I have found using a site to track how many hours I have been working on each aspect very helpful, and now have a rough estimate to how long each area of game design takes me. I have got quicker at scripting, and understand the ins and outs of Unity much better than before.
Feedback from playtesters has been invaluable. From this, I have been able to adjust the doorways and provide extra hints as to the direction the players should take. I was able to build on the parts the players enjoyed such as having friendly fish following you, and can expand on this further still with more animals to interact with as I continue development.
Some players even left technical feedback – One commented about moving the players movement to fixed update to fix stuttering, which led to me discovering the settings that were causing the uneven movement. Another has suggested adding shadows to the menu options to make them stand out from the background, along with a shader to make the buildings semi-transparent when the player is behind them, both of which I hope to implement soon.
I also hope to improve on the endogenous design aspects of the game. Due to the short playtime present in the demo, I ended up putting far too many facts into text. I plan to spread these out more naturally for the player when I expand the level, for example making it so that the player can learn which fish interacts with which parts of the environment themselves. This could be taken further by adding an item system, so the player has to ‘equip’ the fish instead of having prompts, and by adding animations as the fish are used, to provide visual hints. Things like having a parrotfish move towards the seaweed and slowly much away at it should provide much more impact than just pressing the button and having the seaweed disappear!
I would also like to add accessibility options and the ability to change the sound. Following comments from the final webinar, adding a brightness scale could also be included, as other screens may be different to my own. I managed to make transitions between the doorways have a fade on them so they are less abrupt, although in the future I hope to improve this further with an animated loading screen. Adding some kind of hint or marker so that the player knows to take the zooxanthellae back to the goby at the beginning would be helpful for players, and one player also somehow broke the jump, so there are plenty of areas in need of updating.
While I am aiming to keep track with the Gantt chart I created for the proposal, spending a couple of sprints at a time to create 3 new areas linked up to the main street I have, having progressed enough to know how much is needed just to create a demo I predict that reaching the level of polish required to actually release may take slightly longer than I had planned. However, the events I will apply for should act as good milestones.
I knew that I wanted to create visually interesting places (involving animals!) for players to explore before I started the course, but I never expected to be able to actually create something all by myself with my lack of coding knowledge. I have learnt so much over the past two years, and hope to continue learning and building! Thank you very very much to everyone I have met and worked with along the way!
Research questionnaire I have sent my form to my supervisor to check everything is correct. He suggested I get feedback on form then alter it if need be. This was a good idea, as my first lot of feedback had people answer both to the first question, which isn’t right. I need to make sure that the fact coral polyps are animals is clearer in the game, so although this wasn’t form related it was good to catch it early!
He also mentioned about researching survey size and asked how many results I am aiming for, explaining that Roscoe calculated that variations stayed the same above 30 results. However, I am struggling to get this many results. On further reading I discovered “sample sizes are always limited by the resources that are available. Researchers practically always have resource limitations, and therefore even when resource constraints are not the primary justification for the sample size in a study, it is always a secondary justification” (Lakens 2022).
“Therefore, in situations where a large sample size is not possible, “researchers should report both the appropriate sample sizes along with the sample sizes actually used in the study, the reasons for using inadequate sample sizes, and a discussion of the effect the inadequate sample sizes may have on the results of the study”” (Bartlett et al in Memon et al. 2020).
Since I currently have less than half of the recommended amount, I understand that my results are not as complete as they could be and that I cannot obtain a clear idea of whether my question has been answered in a satisfactory way. I shall attempt to find more players before the submission date to remedy this.
As I have also had to ask friends and family to complete my questionnaire, I probably have selection bias as part of my study (Siva et al. 2019).
For example, I know many of my family are also interested in animals, and many of my friends are interested in games already. However, I do not have the resources to get results from more of the general gaming population. Although I also tried asking on Twitter, this only added a couple of answers to my total.
Bubble particle This is to make it more obvious that the game is set underwater, and is also an appropriate visual effect for player interactions with corals, etc (Packt Publishing Limited 2022).
Night mode
Emissive textures really bring the night version of the level to life. It is optional for this demo, but in future I would like to make exploring the city at night a scripted part of the game.
Jumping Having modified this tutorial to create the jump, I just need to add a jump animation to complete the player (Unity Visual Scripting Tutorials 2022). If I have extra time, adding an animation for the player to point when sending the fish at the obstacles would be a nice addition.
Mentor meeting 15/11 Use signs or lights to indicate which areas can be passed through. Add a special sound for when the colour comes back, so the player knows that’s a really good thing. Look up Indie games at EGX Yorkshire games festival
Sprint reflection Adding polish makes a big difference. It also surprised me just how much of the level I would like to re-do; many of the animations could be cleaner, much of the UI could be improved and the areas could contain more corals and background scenery, among many other things! I think it must be a good sign that I am still exited to work on it and looking forward to developing the game further once the course is complete. My next step is to create the video for submission, so development on the game itself will slow down a bit. However, I should still be receiving results for my questionnaire including playtesting feedback, so if there is an opportunity I can continue polishing alongside.
