CAGD 470 ePortfolio
Sprint 6 Blog
This sprint was, in a sense, our make-it-or-break-it sprint. At the beginning of the sprint, we set many lofty goals for ourselves that would address player feedback and ensure that we had a single-player and a multiplayer mode working within our game, making it feature-complete. We also wanted to try and fit most of the art assets in the game, but that will be something we save for the next sprint.
We ended up getting just 21 points done, but the numbers lie a little because those points consisted of very important work that ended up contributing massively to the gameplay experience. Things like the control screen, working AI, and having a fully complete gameplay loop all helped to make sure that the game was in the most functional state it could be in. Those points included 2 separate builds, one to test out how it felt to get feedback on tackling, and one that was essentially feature-complete with the single-player AI.
I was the person tasked with making the tackling particle systems this sprint. This was slightly more complicated than I thought it would be because I had to do a fair bit of programming work to make the actions line up when I wanted them to come out. We had the events for the tackling and being tackled set up in a way that could make it so that any of the players can perform the input, but since the player controller is separate it meant each golem needed to have this set up and have a unique particle attached. We wanted this to get done pretty early on, and I was able to set that up so that way we could test them and see if they needed adjustments or if players even liked them at all. Luckily they did, and having those particles made it a lot easier to tell what was happening.
After making a new build with those systems set up, Dylan came back to show us that players really liked the ability to see their inputs respond in that way, but we still had the issue of players who were single players not entirely enjoying their experience (aka having nothing to play against). The silver lining was that players who played against each other enjoyed the experience a fair bit more than people who were just testing the mechanics, meaning that we were at least on the right track until we could complete the whole loop. Many players noted that the game felt like an arcade game, which was the intent of the design that we built upon.
Luckily, our main man Mario came in with a pretty awesome AI system that had different states, making the game neither too difficult nor too easy especially for a more tutorial-like mode. We spent the last day of the sprint trying to make as much of the game come together in one package as we could including the SFX, particles, AI, and some of the art when we all tested the game during our last build meeting, we were all very satisfied with how it ended up and felt like we had nailed it. We hope that doing more testing for bugs and small tweaks will optimize the experience for our target audience.
The one thing that we weren't able to implement into the build was our 2D artist's work because he had technical difficulties with Photoshop, but eventually was able to finish up the poster that we will use on Itch.io. The next sprint should allow us to add the actual 2D animations that we were hoping to use as victory screens, adding yet another layer of polish to the game.
Sprint 5 Blog
Our goal for this sprint was to become essentially feature-complete with our game, which included implementing our menu systems, the tackle mechanic, and filling out the game's scene to make it feel more lively with particle effects and audiences. I would say that from a producer's perspective, we accomplished that goal quite well.
At the beginning of the sprint, we talked about the key components that we still needed to implement, the biggest of which were the tackle mechanic and the menus being connected. I worked with my team to determine how much we would likely be able to get done this sprint and how we should break up the cards accordingly. I tried to take on more secondary elements like getting sound effects and particle effects into the game while our programmer took on the big heap of the workload by finishing up the tackle mechanic. It was also up to Dylan, our designer, to try and get some testing data which, by the end, he got for the completed version of our game and we will make adjustments to our game based on it. He also helped to add audience members to the arena to make it feel more lived in.
One of the first things I did was solve the issue of players feeling like they didn't have a lot of space to move around in. Our original arena felt small so we went in and scaled the players down so that they feel more spacious, and it seems like most players are enjoying this new version better.
We also wanted to try and get some of the dramatic elements that were missing from our game like audio and particle effects. The biggest of which was the winning screen, and the scoring sounds. I worked with my designer to figure out what kind of mood we wanted to evoke from the SFX, and I quickly began scouring for sounds that would fit our game's aesthetic. For these sounds, I used Ableton (a program that I have barely any experience in) to try and do some light editing for the sounds and tweaking some levels to make them sound more appropriate for our game.
I also spent the tail end of the sprint working on particle effects for the tackle. Our feedback said that players couldn't tell when the tackle went off, and I think that it was directly a cause of the lack of visual feedback. I began to work on the beginnings of the particle effect (setting up the sprites, figuring out initial values) before the sprint ended, but right after the sprint ended I hooked it up to an event system and now there is a fully fleshed-out stun effect.
We also had a build due this sprint so we scheduled a meeting outside of our regular meeting times to make sure that all the things we wanted to test ended up in the newest version of our game, I worked with Mario to make sure we put all the necessary components into our game and review where our team was at, how we felt about what we did, how we can implement feedback, and what our goals will be going forward.
Our next goal is to tailor our game toward the next batch of player feedback, add the finishing touches, and get ready for the end of the semester with the poster art and things of that nature. I'm super excited to see what we can accomplish in the next 2 weeks and how much our game can improve.
