Creating a single-player game: from idea to prototype
Listeners of our game management project temoon and Mazoo are now participating in GamesJamKanobu 2017 with an unusual physical action puzzle game where you can change the direction of gravity. The game is called Graviman.
Under the cut you will find a detailed story by Artem and Tanya about the work on this project from the inception of the idea to the creation of the prototype. Well, download the prototype and play the game on the project page on the jam. If you like the game, be sure to vote for it.
I love games and lately I realized for myself that I want to do them.
')
That's why I came to VShBI to learn, put together a team of like-minded people and start making the game. I wanted to do something extremely simple and at the same time a finished product, working on which you can go through the full development cycle and which will also become a project for graduation protection.
At that time, I took the first steps literally in everything: I began to comprehend 3D modeling, to study Unity; In VSBI, something new was constantly being discovered: dizdoki, analytics, game economics, player psychology. And one of the evenings, sitting in the train, I watched another lesson on creating a "snake" in Unity, and it dawned on me!
Just a couple of days before that, I watched a video about indie developers and there was a piece about FEZ. I was very hooked by the USP rotation of the two-dimensional world. I wanted to make a "snake" with the mechanics of FEZ. Everything looked brilliant in my head. The snake had to eat apples in the current two-dimensional projection, while its world itself was three-dimensional, and it needed to be rotated not only left and right, but also up and down.
For several hours, I threw the first prototype with a rotating cube and a snake of primitives. The next day, I corrected and let my friends play. I explained the controls, and just stood and watched them play. Immediately realized: there was no motivation to rotate it. You can just have the appearing apples, as in the standard "snake". Then I decided to add obstacles to the field, and in such a way that in different projections they would block access to some part of it, and in order to get there, if an apple suddenly appeared there, it was necessary to turn the field, i.e. change the projection.
It was the most hardcore "snake" in history: no one could predict where it would crawl after the next turn - people constantly bumped into obstacles or into a tail. The idea, and with it the prototype, was thrown into the basket without regrets.
After a while, I was inspired by another famous indie game: VVVVVV. And already on her USP (instead of a jump - a change of gravity up and down) my brain layered 3D.
This time the prototype was born about a week. Since the attack failed to implement the mechanics of the change of gravity by the forces of the basic components of Unity. For example, the standard CharacterController did not want to rotate vertically and when the gravity went up, the player landed on his head.
I had to write my own character controller: it was necessary for him to realistically run, jump, bend down and, of course, get up on his feet when changing gravity. The Internet, as it turned out, is full of almost ready-made solutions for this task, but looking ahead, I will say that in the end there was nothing left of that code except, in fact, the basic concept: what, after what, in what order to change and move .
The first prototype consisted of three rooms: the first was empty, just with access to the ceiling, the second with three boxes stacked in a column that had to be pushed into the corridor in a sly way, and the third was all of the thorns, terribly scary, where it was necessary to fly from the entrance to the exit, changing the gravity by 90 degrees to pass.
It must be said that it was then that all the basic mechanics were invented, which migrated to the version that is now, even though in the second prototype gravity did not change globally for all objects in the world, but only for the player, turning it into such "Fly", who knows how to walk on the walls.
I created the levels myself, modeling in Blender. Due to inexperience, it took days, one of which gave birth to the progenitor of the demo version that is now. It was then that I began to think about the gameplay, trying to improve the players' perception of a rather complicated mechanics. I wanted to make management simple and natural, and the increase in complexity - as smooth as possible. Special thanks to the VShBI teachers who, while playing my game, gave feedback and advice.
In February of this year, a lecture day was held at VSBI, where everyone could attend open lectures. Also there was organized a showcase of game projects of graduates and those who studied at the program on gamedev at that time. I decided to participate. In fact, it was then that the project moved from the idea stage to the development stage.
On the night before the show, I didn’t sleep at all - I collected a prototype, “polished” the level. To show, I had a desk, chair, and an old Linux laptop. I showed both the new level and one of the previous prototypes, where the mechanics were slightly different. Tried to evaluate what more "will go." On that day, about 15 people stopped at my stand: I each gathered a priceless review and talked.
There were both those who tried to understand the game, and those who gave up quite early. Almost immediately terrible bugs surfaced. Then there was no way to fix them and you had to help pass some places.
Returning a little back, I want to note that initially I did everything on my own. But I was not enough for everything. Over time, I began to feel real gaps in the work on the project.
If you measure from the current moment, then approximately in the middle of the way, I suggested Mazoo , also a student of the “Game Projects Management” program, to fully integrate into the project. All the power of this decision I can feel just now. Then we simply divided the responsibilities, agreed on responsibility and began to work together on the game.