After 3 modules I finally discovered how to add sprites to sorting groups so they won’t clip over each other! This means that my characters can now be on a set layer without me having to change each piece of them (Unity Technologies 2022a).
I also learnt about the Get component so that the animator on the sea bunny can work with the player movement script.
UI research
I realised some of my playtesting feedback related to the affordances mentioned in The gamers brain when I was researching UI. Specifically, the physical affordances. I had a player mention that they didn’t notice the button in the middle of the screen, as they were reading the text below. Making this button large enough and close enough for the player to notice once they were done reading improved this (Hodent 2018:179). I believe there are other areas mentioned in the book I will need to consider more in-depth when I finish making the demo – These include perception and motivation. I will need to work on knowing my audience and their expectations, as they may not include as many regular gamers (Hodent 2018:92), as well as making sure the meaning and sense of purpose enhancing the motivation (Hodent 2018:94).
More sounds (A list of potential sounds which may or may not end up being used)
Updated screenshot. The pink light is to draw the players attention to the alleyway.
Playtesting My notes while watching them play
Wanted to turn camera to look at anemone Wanted to talk to characters that didn’t have words Characters head went through building Didn’t notice give button for anemone or parrotfish Buttons are broken again! Gap by Parrot house Loves the watercolour Make character skip when they have more fish Wafty coral in background Munching noise for fish Another low door in intersection House needs to be coloured after giving zoo Maybe hints to go back and give to main person on street? If player can get too many they can pick branch, which makes the rest unobtainable
As my mentor mentioned, it’s very useful having extra time scheduled after a playtesting session so I can go around fixing all the bugs and stuff I’ve seen. I will continue to do this even when we finish, as I continue development.
I think I need to prioritize so I get the most important parts done before submission. This would mean getting g the coral information in and making sure the menus are accessible, as well as disabling the multiple jump on the main character. Could also start thinking about the video, and how to structure it. I am slightly behind in this sprint so far, I should have had the UI sorted by now.
I am also thinking about changing the playtest feedback questions. Although I received less answers than I had hoped, they gave a brief overview. However, I think that using the Schell questions as I did last project (Schell Games 2017), might provide me with more insight. I feel that more areas I didn’t expect got mentioned when I did the playtesting this way previously, so I would like to change my playtesting questionnaire before the project finishes.
Colours
I used my initial sketches to create a colour palette for the game. As the corals have been drawn using watercolours, I will use these for the digital characters and menu themes within the game (COOLERS.CO. n.d).
Lighting I intend to make the lighting using the same colours from the palette too, with the exception of the starfish street, which is designed to more purple and spooky.
Lights within the level. A material on the sprites allows them to be illuminated too.
Timekeeping So that I can more accurately estimate how much time I will need once I finish the demo and move on to fully developing the game, I have been using a site to keep track of all the different aspects to work on. This has been very helpful, and I will continue using this for the remainder of the project and beyond.
Using Toggl (Toggl 2022) has let me track how long individual tasks are taking me.
UI elements Using the Game UI database provided inspiration for my coral menus (Coates 2022). These games use large images as choices, which would fit well with close-ups of the coral polyps.
Rayman mini menu
All of you menu
Text for speech bubbles
Corals are animals which have tiny tentacles to catch their food with.
Intro text wip:
‘A Coral is actually made up of hundreds of tiny animals called coral polyps! The ones called stony coral polyps attach themselves to rocks by secreting limestone, and eventually grow into huge coral reefs like this.
Our reef isn’t looking too great at the minute though…
See, the coral polyps can’t survive on their own. They need to work together with microscopic algae called zooxanthellae which live in their tissues. These algae give the coral their colour.
But when the water temperature changed, the corals got stressed, and expelled all their zooxanthellae! That’s called coral bleaching, and it’s why they’re all white now.’
Menu text wip:
Table corals: Their large horizontal shape ensures their zooxanthellae get plenty of light. They also provide cover for larger fish!
Pillar corals: They can reach up to 2 metres in height, reducing the energy of storm surges near the shore. They don’t have any secondary branches, like branched corals do. (Zoological Society of London 2022) and (Marhaver 2015)
Branching corals: Easily recognisable, they provide cover for many different fishes. They are can grow quite quickly but can be fragile. (Helgason 2018)
“As corals try to rebuild, they compete for space with seaweed. Colorful parrotfish graze on seaweed, which gives corals more room to grow and repopulate” (WWF 2019).
Post-processing
Post-processing working in the level! Unfortunately this makes the file too large to work as a html game, but it adds atmosphere to the game.
Making the research question questionnaire:
The beginning will be similar to the questions used in the Minecraft coral conservation class (Hobbs et al. 2020). This is to determine how much the player knew about coral before playing and whether the player has an increase in knowledge after.
Relating my final questionnaire to the human nature interactions such as knowledge acquisition and likelihood to engage in sharing of information over social media should be included too (Silk et al. 2021).
