Prototype:Panic

(01) Panic: Volumes 19 – 27

(19) Where to go now

Now that the specialist project is complete it doesn’t mean by any interpretation of the word that my game is complete, in fact it is far from it. What I showed at the final critique was a prototype but more so it was a proof of concept, what I need to do now is step back and consider where I am going to take the project from here. I learnt two major aspects from the critique in the specialist; firstly being that I needed to make a game that is open to anyone and everyone and secondly that I needed to begin testing the interactive narrative side of my application.

I now need to make my application more assessable to an open audience while also paying close attention to the relevance of testing; from here I need to consider what it is that makes iPhone games accessible to anyone; what makes a game that anyone can pick up and play. I personally believe this can be achieved by ease of use and simple controls leading to simple yet deep and innovative gameplay. I suppose in fairness it is a mixture of these aspects however they are most certainly issues I need to look into.

Testing is also an incredibly important aspect at this point as it is the only sure way I can develop my application in a logical manner. By testing what is already made with different groups of people from different walks of life, I can begin to modify what is made and make the overall game better. This could be from simple changes to the layout and navigation to more complex issues such as the functionality and control use. Either way testing helps on a very simple level because it points out what works and what doesn’t contrary to what might already be believed. As an example interface 101 suggests that the less button’s the better, however when applied one might find that actually the audience intended might not feel comfortably with the lack of buttons and want more for ease of use instead.

From here I also need to focus once again on the aspect of the camera view, as I was unable to get this function working for the Specialist critique I now need to focus more solidly on it. I also need to focus on other gameplay mechanics as well such as “HUDS” “Animated objects” “Collision detection” and “controllable objects”. Hopefully by the end of February I will have looked at several aspects regarding the gameplay side of my application and would actively be developing the overall game by this point.

Furthermore I need to spend time emailing professionals in the industry to see if they can offer any help or advice regarding augmented reality but more so advice commenting on the process of making an iPhone application. I also need to spend time deciding upon what music would best fit my game, in this respect I am lucky because a friend of mine (Holley Gray) has offered to make the music for me; I still however need to find samples of music I like for him to get an overall idea of how I want my game to sound.

Overall I have a lot to be getting on with, testing, development, designing, experimentation; these are all aspects I now need to spend time working on if I am ever going to make a game that is truly unique.

(20) Pixel Invasion

As mentioned before I am now at the point where I need to consider how I can make a game that is accessible to everyone, I realized after the critique that I had inadvertently made a game for “gamers” and totally missed the point of what the iPhone is as a medium. The iPhone works best when used as a tool that can be picked up and played by anyone and I need to make a game that can emphasizes this. In reflection on this point I decided to change my game from a serious zombie shooter to a light hearted pixel shooter; my reasoning for this is that I believe “a pick up and play game”  comes from the two basic gameplay mechanics; ease of use and simplicity. When one considers something simple that anyone can relate to and understand, it creates a leveling system; this leveling system puts everyone on the same playing field with no intended sense of hierarchy.

Put simply in making a game that is simple and easy to understand anyone can play it and enjoy it. Granted this doesn’t yet explain as to why my game has changed from a serious shooter to a light hearted one; this has stemmed from research into the games that work well on the iPhone. Not in terms of gameplay, but in terms of top grossing. If we take the games that sell the best as an example for a moment several aspects stand out; majority of the games are almost childish in look, use humor as  a narrative tool and in reflection to the gameplay functionality are overtly simple.

This suggests that me that the common iPhone user isnt after a serious gameplay mechanic in their chosen application, they are on the go and want something simple yet innovative to tie them over while they are moving from A to B. Keeping that in mind I would further suggest that any application that is humorous in nature and approach would be a welcome gimmick because it would help to ease the mundanity of the journey the user is undertaking at the time of playing the application.

This very much coincides with the change of my application; I want to make a light hearted game because I feel that with the way in which users are now shaping the market, the demand for a less serious but still well made game is at an all time high. I truly believe that by slightly altering the style and approach of my application I will be able to produce a game that will be playable for almost anyone. In doing this however I do give myself several problems, I will need to write another interactive narrative, start designing new sprites, images etc and more so tie all of these in to one game. However not all of these are problems.

