Levels, Scenes or just layouts?

I have been calling these things all of those things and more, like maps for example. Though all they are in reality is a level layout made up of walls. See the problem, haha.

Below is several of what i am talking about.

The Red blob is the starting spot for the level.
The Yellow blobs are the 10 spots where Civilians might be (depending on how many are required for your current stage)

The first one also has some images of the battle taking place along with some lines that depict where some of the enemy movement will be.

So now i have all 10 of the SCENES or MAPS created. I have also done the data tables for the teleport spot and where all the civilians might be. So next up is to actually start designing real enemies for the individual levels. As it so happens there will be two scenes to an enemy type, and luckily for me i have chosen 5 distinctly different enemy types. Check them out below....

1. Ninjas (fast and throw fast shurikens at ya)
2. Aliens (classic egg shaped head, technologically advanced)
3. Pirates (slow moving but fire exploding cannonballs at ya, and maybe boomerang parrots no less, YAR!)
4. Zombies (yup a players favorite. These guys are dumb as they come, they throw limbs at ya)
5. Robots (one of my personal favourites)

As you might have noticed from my list. I have covered a Whos who of enemy/bad guy types that are popular in games currently. I am fortunate that i can make all these types quite different to each other, to enhance the overall gameplay experience. Whilst also being able to promote this game as having all of them in it.

So, my next job is in fact to decide which of my scenes best fit the gameplay styles of the enemies. I have to choose two scenes per enemy type. should be easy right ?

Time will tell.

G'night

A Shooter Decision Followup

I have done it. I have made a decision, and one that i am happy with. Or at least think i am at the moment.

I ground down the issue to as few Major questions as i could. Then tried my hardest to answer them truthfully. I had help from other XBLIG Devs (thanks DrMistry, theBigDaddio) and a few friends (Jeff and Paul). So without further ado here are the questions i distilled it all down too.

1. Will people who buy the game feel ripped off with only 13 levels?
2. Will this negatively effect my downloads of the game?
3. What effect will this have on the View of Sorcerygames overall quality?

I had a lot more questions at first, but am very happy now with only three that i care about.

So..
1. I think people will not feel ripped off. They will spend a single dollar and get a game that if they are good they can play through the whole thing in about 35-40 minutes (still gotta test exactly how long). I think this is great value for money, as it will take them some time to get good enough to actually do this. So realastic time this game is worth must be about 3 hours or more.
2. I do not think the number of downloads will be effected by the number of levels. Noone knows how long the levels are etc, so a number is just a random piece of information. Though i do believe that there is percieved value in a higher number. (i have 100 levels etc!). In the end the quality of the gameplay is what will sell this game. As that is what it is designed for.
3. This one concerned me the most and in the end cost me the most sleep. I have decided though that quality can be measured in various ways. For this title it will not be the graphics or the effects all over the place (like my other title Pellmell was). This one is about the pure simple addictive gameplay experience. This is where I believe the game shines. Yes, i have SFX on button presses and i will have other quality type stuff in there, bought music and shared hgh scores etc. So for 1 Freakin Dollar this game is gonna be a great addition to the Sorcerygames portfolio.

So there you have it. I have made my choice. I have already designed level 13 and it is in. It makes me giggle when i play it, so i must like it a lot. Now i just need to create level 12s level aliens triggers, and the levels are first pass done. Maybe i'll get time to look at the leaderboard sharing code soon. Not that i am looking forward to that work, bah! But someone has to do it.

Thanks for the input everyone,
Laters

Making better Blog + A Shooter Decision

I have been quite active over the last couple of months trying to improve my Blogging skills. So far i have introduced Pictures, this i loved, and a picture can speak a thousand words. Then recently i aded my first video. Ok, so these are a bit more time consuming to create, Also Youtube will only allow me so many videos per my account (8 i think), so not sure waht will happen with that when i get really going. In the last and a couple of previous posts i have introduced coloured text. I wasn't sure what it would come off like, but tbh i am quite happy. The effect is much better than i expected. Now i just need to work on refining what i highlight, and with which colours.

So far i hope you would all agree that my blogging is getting better and not worse in the visual department. I am not so certain from a creative standpoint though. Simply because i get no comment reactions, so it is hard to know what to do. Till i have a better direction i will carry on with my meandering writings.


Really Important Decision to be made...

On a more serious note, i am in a quandry over 'A Shooter'. It was supposed to be a 1 dollar game, but the time i am putting into it are expanding this. The gameplay is exactly what i wanted, and i think aweome. The issue i am having is what to do with it. I can see i have a further 9 levels to create, and i am not sure anyone will truly appreciate the work i will have to put in to finish them properly. I still have a lot of work on the overall balance for the existing 11 levels. So my thoughts are... So far there is about 25 minutes of gameplay so far. So if I add just 1 more level, and then maybe do a special Boss for level 13 (seems appropriate), will the game be any worse for it ? I do not think so, and it will have about 35 minutes of gameplay too at that point. I think the sales will be exaclty the same as if i have 20 levels. I can always do a sequel if people love the gameplay and mechanics, but at this time i think i am just overdoing it.
In all Seriousness.... What Do YOU Think?