In this example of a questionnaire used before and after families visited a tourism site, two similar versions of the same question are used before and after the experience. “Hence, the question asking “how often does your family participate in public land/water clean-up activities?” became “how much do you agree with the statement: Our visit has made us more likely to participate in public land/water clean-up activities?” Using the same level of specificity for intentions and behaviour was considered important because this maximises the chances of intentions predicting behaviour (Sutton, 1998). Predictive power is also enhanced if the number of response categories for intentions and behaviour are equal (Sutton, 1998); consequently, all measures of intentions and behaviour used five-point Likert-type scales. Behavioural intentions were further explored by asking respondents to indicate on a seven-point scale (1 = not at all to 7 = a great deal) how much their intentions to engage in conservation practices had changed as a result of the Mon Repos experience” (Hughes 2013). Results were also recorded using a Likert scale, which I can continue adapting from my previous form.
The forms themselves can be accessed from the Itch.Io page, for the players ease of use.
It was a very productive sprint, although the amount of polishing required is still slightly daunting! Playtesting has been exceptionally helpful, especially when it is in person and I can watch how the player goes through the level making notes alongside. The amount of small suggestions that could improve the experience need recording. I’ve found writing lists with these tasks and ticking them off very satisfying. I was also very inspired by being a play tester for my mentor and seeing how much she had set up for her game along with all the different mechanics. I hope one day I can create a game on the same scale! I feel I am still not confident at creating the design for the UI, despite having researched the interfaces used in other games. I have tried to keep it simple for the submission, but this is an area I will definitely need to improve on further when I continue development after finishing.
Bonus screenshot… The sprites folder looks a bit like an ID guide!
References:
COATES, Edd. 2022. ‘Game UI Database’. Game UI Database [online]. Available at: https://www.gameuidatabase.com/ [accessed 8 Nov 2022].
My experiments with Meshroom didn’t quite go to plan. Although I did manage to understand the basics, my images either weren’t clear enough or too dark, and I may not have had enough. I don’t think I have the time to experiment with this further, so I will not be using it as part of the project. I intend to try again after I finish the MA, to see if I can make a couple of detailed buildings.
Unity – Fungus
Putting facts about the corals in when you purchase them is an easy way of getting information to the player, but is not as endogenous as it possibly could be?
Playtesting My playtester liked the different camera perspectives – however I spotted that the different angle when the player goes down an alley might confuse people (although this player wasn’t). They enjoyed jumping. They got annoyed when the person talked again when they stood nearby. However, I don’t know of any other way to have the character be able to interact without having to press something to interact, which adds more difficulty for some players?
Sprites: After having difficulty with the sprite transparency I managed to sort it with this thread (Unity Technologies 2022). I am getting more used to how the URP works now.
Gathering references for the zooxanthellae How can I make them look like something appealing for the player to collect? My current idea is to have them glow or maybe emit some kind of particle.
(Santos n.d.)
(Ho 2015)
Adding buildings to prototype
Feedback from playtesting with family – make it look more coraly and natural
By adding the sprites to the level I can determine how the scenery might look. I was going to use decals to impose the photographs onto the geometry, but this hasn’t worked well with the more complicated buildings. From here, I may just include a mix of decals and sprites.
This actually led to an interesting result that I would like to experiment with further. It adds to the paper craft feel, and I could adapt it depending on the camera angles. I will try building up one of the side streets in this style, to get more of an idea if it will work for the majority of the project.
Think about the visual culture behind your world. Should the interfaces in the game be diegetic – can be seen and heard by characters in the game too, or non-diegetic, seen only by the player in the real world (Chow 2018). I could integrate the menus into something similar to a shop advert/sign?
Mentor meeting: Changing the sky box will add a lot to the level. Make a full gameplay loop to test. The clipping on the sprites doesn’t matter, kind of adds to the look? Have a proper intro and ending, even for the demo – make sure someone could play it through without you explaining it to them.
Change the questionnaire – put up my results from the first one here, change to make it less biased (research this and likart scale) and change for the next test. I have chosen to not include a neutral option, as while researching Likeart scale development I discovered research that notes “A second desirable characteristic is that the scale has no Neutral or middle category” (Nemoto and Beglar 2013).
“These outbreaks may be a result of overfishing of the crown-of-thorns starfish’s primary predator, the giant triton or they may be a natural phenomenon. These starfish are known to be more successful at preying on large swaths of coral reefs when the corals are already stressed. During times of coral bleaching or stresses caused by human activities, outbreaks of the crown-of-thorn starfish may be particularly destructive. These starfish feed by inverting their entire stomach, through the mouth, and digesting the thin layer of soft tissue off of a coral’s skeleton, right in the open environment, and sucking down the available nutrients”.
“Acanthaster planci, commonly known as crown-of-thorns starfish, or COTS. COTS are corallivores who prey directly on corals, and a rapid increase in their population or an outbreak can substantially reduce live coral cover on a reef.