If I reflect on the reasons as to why I chose Pixel monsters rather than other childish associates for a moment it is easy to see how some of the listed problems above don’t really occur. I chose Pixel monsters because I felt that games aren’t as good as they use to be when I was a child, I wanted to portray how I felt that the need to develop greater graphics in computer games has lead to the lost understanding that narratives are just as important, perhaps even more so than the graphics. In wanting to portray this I decided to build my interactive narrative around the fact that pixel monsters are old, and perhaps aren’t given as much attention as there new better looking models of today. My story is as follows…

“Pixel monsters have become bored because they aren’t being played with anymore, arcade machines are now replaced with home consoles and the sprites of old’ dont stand a chance against the shiny new brown sprites of today! or do they… Enraged at the lack of respect  shown to them as the godfathers of computer games, (because indeed they where here from the start), they break out of the retro arcade machines and turn the world 2d, now the only way to turn the world back is to play their game. The pixel monsters have decided to hold out in a castle, (bless them)not really original, but they are reminiscent of the times in which they were made. As the player you must search the castle trying to make your way to the top floor; once on the top floor you face the grand master pixel for the chance to turn the world back to normal.”

As you can see here, already I have a good idea for what the narrative could be based around. Furthermore the short paragraph here is very much inspired by the project itself; I like the idea of the arcade monsters turning the world into a video game because essentially this is what I am doing by having the sprites overlaying the camera view, I am augmented them into the real world, which is then becoming their play area. Another aspect I have looked into is the sprite design for my pixel monsters, obviously they need to be block like but more so I want them to if possible, have a bit of emotion; this is due to the style of game I am making, because I want it to memorable in approach it would make sense for the pixel invaders to have some sort of emotion about them that singles them out.

It makes sense in regards to the fact that these pixel monsters aren’t necessarily bad guys either, they are just bored because they haven’t been played with and are now getting up to no good, even if the “no good” in question involves fun in the process. This statement is very reminiscent of a Saturday morning cartoon, the bad guys are more misunderstood than bad, and the antics that they get up to is only really used as a plot narrative device. Overall what I want to point out here is that each individual pixel monster is unique and want to represent them so; even though in the narrative they will be seen as a collective, I want people to remember each sprite on the AR screen for the way they move and how they act towards the player.

The best way to represent them as unique is to give each one a sense of self, even if that sense of self is indeed mimicked. I.e I may want one particular sprite to seem careful, I could have the graphics on his face showing him as looking careful.

Overall this is my intention at the moment; I am going to start developing the pixel sprites while also looking at expanding the narrative. I am very happy with how this idea should develop because in regards to the zombie game; the way I was building upon the idea would of lead to limitations very quickly. I mean by this that one of the major issues I would of stumbled over would of been the aspect of mapping; upon placing the zombie sprites in the frame, they would blend in and out of the background due to the lack of code regarding depth. Even though this is still an issue when using the pixel sprites I could justify that because they are from a different dimension our laws regarding gravity and physics do not apply to them, thus solving this small problem.

(21) Beta Testing

With the development of the application now sorted out, I should move swiftly on to the beta testing. The interactive narrative as mentioned before is more or less completed and thus needs to be tested; the benefit of this is that if done properly with a diverse range of people, I will be able to accurately modify my application to enhance its visual aesthetic, ease of use and most importantly improve the functionality. When testing in this manner it is important to consider people as individuals but also as representatives of certain stereotypes; as an example in regards to my own tests I plan to interview 10 different people, each with an already established background to gaming.

What I mean here is that the people I intend to interview will be classed into one of five brackets; avid gamer, lite gamer, medium gamer, heavy gamer and finally hardcore gamer. I have chosen to create this spectrum because I believe by having multiple people from different backgrounds I can create a fair analysis of what work needs to be done and furthermore not single anyone out in the process. I want my modifications to be fair and in order for me to achieve this, I need the testing to be fair.

The testing will be fairly simple in approach, I will film the participants playing my game and straight after I will quiz them about the experience. The questions will focus on ease of use, enjoyment of the game and more over the functionality I implemented. As this is a test to find out what people think about the game there are no right or wrong answers, it is more so aimed at there own personal “first response”

The questions I will be asking are fairly vague, this is to ensure different responses and answers; the questions are as follows

(1) issues regarding Functionality.