According to Mazoo
In the first couple, not being a team player before, I continued to make some decisions on my own, for which I “chopped” from my partner, but over time I stopped making such mistakes, learned to agree and the process of working on the game went at full speed.
By the way, one of such inconsistent decisions was participation in GamesJamKanobu 2017. In a flash, the project went into a very active stage. We have already found four artists who are ready to work “for the idea”!
The state of permanent krancha is very close. One of the important decisions that we made at the very beginning is a daily stand-up (although it’s almost at midnight), where every team member tells about what he did today, what difficulties he has with and what plans to do tomorrow. Thus, everyone stays up to date on the project and motivates each other. In addition, it is a great way to immediately see the problems and make adjustments to the work.
And here we are:
To date, more than 400 people have played in the demo version, and the project itself is in the top ten of the users of choice. There are 6 people in our team: a producer / programmer, a game designer / screenwriter, a lead artist, an artist and two 3D modelers.
Here is a link to the current implementation of our project at GamesJamKanobu 2017, where you can read about it in detail, see, play and even vote.
We will be happy to answer your questions in the comments.
Under the cut you will find a detailed story by Artem and Tanya about the work on this project from the inception of the idea to the creation of the prototype. Well, download the prototype and play the game on the project page on the jam. If you like the game, be sure to vote for it.
Idea
I love games and lately I realized for myself that I want to do them.
')
That's why I came to VShBI to learn, put together a team of like-minded people and start making the game. I wanted to do something extremely simple and at the same time a finished product, working on which you can go through the full development cycle and which will also become a project for graduation protection.
At that time, I took the first steps literally in everything: I began to comprehend 3D modeling, to study Unity; In VSBI, something new was constantly being discovered: dizdoki, analytics, game economics, player psychology. And one of the evenings, sitting in the train, I watched another lesson on creating a "snake" in Unity, and it dawned on me!
Just a couple of days before that, I watched a video about indie developers and there was a piece about FEZ. I was very hooked by the USP rotation of the two-dimensional world. I wanted to make a "snake" with the mechanics of FEZ. Everything looked brilliant in my head. The snake had to eat apples in the current two-dimensional projection, while its world itself was three-dimensional, and it needed to be rotated not only left and right, but also up and down.
For several hours, I threw the first prototype with a rotating cube and a snake of primitives. The next day, I corrected and let my friends play. I explained the controls, and just stood and watched them play. Immediately realized: there was no motivation to rotate it. You can just have the appearing apples, as in the standard "snake". Then I decided to add obstacles to the field, and in such a way that in different projections they would block access to some part of it, and in order to get there, if an apple suddenly appeared there, it was necessary to turn the field, i.e. change the projection.
It was the most hardcore "snake" in history: no one could predict where it would crawl after the next turn - people constantly bumped into obstacles or into a tail. The idea, and with it the prototype, was thrown into the basket without regrets.
After a while, I was inspired by another famous indie game: VVVVVV. And already on her USP (instead of a jump - a change of gravity up and down) my brain layered 3D.
First, second and third experience
This time the prototype was born about a week. Since the attack failed to implement the mechanics of the change of gravity by the forces of the basic components of Unity. For example, the standard CharacterController did not want to rotate vertically and when the gravity went up, the player landed on his head.
I had to write my own character controller: it was necessary for him to realistically run, jump, bend down and, of course, get up on his feet when changing gravity. The Internet, as it turned out, is full of almost ready-made solutions for this task, but looking ahead, I will say that in the end there was nothing left of that code except, in fact, the basic concept: what, after what, in what order to change and move .
The first prototype consisted of three rooms: the first was empty, just with access to the ceiling, the second with three boxes stacked in a column that had to be pushed into the corridor in a sly way, and the third was all of the thorns, terribly scary, where it was necessary to fly from the entrance to the exit, changing the gravity by 90 degrees to pass.
It must be said that it was then that all the basic mechanics were invented, which migrated to the version that is now, even though in the second prototype gravity did not change globally for all objects in the world, but only for the player, turning it into such "Fly", who knows how to walk on the walls.
I created the levels myself, modeling in Blender. Due to inexperience, it took days, one of which gave birth to the progenitor of the demo version that is now. It was then that I began to think about the gameplay, trying to improve the players' perception of a rather complicated mechanics. I wanted to make management simple and natural, and the increase in complexity - as smooth as possible. Special thanks to the VShBI teachers who, while playing my game, gave feedback and advice.
First showcase
In February of this year, a lecture day was held at VSBI, where everyone could attend open lectures. Also there was organized a showcase of game projects of graduates and those who studied at the program on gamedev at that time. I decided to participate. In fact, it was then that the project moved from the idea stage to the development stage.