The cause of these destructive outbreaks has been difficult to identify, but numerous theories attribute them to pollution and high local nutrient inputs, enhanced levels of phytoplankton and subsequent increase in larvae survival, overfishing, and decreases in their natural predators” (Carlton et al. 2021)
“Clownfishes are small bodied (maximum size 8–16 cm) and predominantly feed on plankton in the water column and algae around their host anemones [21]. They form small groups with a strong hierarchical social structure based on body size. They are protandrous hermaphrodites with the largest fish being a dominant female, second largest an adult male and the rest of the group are immature [21]”. (Camp et al. 2016)
“Clownfish perform an elaborate dance with an anemone before taking up residence, gently touching its tentacles with different parts of their bodies until they are acclimated to their host. A layer of mucus on the clownfish’s skin makes it immune to the fish-eating anemone’s lethal sting. In exchange for safety from predators and food scraps, the clownfish drives off intruders and preens its host, removing parasites” (Camp et al. 2016)
Sprint 5 Reflection
While a good chunk of progress was made this sprint, there is still lots to think about. I ended up swapping my sprints around, since from the advice of my mentor it is a good idea to have the full level loop completed before animating the characters. This was a good call, as tweaking all the text took a while, and I see that it is better being sorted now than causing the game to be buggy further down the line. I have been using family and a couple of friends to playtest, but it has been very difficult to get anyone else to play. Even posting in the University server hasn’t been very productive, so I may resort to asking people individually.
Bonus rigging screenshot!
References:
CAMP, Emma F. et al. 2016. ‘Cohabitation Promotes High Diversity of Clownfishes in the Coral Triangle’. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283(1827), 20160277.
Mixing my separate test projects together resulted in many materials not working! When I finally got everything back in order, I also tested lighting. I believe I can also make this affect the sprites, but I am going to focus on the city first.
25/08 I can’t get the camera to rotate within the bounding box, meaning no different angles yet. Perhaps locking the camera to the buildings would work better? Another problem is the sprite, which I think needs to be billboarded for the camera to turn and still see it face on. However, currently when the camera is turned controls are still set to specific direction, so even if the sprite rotates this wouldn’t solve the controller problem.
One solution I have come up with is to be more like Final Fantasy 7 – have rooms (so will need areas where the screen goes black as you swap places) and have them all face the same direction, then there would be no need to rotate the character sprite or change the controller!
I discovered Coral City Camera while searching for any other uses of the name ‘coral city’ (Coral City Camera 2022 2022).
The live webcam is good to observe the behaviour of the fish!
30/08 I fixed the counter not updating when zooxanthellae are spent after following the Udemy course ‘Make Games without Code? Master Visual Scripting in Unity!’
My paper model is developing. Drawing out building ideas first is more helpful, and gives ideas of where to have new areas of coral grow for the player to explore further
Realized I need a proper hand drawn map of the area so that I don’t get lost deciding what to build. Video principles such a nodes and paths should be used in my map, and maybe taking away the mini map I had planned would actually be a good idea (Oueijan 2022).
Game Jam 03/09 – 12/09 Doing a game jam with the theme ‘water resilience’! This has a two week deadline, and at the end we must show the idea/concept for a game about water resilience and related to climate change. This will be good practice at creating a ‘serious game’, and I can relate what I learn with my own project. We are basing the game around flooding.
(Add notes from conference and feedback sessions)
We came second! There might be an opportunity to continue working on the presentation we made, and get involved with serious games further. Learning from people who were so enthusiastic was amazing, and combining games with real science was great. Sarah did a fantastic job programming the mechanics for the video we made and the game can be found at: https://sarahdotgames.itch.io/turtle-town.
City planning
City map plan – divided into different camera zones, so that I can piece together what I need to make.Paper building
I am slightly behind on the city building schedule – Although I do have the majority built, I haven’t yet projected this onto the geometry, nor decided whether this is the best way to go about creating the city.
Photogrammetry
Testing Meshroom (Uptodown Technologies 2022) with a small model! If this works, I may try to make the entire street with it. It does make the laptop work hard however, so perhaps small chunks will be better. I have also got fungus installed, and have been testing it out. It looks like it may provide a much simpler way of creating dialogue, and possibly even the conditions to connect the dialogue to the appearance of corals or shops.
Sprint Reflection Making the paper models was fun, but is taking longer than I thought. However, I have managed to plan out the areas I will attempt to put into the engine. I may be able to take pictures and duplicate some buildings to save on time. I have also installed Fungus, to help create a dialogue system for the characters. My next step should be to sort how many zooxanthellae there are and where they can be found in each area. This should help me to finalize which creatures to have assist the player.
Forgot that tags exist and needed the player tag for camera to work, spent two days figuring this out. Built up grey box and drew map of city for reference and to use in paper?
25/07 Pleased to discover I could fix nodes not appearing with knowledge I gained form 720. Making the collectable system and waiting for feedback on proposal.
Made counter system for picking up coins Connected project to Github Making user experience storyboard Drew characters
Asking for more opinions is good! Will get feedback on proposal soon. Should attempt to put feedback on others too.
My main question to myself is: Are the mechanics complicated enough? Do they need to be, as long as the core game loop is fun?
Proposal notes: Include Github under feasibility Source control is very important! A figure shouldn’t be there unless it is mentioned in the text. Look at how to find out if people talk about the game after playing, or integrating the questions into the engine for guaranteed feedback.