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Sprint 4 Blog
In this sprint, we began organizing our backlog to change and figuring out the issues that we had been encountering previously. Some of the solutions I had come up with worked out well, and others didn't work out so much.
Firstly, I made sure that our player controllers were completely separate. This ensured that we would be able to have correct respawns, add the scores, and keep track of the rounds correctly. We also conducted and reviewed data from an external test this sprint, which gave us data on how our players liked how the game felt so far. In comparison to the last sprint, it was a massive improvement in terms of kinesthetics. Players really enjoyed the work we put in to make sure that our game's movement felt smooth and ice-like.
However, this sprint had a bit of a downside because I was out sick for a fairly big chunk of the sprint's duration. This wasn't too bad all things said, but it did slow down productivity because I didn't have the energy to keep up with everyone's work this sprint and get my own done, which slowed down the team's production by a fair amount. Luckily, I did try out a few things during the sprint. Some of them ended up working out, and some didn't, but I will go over that now.
The first big thing I did was add a small rim border to the arena. I spent a while to make sure it was lined up and looking decent. The reason I added this was to prevent players from being able to shoot the puck out of bounds, but later on, I had discussions with my designer about other countermeasures we could use to make sure that didn't happen, so sadly this idea got scrapped eventually because we decided that we would change how the pucks got instantiated after the player hits the shoot input.
The other thing I spent a truly sad amount of time working on was the particle effects. It had been a while since I played with Unity's particle system, but I was able to add an effect of steam coming out of the ice puck as if it were being melted by the lava.
Something else I was able to work on myself was changing the hitboxes on the goals so that when it hits a corner, it bounces but when it goes to the center it actually scores a goal. This made it so that there was a slightly bigger skill curve to try and score a goal and encourage players to try and shoot from a closer distance, which is something that we noticed from internal testing was still happening.
Later on, we will add some bounds to the goalie box so that the opposing players are unable to enter them, making it so that they're required to shoot from outside the square. We also have plans to implement a single-player mode with a basic AI version of the player that will track, shoot, and defend.
Already during kickoff for the next sprint, we've been making better progress than before. I feel like I am a big reason as to why this last sprint didn't feel super productive. I have also been working on organizing the backlog further because of the example that was given in class where cards were set for future sprints. That tool is going to allow me to figure out how much we will be able to work on and what kind of systems we need to have in the game so that we are able to get the core features done. I'm confident, now that we've figured out our player controller issues, that we will be able to finish up the game in a shippable state that actually feels good.
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Sprint 3 Blog
Welcome to the third sprint blog for Lava Golem Hockey! This week we finally figured out some pressing issues, and we know what kind of things we need to add to our game to make it feel better. But, let's go over some of the work my teammates and I did.
During Kickoff we discussed some of the things that we would need to do to get our system implemented the way we wanted for playtesting. I set up a lot of meetings to meet with groupmates about how we could solve issues with some of the systems we had. Particularly this sprint, we were still trying to figure out bugs and prepping for the game's player controllers to be separate. Going forward, we are going to have to make them separate but we figured that out a little late since we realized that there are going to be 4 unique appearances for each golem, 2 of which will have matching colors. Not only that, but the way spawning works in our game made it harder to have them spawn in separate spaces.
I conducted the internal playtest with our group to have us all come together and figure out what needed to be changed and give us all a chance to get on the same page. We already were mostly but now we are 100% on the same page from my perspective. Our production process has been a little slow so making it work with the type of system we have right now.
Because we had to figure out how to assign the workload for that during this sprint it made it harder to do work as many of the additional changes we wanted to make to the game require this portion of it to be functioning correctly. Luckily, that hasn't stopped us from making some progress and I can show off some of what I did with what we were able to do
I played around with the scoreboard in our game to allow for the text to be the right size and have it be the main display of UI information. We're going to have it display the round number, time, and scores for each player. It also gave Anthony a chance to show off his font from the previous sprint and for us to use the game state manager that had been worked on. I also made some changes to the colliders of the goals in the arena so that they functioned and actually reset the rounds
Next sprint we are going to have to hit the ground running and get to work on the changes we need. While it's nice to be able to test for some of the basics in our game, we want to be able to have the entire system ready for testing and see how that part of the game will go.
I did want to do more this sprint, but I also didn't want to push how far we could go with what we were able to do in terms of programming. I would have probably wanted to set up scene transitions and UI systems outside the game so that we could begin to play and have starting/ending along with sliders, but I also didn't wanna do it yet in case we get to designing those sooner, however, I think I will start it so that we at least have the bones in place and can go in later to make changes if needed.
Ultimately this sprint was not a truly productive sprint on my part because we spent a lot more time bug-fixing and figuring out issues as opposed to getting more work for the game done. My goal is to start the process of adding other things that don't require the player while it gets worked on and hopefully soon, it will be a lot easier to test and get player feedback on. We also set up another build a couple days ago that we will get external playtesters for so they can give feedback to us.
