrap all of that stuff, and it's my fault for being a stuffty designer as well as stupid one (I should have had at least 10+ ideas instead of putting all of my eggs in the one basket).

My teach has suggested I do something more graphically intensive; something along the lines of Thomas Was Alone where the world is made out of simple blocks and colour. He's also suggested I make a game that lets the player enter in words (sort of like a mad-libs books) and that I have to score them based on their grammar, style etc. At the end I'd present them their story, similar to Facade.

I'm really loving confused on what direction I should go. All I know is that I need to make a game with text. Does anybody have some ideas I can launch off with? The mad-libs idea is good, but I don't have 2 years to get the amount of detail that's necessary (look at Scribblenaut's library and just how many cross-interactions exist between each keyword), and I'm completely lost on how scoring would work.

[Bushido]

ooooHHH

I WANNA GET INVOLVED

[Foxscotch]

I need priority level help. This has become as major as the name implies.

I have one suggestion
get rid of this

[McJob]

I have one suggestion
get rid of this

What a great suggestion. You've completely saved my major project, allayed my fears and put me back on track. I really do appreciate your attempts to give me "constructive" feedback, and it helps that said feedback is really what I was looking for all along. It's not like I'm internally freaking out or stressed to hell with other things and this has come as a giant kick to the balls which you're just further rubbing in. Absolutely not. Instead, your post was a glorious masterpiece of assistance and wealth of knowledge that will take me years to continue to break down and deconstruct for its utter magnificence.

[Rainzx¹]

ooooHHH

I WANNA GET INVOLVED

Sorry, I'm more looking for people that live in my area.

[PurpleMetro]

What a great suggestion. You've completely saved my major project, allayed my fears and put me back on track. I really do appreciate your attempts to give me "constructive" feedback, and it helps that said feedback is really what I was looking for all along. It's not like I'm internally freaking out or stressed to hell with other things and this has come as a giant kick to the balls which you're just further rubbing in. Absolutely not. Instead, your post was a glorious masterpiece of assistance and wealth of knowledge that will take me years to continue to break down and deconstruct for its utter magnificence.

im sorry i can't offer any advice so i probably won't be as helpful as foxscotch if any, but all i can say is i think you should calm down first. being stressed out about it is wasting your time and it isn't going to help anything. don't look at the criticism like a bunch of rocks being thrown at you, think of it on simpler terms maybe? break down the game into simpler parts and see what you could redo on a bigger scale to make it seem better

[Waru]

What a great suggestion. You've completely saved my major project, allayed my fears and put me back on track. I really do appreciate your attempts to give me "constructive" feedback, and it helps that said feedback is really what I was looking for all along. It's not like I'm internally freaking out or stressed to hell with other things and this has come as a giant kick to the balls which you're just further rubbing in. Absolutely not. Instead, your post was a glorious masterpiece of assistance and wealth of knowledge that will take me years to continue to break down and deconstruct for its utter magnificence.

what noteworthy thing have you even done?

[McJob]

being stressed out about it is wasting your time and it isn't going to help anything.

It's not exactly easy to avoid. This is what happens when somebody you look up to utterly brutalises your favourite idea and you're left in a bad situation.

think of it on simpler terms maybe? break down the game into simpler parts and see what you could redo on a bigger scale to make it seem better

He said I should start over from a completely new concept because my original concept was basically stuff, which I can agree with. I just really don't know what direction to take.

I was just thinking of a game where you have to enter in keywords in order to change filters so that you can find objects hidden behind other objects; kind of like those mini-games you see in places such as Mass Effect where you have to turn on and off switches until you find what you're looking for, except this time you have to enter words that are relevant. I dunno if that'll work, though.

what noteworthy thing have you even done?

Why should it matter? I want advice because I'm a day away from failing this class and losing more money, and suggestions about logo design (something I didn't ask for) aren't going to help me in any way, shape or form.

Normally I'd laugh it off but right now in my present mood I'm not exactly feeling happy and carefree.

[Foxscotch]

suggestions about logo design (something I didn't ask for) aren't going to help me in any way, shape or form.

sure they will
I know I'd be a lot less likely to take you seriously if I saw that and I was grading papers or... games, or whatever

[McJob]

sure they will
I know I'd be a lot less likely to take you seriously if I saw that and I was grading papers or... games, or whatever

You would seriously judge a game by a copyright slide that is skippable and stays onscreen for 2 seconds?

What's even wrong with it? It's my hat and my name stylised with the game's font and colours. I'm sorry that I'm not a 6-year graphic design student who can only make hyper professional logos that are sharp and have no personal meaning whatsoever.

[Foxscotch]

You would seriously judge a game by a copyright slide that is skippable and stays onscreen for 2 seconds?

if it was the copyright slide for the person who made the game, yes

What's even wrong with it? It's my hat

that