Hold small regular tests to see if people feel anything about the reef after playing While looking up sea charities (Coast Magazine 2021), I discovered that one called Seaful actually has links with Falmouth University already, so this could be a good opportunity for further collaborations (Seaful 2022).
31/07 Considering list of deliverables – how to make it appropriate for my project. A steam page mock up and pitch deck could be an idea. Writing the list for prototype deliverables has made me realize how clear I need to be on the amount I plan to make, and how much time I might need to spend working on it after it is finished for the MA.
Further mechanics – player can only have 3? species with them at a time, so they have to pick which to take exploring, and some puzzles will require them to have all the correct species to get past.
06/08
Took a while but finally partly understood how the script worked so I could fix the part that wasn’t going to plan. can now subtract coins/zoo from the collected total
08/08 Last three months before publishing are most important for marketing Use the hand made models onTwitter Ask questions as part of your Twitter post Don’t need to aim for 2 hours gameplay Use Itch Add time in schedule for fixing bugs/ etc after playtesting
‘Can fantasy games encourage players to care about the real world coral reefs’ or ‘Can using a coral reef aesthetic in a game inspire players to learn more about the real thing’ something along these lines? Trim the proposal!
Sprint 4 Review – Coming soon This sprint I have less reflective notes, as most of my time was dedicated to writing the proposal.
To do 10/07 Attempt to write an abstract Proposal: Personas /user description / Storyboard / Prototype / User testing / Limitations Prototype: Get decals working / find map making tutorials / Design: Core gameplay loop / Areas of the map / Characters / UI Rough draft
(VIRTUAL JAPAN 2020)
(VIRTUAL JAPAN 2021)
(VIRTUAL JAPAN 2021b)Screenshots of the streets
Using my Miro board and a large variety of screenshots I started putting them into groups for potential area inspirations. I will use these to make a street in Unity to test my camera set up and decals, and then work on some mechanics for the player.
12/07
Proposal writing guide from webinarWhat we should have by now
Other webinar notes: If you are making a commercial game – think of the places where you can get it out to people – Develop:Brighton (Develop:Brighton 2022), etc. Show what the problem you are trying to solve is in the proposal. So for my idea, this would be something along the lines of: Using games to teach people natural history/ecology of reefs in order to raise awareness of the issues facing them.
Skills audits – Build on the graph made in 720, are you a T person or I person, etc.
The proposal should have an appendix of the things you are going to achieve – This could be done in the form of a checklist of activities/features. There should also be a checklist of things your video will address. For mine, it may be beneficial to include how I intend to establish a route to market?
GDD I wrote up a GDD so that I could convey my game idea to Jamie. This was a useful exercise for pinpointing some of the details I need to think about, and should probably have been done earlier. Next I will need to make a list of potential assets/mechanics needed.
I have been drafting a rough copy of the proposal. Printing out and highlighting parts of interest on actual papers earlier on was a good idea, as I have discovered I find it easier to read through on paper, and can collect my thoughts together better.
Prototype level
In line with the goals from the Gantt chart, I am aiming to get a basic prototype up and running by the end of the sprint. I am building on mechanics I used in 720, as I now know how to have the player hit collisions and ‘pick up’ items. I plan to use the Codemonkey (Code Monkey 2021) tutorial to learn how to create a counter for collectables.
20/07 I really need to get a move on with a rough draft of my proposal, and continue the prototype to have basic mechanics. It might also help to convey the idea better if I have some visuals, so as well as testing my building decal in the prototype level I will do some rough sketches and colour tests for the characters and environments.
To find the current state of corals, I have looked at the global coral expedition report (Carlton et al. 2021:12).
Something similar to include as a message? Or link to with social media when promoting the game? (US 2019).
Idea for reef zones to make up different areas of the city (for a change in environment).
Sprint 3 reflection: Finally have a grasp on the details of the project and have a rough draft ready. Also started on a prototype. Not sure if prototype mechanics are too simple? But this may be because I am underestimating how much time it will take to implement all the details and create a high level of polish. Started drawing the characters (more very sketches), and its surprising to see how helpful it is to add them to the prototype and the feeling it gives having them in place. Is it ok for the majority of my development to be spent on art features?
DEVELOP:BRIGHTON. 2022. ‘Develop Conference 2021 | Develop:Brighton Brings Together the Whole Game Dev Community | Develop Conference’. Develop Conference Brighton [online]. Available at: https://www.developconference.com/ [accessed 30 Jul 2022].
Decided to work on the game idea itself as I was feeling lost with the research question. I thought this may be because until I have my idea planned out, I have less direction, so since this project is similar in nature to what we worked towards in 720 I made a lean canvas.
Lean canvas for coral idea
Going with the coral theme means researching the different types of corals. I discovered 8 main types, which led me to the idea of the player goal being to find the zooxanthellae for each type, recolouring the city.
(National Ocean Service n.d.)
20/06 Experimenting with render pipelines and decals after having read about how Fantasian was made, I wonder if I could achieve something similar on a much smaller scale. I discovered that the newer versions of Unity let you use decals in the URP as well as the HDRP. I don’t have much knowledge about the differences between the pipelines, but as it is less intensive for my computer I hope to continue using the URP.