(2) Immediate reactions.

(3) what did they like, what worked well.

(4) what didn’t they like, what didn’t work so well.

(5) is there anything they feel I could of improved upon.

(6) was the game easy to navigate and use.

Test one: Avid gamer – Allison

Allison here highlights some good criticisms regarding the prototype; she mentions that she enjoys the functionality regarding the scroll feature but that she would of preferred a longer story. She also comments on the need for visual consistency because lacking it, she felt confused and didn’t know what was going on. She does however add that this isolation between the narrative and the visual does help to enforce the overall feel of paranoia within the story.

Test two: Lite gamer – Ka Vi

Ka Vi outlines some very interesting points here. Firstly she comments upon the aspect of the scroll feature; reflecting upon how she found it difficult at first to realize that she could scroll down through the text. This is an important issue because if people dont comprehend that they can scroll down they are essentially missing half of the story throughout. However this problem is easily solved by having an indication underneath the type prompting the user to tap to scroll. Ka Vi also goes on to mention that the lack of visuals help to convey the atmosphere and that the only aspect that she feels is lacking is the use of sound within the application. Once again however like Allison she comments on the game not being long enough and that she would also like to be given more options in the narrative. Finally Ka Vi mentions that the options given at times are too unpredictable and that they need to be more personalized i.e more relevant to what a person might actually do.

Test three: Heavy gamer – Pete

Pete comments on some very important issues within this test; he mentions the need for there to be a visual icon prompting the user to scroll through the text. He again comments on the ease of use while also suggesting that there may be too much text within the piece and that a casual gamer may find the amount of reading involved boring and at times dull. He goes on to suggest that a greater attention to action within the game will need to be enforced for the interactive story to work effectively. In relation to the choice system, Pete found it enjoyable and fun while also commenting on the need for there to be  some sort of visual aesthetic to heighten what is happening in that current scene. Finally he comments upon the need for consistency among the images and in general overall.

Test four: Medium gamer – Harrogate

Within this video Harrogate makes some rather interesting points. Firstly he suggests that with regards to himself the game appeared to be rather strategic in formula and thus that it was different from what he was excepting. He goes on to comment on the aspect of the choices within the narrative that were available; he suggests he was delighted to find them different from just yes, no or maybe answers and that they provide suitable solutions to the issues that were occurring in the scene. Like most of the other test subjects however he comments on the need for their to be a visual element between views to break up the mundanity of just the type. Furthermore he comments on the need for there to be some sort of visual prompt to let the user know they have the ability to scroll amongst the text.

(22) Sound/Music

Expanding on the comments made in the beta testing; one of the aspects mentioned that I had left out of my earlier prototype was the implementation of sound, this was not due to me ignoring it or not considering it but rather that at the time of making my prototype I didn’t know how to program the sound into my application. Since then however I am now more than capable to implement sound into my application and have been working very closely with Holley Gray since. I spend alot of time thanks to Mr. Pipes listening to old school 8 bit music trying to understand the sort of style I would want for my game. Here are a few samples of early music we have worked on for my game.

(1) Mouldy Cups

http://soundcloud.com/holleygray/mouldy-cups

This was an early attempt at some background slightly ambient noise we had in mind for the interactive story. I wanted a steady but slightly progressive sound to encapsulate the feeling of the player working their way through the story, this was one of the first sounds Holley came up with.

(23) Welcome home, Xcode

After the music had been considered and I had spoken to Holley about it, there was only one thing left to do… return to Xcode. This time around however I had a list of objectives I wanted to accomplish, I didn’t just want to make an application that would be okay, I wanted it to be great and in order for me to do this I had to expand my knowledge in Xcode.

If im honest I have always found it difficult to program due to not automatically knowing all the ins and outs of it, but when you consider what coding or programming actually is, its not that bad. To me coding is very simply problem solving, if you apply lateral thinking and logic to any problem one shouldn’t struggle too hard to fix it, that being said at times no matter what reason you apply it can seem as if there is no solution.

Relating back to what I had wanted to learn I have complied a list, I did not get round to learning all of these methods but I learnt most, for a more detailed look please refer to my back up work for an accurate account of all my tests.