On the night before the show, I didn’t sleep at all - I collected a prototype, “polished” the level. To show, I had a desk, chair, and an old Linux laptop. I showed both the new level and one of the previous prototypes, where the mechanics were slightly different. Tried to evaluate what more "will go." On that day, about 15 people stopped at my stand: I each gathered a priceless review and talked.
There were both those who tried to understand the game, and those who gave up quite early. Almost immediately terrible bugs surfaced. Then there was no way to fix them and you had to help pass some places.
Team building
Returning a little back, I want to note that initially I did everything on my own. But I was not enough for everything. Over time, I began to feel real gaps in the work on the project.
If you measure from the current moment, then approximately in the middle of the way, I suggested Mazoo , also a student of the “Game Projects Management” program, to fully integrate into the project. All the power of this decision I can feel just now. Then we simply divided the responsibilities, agreed on responsibility and began to work together on the game.
According to Mazoo
Hello to all!
I also study at VSBI, and from the very beginning my main goal was to make at least a small, but working prototype. By that time I had a lot of ideas and drafts of various games, but they remained on paper. Especially for studying at VSBI, I began to work out a mobile game about a cat, such a stepping stealth puzzle adventure game (of course, with pumping :)). On such a game it is best to work out all those techniques that are given to us. Immersed in Unity to make the prototype itself. But we need a team.
Therefore, looking around - who does what of the fellow students. Our teachers called for: “Unite in teams!” And now I understand how correct this is.
What can I give the team? First, I am a mathematician, so the whole mathematical part can be on me. Secondly, and this is more important to me - these are the stories in the game. For the last couple of years I have been actively learning everything I can reach (from Cursors to Creative Writing School) on how to tell stories using games. But of course, programmers were needed first of all :)
The first game of temoon , 3D snake, was cool, but did not cling. But when he showed the first prototype of Graviman, it immediately became clear that there was a fan in the game. So introduced such an indie Portal. Therefore, when temoon offered to unite, I agreed. In this game there is a challenge - how with the help of a mechanic and puzzles, going from the gameplay, show the story, and I accepted the challenge.
But it was not just the game. During your studies, you look at people and it becomes obvious who you can work with and who you don’t. Temoon has several qualities that were important to me. Firstly, he clearly knows what he wants and confidently moves forward. Secondly, he thinks by mechanics, completely perpendicular to my thinking, so we do not overtighten the "blanket" of inventing gameplay from each other, but complement. Well, the third important quality - he knows how to listen and agree. And the fourth is that he also knows how to disagree :) After thinking about all this, I decided to put the cat aside and focus on Graviman.
Initially, there were several ideas on how to justify the fact that a hero can change gravity - space, laboratory, or subconscious. They abandoned the idea of ​​space - in this setting you need to be an expert not to make a hat. The lab is already in Portal. But the subconscious - a rich topic, then you can think of anything, although the abundance of options - this is a minus too.
I wanted to make not just a walker in the subconscious, but a story in which the main character is transformed, and where it is extremely important for him to go through his subconscious mind. Thus was born the concept that the whole game is one moment in which the hero is between life and death, in clinical death. And he has to go from the end to the very beginning in order to find a resource in order to live. Or decide it's time to break free.
But on paper, writing an idea is, of course, easier than in a game. As planned from the second level, characters appear in the game, and the big question is how to insert them into our minimalistic world so that they look harmonious.
Should they fall when gravity changes? How to draw them? Maybe it should be a shadow? How with a minimum of text (or without it at all) to convey what happens between the characters? Maybe the characters, in general, need to be abandoned? How to make the plot go from the gameplay, and the game does not turn into a walking simulator?
There are a lot of questions; they have to be solved by possibilities. Now four artists have joined us and I have high hopes that together we will develop a single style, and accordingly, this will help in the construction of the plot.
Jam
In the first couple, not being a team player before, I continued to make some decisions on my own, for which I “chopped” from my partner, but over time I stopped making such mistakes, learned to agree and the process of working on the game went at full speed.
By the way, one of such inconsistent decisions was participation in GamesJamKanobu 2017. In a flash, the project went into a very active stage. We have already found four artists who are ready to work “for the idea”!
The state of permanent krancha is very close. One of the important decisions that we made at the very beginning is a daily stand-up (although it’s almost at midnight), where every team member tells about what he did today, what difficulties he has with and what plans to do tomorrow. Thus, everyone stays up to date on the project and motivates each other. In addition, it is a great way to immediately see the problems and make adjustments to the work.
And here we are:
To date, more than 400 people have played in the demo version, and the project itself is in the top ten of the users of choice. There are 6 people in our team: a producer / programmer, a game designer / screenwriter, a lead artist, an artist and two 3D modelers.
Here is a link to the current implementation of our project at GamesJamKanobu 2017, where you can read about it in detail, see, play and even vote.
We will be happy to answer your questions in the comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/326572/
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