I also tested a free asset for URP decals from the Unity asset store (AG Mythology 2021). (Choi and Baek 2013:90-91)
I focused more on the potential fantasy aspect of my research question in an attempt to narrow it down. Could making a game using an endogenous framework and including fantasy encourage players to care about wildlife? This requires more research. The opposite has been done with ‘Internet of Elephants’, using real data from conservation tracking to create a game (Machemer 2020).
I gathered all of the papers I found on to Miro and organized them into groups such as ‘Animals’ and ‘Conservation’. This should let me see how many sources I have for each area. I’m not currently sure how much I need to narrow the question down or how specific it should be, so this is someting to ask in the next webinar.
Papers sorting 24/06
As my project is intended to become a commercial product I think it would be a good idea to start the social media side as early as possible. I started looking at twitter hashtags to use as I create the game. I plan to incorporate regular Twitter updates into my Gantt chart as part of my timeline, as I received positive feedback for something similar in module 3. I can use Ritetag.com to see the popularity of relevant tags (RiteKit 2019).
A few relevant but fairly wide ranging tags for Twitter: #gamedev, #indiedev, #indiegame, #pixelart, #screenshotsaturday, #indiedevhour, #madewithunity, #gaming, #game (Kowalczyk and 2019 2019)
More specific, as recommended by my Mentor #PortfolioDay #VisableWomen
I am still stuck on my research question. Having a general idea is good, but it is also causing me to lose time as a research many different potential areas. I am also slightly lost on how to link this to my game idea, so I went back to basics. Thinking about what I want to gain from the project, this is still ‘to publish a game’. This is not going to happen in such a short space of time, (The 24 weeks of the project). However, part of my plan can be for after the project finishes. Part of this will be securing funding, and my mentor mentioned arts funding rather than publishers (Arts Council England 2018). This is something to consider adding into my overall plan.
The rules for applying for developing your creative practice – national lottery funded (Arts Council 2021). I need to consider in detail what would I use the funding for. My mentor has said they can help me fill out the application if needed/ go over it for feedback.
The specific hashtags used by retweet bots could have an impact. Planning social media updates weekly around selected hashtags will also give me a set time to upload content. (u/CardsOfSurvival 2022)
Integrating the aesthetic value of landscapes and biological diversity – This could be an interesting point to focus on. Does having a lively reef full of different species give it more aesthetic value to the player?
After talking to Liz, I have worked out how to narrow the question down – instead of just looking into endogenous games, look at what other people have made that relates specifically to corals. This could also be linked to the artwork. I have been making a new section on my Miro board for this.
Starting to think about the prototype, I am experimenting with different methods to create paper models and have them represented in-game. My test with a small paper building worked well. I used the URP projector decal to make the photograph wrap onto a cube, however, the sides are stretched (Unity Technologies 2021).
My card model in game.
04/07
Mentor meeting We discussed techniques that could be used to create the environment in the same way as a video I saw in the Wholesome direct showcase for ‘The fox and the frog’ (狐と蛙の旅 2022) and for implementing hand made elements/ crafted into the game visuals. We decided that they were similar to pre-rendered backgrounds, which gives me a starting point to look at. Another option to explore is photogrammetry. A program called mesh room can make meshes from real models, although this would mean investing time into learning how this process works. My discovery of projecting and decals might work better, depending on the final chosen camera layout, but it is an option to look into. Look up Games for change, they might have relevant content.
I found two games mentioned in papers that are specifically related to coral reefs. The first is a web based game which makes the player catalogue real species: Whyville (Whyville 2022). The second is linked to scientific research, as it involves players help a computer learn how to map the sea floor by marking areas with different species of coral (NeMO-Net 2022). Although I would love to be a part of something similar to the NeMo-Net project, for the MA I will have to aim to make something achievable in a short space of time. Whyvilles reef game is a good example of using a game to catalogue species, but doesn’t include the fantasy elements I am interested in. Is this because it would lessen the link to the real species?
Sprint review Spent a lot of time still feeling lost. Now is the time to get going with a prototype, and just stick artwork in for reference as my mentor said. Instead of deciding beforehand how the art will look, work more on the gameplay. I will make it my goal to have some form of prototype up and running by the next weekly meeting, and put more of my time into developing the game in the next sprint. I don’t think I managed to successfully break down my tasks into small chunks like I had planned because my direction was too vague. For the next sprint I think this won’t be as much of a problem, as I now know that I need to focus more on the prototype and related tasks.
ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND. 2018. ‘Funding | Arts Council England’. Artscouncil.org.uk [online]. Available at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding [accessed 28 Jun 2022].
For the final module, I would like to build an idea I have had written down/ drawn some sketches for but never done anything with. The concept is to have a game that teaches people about the species that live in and around coral reefs, with a sea bunny as the main character.
Some illustrations I did previously featuring a sea bunny.My illustrations of a coral city.
