Development

First Concepts

• The initial basis for development was to brainstorm mechanics that had to do with emotions. The mechanics of the game would be based off of the emotional tone of the game, more or less. I began developing the first concepts for the game centered around this idea, and designed the main character with this in mind. The player design ended up being a little devil with a water gun full of tears-- the challenges they would have to shoot would become their own personal burdens (in the context of the game, of course). The 3 emotions I sought to explore were depression, anxiety, and shame. 

Asset + Level Design

• Based on the emotions that I chose, I designed 3 levels to depict these. Each level has a different mechanic, as each enemy has a different attack in combination with how the player should defeat them. 

Mechanics

• The main mechanic included would be projectiles for the player. Left/right arrow WASD controls, and a jump mechanic was also included for movement. The enemy mechanics would also be projectiles, but each enemy had a different mechanic. The first level, for example, has horizontal projectiles only, while the third has bullets that target the player. 

What Went Right

Asset Design

• The asset design for this game went smoothly. Although time consuming, the game was visually appealing at the least. I spent a lot of time drawing the assets together and sizing them appropriately in their sprite sheet on Photoshop. 

Theme

• I found the theme of the game to be cohesive with the visual design as well. One important aspect of the game I wanted to keep in mind was the overall theme. The cohesive look and feel of the gameplay was a focal point in development. In a future iteration, I would like to develop this further. 

Scene Control

• Scene control also went well. I had several scripts for each individual scene with their controls; each enemy needed to be able to trigger a win or lose scene. I found this process to be simple, but other mechanics could also be improved in this area. 

What Went Wrong

Projectile Errors

• On the last level of the scene, there is an error where the player cannot fire bullets. This is a strange error that occurred only after several rounds of playtesting, and remains an issue. Although disappointing, it is a minor error that can be solved with a little effort. The player projectiles on the last level are crucial for the gameplay; the bullets fired by the enemy must be knocked away by the player’s bullets. 

Quitting/Menu Option

• Although scene control was relatively easy, some features were forgotten in the process. A pause/quit option screen in the main levels, as well as enemy levels, were absent. This made it difficult for the player to quit when they chose, as well as pause during a level.  

Future Development

Mechanic Fix

• The main priority in this game is to fix the projectile mechanic. It is crucial to the gameplay and makes the last level challenging as well as entertaining. I also would like to increase the involvement of the player in the first two levels, and improve the enemy’s mechanics as well. I believe this would deepen gameplay for the player and make it more challenging. 

Improved Scene Control

• As well as a pause and quit button, other aspects of the scene control could be improved. For example, the instructions button in the main menu needs to have a detailed guide of how to play the game. Another addition could also be sound options, or an option to respawn on the same level after a death. These would increase the options that the player has and makes it much easier to navigate the game. 

Difficulty

• The difficulty of the game could be improved in a few ways. I think making the enemy AI more involved would be one way to iterate upon this. Having the second and third enemies move and shoot a different variety of projectiles could increase difficulty. Another option would be to change player mechanics, such as a speed decrease.