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Sprint 2 Blog
Welcome back to the second sprint blog for Lava Golem Hockey. This week we continued to make all the assets and systems we would need for our core mechanic. During the kickoff, our goal was to try and get our core mechanic ready for testing, but because of how difficult it became to implement what we were trying to develop it made it hard for us in the end of this sprint to have a version of our game that we could test properly. Luckily, my work didn't suffer too much because of this but I'll talk more about this soon. I continued to work on some of the essential models we would be using for the main arena of our game.
I changed the shape of our arena a little bit to have hard edges in the corners so that if the puck ever bounced in there, it wouldn't get stuck and could continue to bounce around the arena. However, the main asset I worked on this sprint was the arena stands that we will try to put other golems in so that it feels more like an arena. I wanted the arena to be more like a hot stone and have the effect of a hellish ring surrounding the main spectacle. The overall aesthetic we're trying to go for is an 80s/90s action, Marvel vs Capcom style of cartoonish fun.
I also started working on a scoreboard that we hope will display the actual score within the game itself and not on just a 2D UI. That way it feels like the other lava golems that we'll have in the scene are looking at the game as it's happening. It'll also be visible to the players themselves since it'll be in the middle of the stands. Later on, I will venture to figure out how to display the text of the scoreboard on here as opposed to the UI, which hopefully shouldn't be too bad.
Since our game is light on assets but heavy on systems, it's taking a little while to get our core mechanic functioning for testing. We have a lot of issues with how the player inputs were detected and how they spawned in. I also spent a decent amount of time setting up a movement testing build for our game so that we have something to actually feel for. And while the movement feels fine, the thing about our game is that the mechanic feeling right is going to take longer than it would for other games. This means that we're spending more time in development right now but hopefully later on, whatever changes might need to be made can be made quickly and easily. The movement as of right now does feel nice, but the puck movement and shooting matters the most for our game. After all the systems that are in our design are set up, we should be able to test for other things and I will probably be taking on more work that pertains to adjusting game balance and things of that nature.
This coming sprint, we plan to finish all those mechanics, implementing all the assets we currently have, and finishing up the ones that we still have left to do. We've already done our kickoff for this sprint, so our plan is to try and finish all those things up and get to testing immediately. That way, if there are any glaring problems we can fix them immediately. But, given how complete our mechanic will eventually be (because of how much time we're spending on making it right) my hope is that any adjustments that we would need to make would be more minor than major.
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Sprint 1 Blog
Welcome to the first sprint blog for Lava Golem Hockey. I'm Donovan, the Lead for Goalie Box Studios. Our game is a 1v1 local multiplayer game where you play as a team of two Lava golems playing hockey against each other.
When we first got into our group, we came up with a bunch of different cards that we would need to begin our development process, each of us tackling the different sections of our game that would need work like the programming, 3D art, UI, and style. After we all wrote out some basic user stories based on what our designer had told us he wanted out of the game. This made it easier for me to begin assigning work to my teammates, because we knew what we needed and because they knew what they were able to work on.
First, I had Dylan, our designer, create the UI/UX layout of what he wanted the game to feel. After that, he worked on the golem model since that's the character in our game that will be looked at the most, and because our game is relatively simple in terms of the number of assets we'll have in it, it was more important for us to get that done first. Next, I had Anthoney, our 2D/UI artist write out some scoreboard number references so that later on, he could create the font we would use for our game. Mario, our programmer, immediately began with the player controller and ensured each player controlled two golems.
Throughout the sprint, we made sure to change or add new cards that we might need after getting the basics of our sprint down or changing the ones we wrote to fit the idea that we were going for. We also had our weekly meetings to discuss other cards that we might need or just to give each other feedback on our work, which I think is allowing us to all be on the same page and have good communication with each other.
For my workload, I started with creating the main arena where the game would take place. We decided that we wanted the corners to not be completely rounded, which I eventually changed to be a flat corner so that the ice puck wouldn't get stuck. I also started it out at an expandable size so that we could pack the seats full of spectators. Next sprint, I will focus on making the stands of the arena so that we can put the awesome golems that Dylan modeled in them and use them as background props. 
Because we're going for an inverse design to ice hockey that plays like air hockey, I made the floor look like lava and the rest of the arena has a volcano rock look. I forgot to add one thing: to make the goals in the arena have a different, more vibrant texture so they're more noticeable. However, another thing I did add to help offset that in the meantime was a bright-blue flame line that stretched across the middle and outlined the goalie area of each side, signifying that the other team could not enter.
For next week I'll continue iterating on that model and importing it into unity with new textures for the goals and a bunch of seats. Because of all the great work that my team has been doing, we will likely be able to have a rough playtest that can give us feedback on our core gameplay loop. I'm hoping that when we get results from our first playtest, we can easily figure out if anything needs to be changed but I'm cautiously optimistic that our core gameplay loop will be fun.
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