For this module I will be embarking on more in depth research alongside building a prototype/demo. This first sprint is dedicated to planning out the potential project and gathering the research itself. This will include finding papers/journals/etc related to my research question, as well as market research similar to module 3.
Gantt chart example
To do 01/06 Skills audit as part of proposal. Market research – Make spreadsheet of similar games on Steam. Start setting up a prototype. Go to an aquarium to gather research. Consider my research question further – Should it be based on learning or art style? Look up other Micros studios and their stories. Prepare questions for mentor meeting on Monday. Look up games by other small indie studios or solo developers.
Market Research I started market research by looking up games on Steam with the tag ‘Underwater’. There were not as many as expected. Many of them included the casual tag, and most were also adventure/exploration based. Using the Steam Calculator (‘Steam Revenue Calculator’ 2022) I made a comparison of some underwater titles.
Steam revenue calculations for games with the tag ‘underwater’.
To my surprise, two games which have very few fantasy elements (Beyond Blue and Ecosystem) were near the top of the list. Does this indicate that people are eager to learn about our oceans through games?
I am using Miroto lay out my ideas. After attending a Library Bitesized for Dissertation held by the University (Falmouth University 2022), I decided to create a mind map for my research, gathering similar papers together and linking them in a visual way to help me find themes and areas of interest. This should help me to focus on areas that could benefit from new research.
My Miro board
Coral Research
How humans can help the reefs – and how I could link this into the gameplay – should be an important area of research for me. As seen below, I discovered several methods being used to protect the corals including: internal waves, adaptation and microfragmentation-fusion.
“In Massachusetts, Cohen’s research has found two key elements that seem to protect corals. The first: internal waves beneath the ocean’s surface that bring cooler currents to heat-struck corals, essentially air-conditioning them as temperatures rise. The second: adaptation, a trait that corals found in Palau’s warm lagoons seem to exhibit” (Gibbens 2020).
“Corals reach sexual maturity not at a certain age, but a certain size. Growing at less than 1 centimeter per year, mountainous star coral might take decades to reach sexual maturity. Through the Mote-pioneered methodology of microfragmentation-fusion, these slow-growing corals can have their growth process sped up significantly, with these corals reaching sexual maturity in just five years” (Kettle 2020).
These are being used to restore and protect corals from coral bleaching when the corals become stressed and expel their zooxanthellae, leaving them vunerable.
Current idea summary02/07 My initial idea is – Make my coral reef idea that I thought about during the course into a vertical slice/ something publishable, perhaps setting up my own studio alongside it. Write my research paper about learning through games – possibly with fantasy, and how that might affect the learning. After looking at art styles, perhaps research on how indie games can be used to experiment with creative graphics would also be an interesting avenue of research.
After mentor meeting on 07/06 – My mentor talked about many things I wouldn’t have considered. – How Steam is set up to receive payments; you need a separate bank account under the name of your team for payments, whereas if you register as a solo developer you can use your own. Perhaps making an account for just myself to start with is the better option. – The costs of registering a company, which would not be necessary if work is done as a solo developer, and the need for an accountant. The accountant should be familiar with the games industry, so that they are aware of things like the games tax relief on offer. – How to prepare to look for freelance work. As most indies work on their games alongside freelancing, I thought it would be a good idea to prepare for this in advance too. Using sites like Twitter to show progress and share art work help to connect with other developers, as well as attending events, were two of the main ways to get your name out there. – Funding opportunities don’t necessarily have to be from publishers. Especially for games that are more artistic and less mainstream, I may be able to apply for creative practice funding from the Arts Council or similar groups (Arts Council England 2019).
Reef Research “EPA scientists have convened multiple workshops with coral reef experts to examine photographs, videos and data from scores of sampling stations to develop some criteria for interpreting the data and indicators. At first the experts agreed on four categories of condition, very good, good, fair and poor. After multiple meetings, conversations and discussions they eventually agreed to as many as six levels of condition (rated 1 through 6 from high to low condition) based on the Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) which is a conceptual framework to link resource condition to the severity of human-generated stress. Using the BCG as a conceptual backdrop, the experts were able to quantitatively describe what they expected to see in a reef with minimal human disturbance (reference conditions), how that might have changed over the last several decades (baseline shifting) and management goals for restoration of reefs that are of only fair or poor quality. The ‘rules’ for determining whether reef condition is good or poor have been developed initially for reef fish and stony coral assemblages. For example, a reef in very good condition would have large reef-building stony corals with several species that are known to be intolerant to stressors. The same reef would be expected to have a large number of fish representing several different species and including some of the rarer species such as large groupers. These positive reef attributes would decline at reefs with poor condition and might be replaced with higher presence of macroalgae and small, or even invasive fish species” (United States Environmental Protection Agency 2017).
“Scientists often compare coral reefs to underwater rainforests, yet unlike the leafy plant base of a forest, corals are animals. The soft polyps inside the hard parts of corals are naturally translucent and get their famously vibrant color from algae living inside them.
When corals experience stress from hot temperatures or pollution, they end their symbiotic relationship with this algae, typically expelling them and turning white, though one recent study indicates some coral turn a bright neon color when stressed. Coral are still alive when they bleach, but they’re at risk—essentially immunocompromised—and many eventually starve and die, turning a dark brown” (Gibbens 2020).