A Shooter Gamplay Trailer - Level 11

The Advanced Levels. This is where i start throwing more at the player. Make them move around more than before. Further down this article I will describe my design phylosophies to achieve this goal. Firstly though, there is the Video to show you the level. This will help anyone understand my waffle.

There ya go, I Hope you enjoyed Level 11.

Now onto some details. Let's start by getting around some basic facts...
1. I took a hit at the start. Yup, i should have been paying more attention, my excuse is that i was distratced by Fraps :D (always gotta have an excuse ready!)
2. I died on the end Boss. Yup i did. You didn't think i was spoil the Boss for ya now did ya ? I will some time int he future do a real EOLB video compilation. so people can get hints if they want to. Not today though. Or maybe he is just too good for me ?

Ok, let's get on with discussing my design goals here...
1. One goal i have is to make the Advanced levels distinctive. The previous 10 levels could get a bit forgetfull, and that was ok. They were really training, for what is to come.
2. Second goal was to make you move around more, any fool can sit still and shoot something. Though i did today toy with a boss you had to stay completely still to destroy him.
3. Was to make my test graphics as colorful as a set of Smarties :) (or M&Ms)

For the levels to be more Distinctive i am going to choose paterns, patterns of Aliens you will recognize and say 'Woah it's the Big Red Blocker level', or words to that effect. Though if you really say it out loud, people might start looking at you funny. This level is in fact the Big Red Blocker Alien level. They are there to make it harder to shoot the aliens that are your real enemy, the ones that are actively trying to shoot you down. as these blockers move around. It forces you to move around too, especially with all those bullets flying your way.

Making you move around is really part of the last paragraph. The blockers block you from annihilating the weak enemy ships, and therefore allow more bullets to come on screen. The best part is that the longer the small enemies are on screen the more angles they will be firing at you from. Therefore making you move around even more. This same effect can be achieved by putting aliens on the screen from the sides or back (as I have done in a previous level).

Pretty test graphics... Well, i had to be able to tell them apart. And why not make test graphics pretty. The color of the enemies or even their looks does not play in any part of the gameplay. The gameplay will be the same, and just as solid as it is now, when the graphics look beautiful. This is also the same for the boring backdrop. It is only boring for screenshots, cos anyone playing the game won't see anything but the aliens and their bullets, well only that .. if they want to survive.

I hope you can see these easy to use ideas for gameplay mechanics, as they are easy to implement and also can work for platformers and FPsers.

Laters

Level 10 is done for A Shooter

ok, so when i say 'done' i should use air quotes or something. what i mean is it is now in Alpha-Beta state :)

Either way, i now have the first half of the game created. Tonight i solved bugs in the single and multiplayer games. I added some niceties that i probably shouldn't have bothered with, but i like them.

for example.
When you play as a single player game, you start the game in the vertical middle. Seems correct now.
when you play as a two player game, you are both offset from the middle by a nice looking amount.
Three player games are the similar vein. One in the middle and two spread nicely out to the sides.
Well i like it, so i guess that is all that matters. Stupid professionalism. bah! costs me time ;)

Anwyay, i got level 10 in, and then decided to play through all the first 10 levels again. To my dismay i got beaten up on the Boss from level 8 again. This is the 3rd time in a row now he has manhandled me. I may have to change him. Or just practice him, lol.

Maybe i should do anotehr gameplay video of just how nasty he is. He is the one that fires a stream of trajectory bullets that number... 65. Yup, he rapidly fires 65 bullets at you. It's freakin cool!

I really need to sort the audio out better, but i guess it's just on my list. Which is actually quite a short list after tonight. Mostly i have 10 more levels to do. then balance them all together. So far, the first 10 are pretty good.

I'll do another video of what's going on real soon.
G'night.

A Shooter progresses

My friend and co-conspiritor Paul has purchased an Xbox360 Elite today. This makes me very happy, and him also haha. I would also take bets that his two boys will be over the moon!

I am hoping this will allow me to test some multiplayer code soon, though once i have finished this game most likely. and talking about my latest game.

A Shooter now has 9 levels. Ok, so really it has 8.5 levels and 9 bosses, but that is close enough for me to feel good about rounding it up 8D

I am probably going to do a mid-work in progress video for it this weekend, though i have a doubles tennis match to attend, and sadly a going away party for one of my colleagues, who is moving onto bigger things come monday. It is a sad day. But also a happy one.

I must say that i am still finding my new shooter fun. I guess i just love dodging bullets so much. Maybe the video will show you just how much!

G'night.

ps. i hope to start including some new pictures from sunday onwards. I have just been too busy, and not quite working on the right subject matter that is photogenic