“Colourful bleaching is a recurring phenomenon in reef regions around the globe. Photoprotective host pigments in bleached tissue can aid symbiont recolonization. Colourful bleaching can be indicative of brief or mild heat and/ or nutrient stress“ (Bollati et al. 2020).
08/06 – Current idea summary My initial idea is to make a vertical slice/prototype, which I can then hopefully continue working on once the module is over. I have a mentor who has done something similar whilst working freelance, so I am aiming to learn about how this works from them. The game itself is set underwater in a coral reef city, and for my research I have been looking into endogenous game design, where the player learns through playing. I want to tie this into the game so that people learn about the reef species and things that affect the reef. I’m also interested in researching artistic games and how indie games experiment with art styles, but this has been slightly more difficult to find research for.
My research will also have to involve learning about the corals and how bleaching affects them, which can then tie into creating an endogenous game design.
13/06 As I think it fits the kind of game I am interested in making, I watched the Wholesome Games stream (Wholesome Games 2022). I noticed that the majority of these games involve farming mechanics, possibly due to the influence of Stardew Valley. Many also included or were based on animals, which indicates this may be part of my potential market. One game that caught my eye was ‘Fox and Frog Travelers The Demon of Adashino Island’ (Makina Icyterror 2021). The perspective used is the same I was hoping to try (I did attempt this in the last module, but couldn’t get it to work), so I may be able to analyse this to see how they have achieved it.
Indie games that use traditional art or have unique art styles research: (WIP)
Possibly too large of a studio to count as Indie, but Mistwalkers Fantasian has used real models to create the levels for their game (Axler 2022). I am interested in trying something similar, so this blog post will hopefully point me in the right direction.
To do – Make a mind map of potential gameplay mechanics using the graphs from the endogenous framework papers. Make a test of the visuals. Plan out the next three week sprint. Do a skills audit.
Sprint review: The first three weeks have mostly been composed of research, as expected. I currently have two avenues I feel that I could explore; Endogenous game design and how it can be used to help people learn natural history in a fantasy setting, or the use of unique and experimental art styles in Indie games. I would like to include both in my project, but it is unclear to me which I should focus on for the research so far. The part I have found most difficult has been working out where to focus my energy – For the next sprint I am going to break down my progress into smaller tasks so that I don’t feel as overwhelmed. I did this during the last module and found it very useful. One of my priorities will be creating a proof of concept, which I anticipate will involve testing projectors in Unity and setting up character movement/ cameras.
ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND. 2019. ‘Developing Your Creative Practice | Arts Council England’. Artscouncil.org.uk [online]. Available at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/DYCP [accessed 10 Jun 2022].
BOLLATI, Elena et al. 2020. ‘Optical Feedback Loop Involving Dinoflagellate Symbiont and Scleractinian Host Drives Colorful Coral Bleaching’. Current Biology 30(13), [online], 2433-2445.e3. Available at: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30571-6.
FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY. 2022. ‘Library Bitesized: Making the Most of Your Library | StudyHub’. studyhub.fxplus.ac.uk [online]. Available at: https://studyhub.fxplus.ac.uk/library-bitesize [accessed 11 May 2022].
Put my level on the discord and canvas to receive feedback. I have been regularly asking my sisters to play through so that I can watch their actions without saying anything, so after a few iterations of this I think it is at the point where it should be complete enough for people to understand it. However, this remains to be seen!
My new upload now has a link to a questionnaire for feedback. I made the feedback form using the Schell template (Patton 2017), but also added an extra comments and yes/no to see if people actually completed the game.
The lens of playtesting (Schell 2019) asks “Why are we doing a playtest?” and “What will we look for?”. In this case, it’s a bit late for any changes before submission. However, any feedback will be useful to see how other people viewed it, and in case I would like to continue working on this in the future. I did have every player mention that they wanted to fly, or a least double jump. Although I didn’t have time to implement it, my intention was to have the bee be able to fly in sunny areas, so it was interesting to hear players expected that to be possible right from the start. Perhaps it would need an explanation as to why you can’t fly at first?
Menu It took all day, but got the bee to be asleep on the menu and wake up when play is pressed! This is to visually add to the narrative.
As for end screen, I got the bee to do a little dance and would like to work out how to make the sprite flip randomly but may not have time. I would like to do this for the other insects in the level also but may not get a chance, so I have decided I should focus on making the ant move as this will add more polish.
To fix: Particle effects not working, they have no alpha. The sprites are also missing alpha in the build.
The end: I have thoroughly enjoyed the project, and feel more confident about learning to program using the visual scripting now. I have plans to adapt and experiment with this more in the future, which should be fun! I still need to explore shaders and particle effects, as well as work on UI design, and my programming is only at the beginning!
SCHELL, Jesse. 2019. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis, A Crc Title, Part Of The Taylor & Francis Imprint, A Member Of The Taylor & Francis Group, The Academic Division Of T&F Informa, Plc.
Miranda 