(1) The implementation of music, being able to control sound in and outside of UIView controllers and subclass controllers.

(2) Adding real-time rotation to the application, meaning the screen rotates when the orientation changes on the device.

(3) Basic animation to make my game less static.

(4) Working on a life system, combining the use of NSTimers with structured TABbars to make a life system.

(5) Timers, again using the basic function of an NSTimer to post a timer on a relevant view controller.

(6) UIPicker View, working on the camera view, taking it apart.

(7) Message alert views, learning to program alerts for when things go wrong.

(8) Making a interesting icon.

(9) Programming the hide and reveal function to give the illusion of spirits dying or exploding.

(10) Learning to randomize, this is usful should I wish to add elements to levels that our constantly changing.

(11) Making the application a useful Touch product, detecting the users finger (hit tests)

(12) Implementing a “Play Again” sub view.

(13) Working on making a coherent “HUD” Heads Up Display.

(14) Using the accelerometers to create simple titling functionality for my game.

(15) Creating custom buttons.

(16) Understanding and programming suitable collision detection code.

(17) Enhancing the touch product, enabling drag-able objects.

(18) Creating a crisper experience, learning to remove the hide or completely remove the status bar.

(19) The ability to change the applications viewpoint through movement.

(20) Implementing a level system.

These were just some of the things I needed to learn while studying in Xcode if I was to make an interesting and exciting game.

(24) The Design Process

While programming in Xcode I was also taking the time to design the visuals for the game I mentioned in (20) Pixel invasion. I wanted each and every character in the game to have a sense of self, I mean by this that they would have there own look and portray a lifelike expression. I started very simply by creating pixel monsters from the letters of the alphabet, I very quickly became interested in synesthesia or rather a form of it known as grapheme which is the correlation between colour and letters and how to some people letters and numbers are inherently coloured. I liked the link between colours and letters and started to question if letters could have their own personality’s, here are some of the pixel monsters I came up with too feature in my augmented reality shooting game.

The letter A.

Pixel(A) is meant to show a certain childish curiosity within his features.

The letter D.

Pixel(D) is mean to appear almost glamorous in appearance.

The letter S.

Pixel(S) is meant to look collected and cool as represented by the cool colours and wayward expression.

Assorted letters.

I was fairly happy with the majority of them, I felt that only some of the images had to the potential to look as if they were expressing a human-like characteristic i.e sadness or happiness, curiosity etc.

These were being designed at the same time of me programming my game, because of this alot of the images that were made are not shown here, to view all the images relevant to this part of the project please reference the back up work handed in.

(25) Why Augmented Reality wont work

After spending alot of time researching into how Xcode worked and the ways in which it implements methods. I came to a rather disappointing conclusion that there were even some things I couldn’t grasp, namely so the “Camera View”. I was having trouble accessing and then customizing the camera view. In order for me to be able to create my augmented reality game I would need to have a blank camera view, once blank I could then place images over the camera giving the desired AR effect.  The interesting aspect was,  that in all of this the camera – view was only a minor problem. Within no time I had a basic camera template due to relevant code that I had researched.

The main problem I now had was trying to place images on top of the view, this was plainly because you cant place images on top of a view that is nonexistent. Normally in Xcode the programmer can determine what the end user is seeing in a view by  changing certain aspects round or moving or placing certain objects in or our of the view. However with the camera view code, it pulls in the camera view externally so technically the programmer cannot manipulate that part of the code in the view because it isn’t there.

More over if I couldn’t place code inside of the camera-view it meant I would not be able to place images inside of it either. At this point I hit a bit of a brick wall, not knowing what to do I tried harder to solve the problem but failed to find the solution. Below are relevant videos illustrating further the processes I went through to try and get the camera-view to work and a more detailed explanation of why it didn’t work.

Part One.

Part Two.

(26) Gameplay Ideas

At this point of now not really knowing what direction to take the game in I started to consider what it was that I really wanted from the project itself. I came to the realization that all I really wanted was to make a game, a good game non the less, with a very high quality value to it. I started to consider other gameplay ideas and questioned to myself what would work well. I related back to the research videos I had done earlier in the project and began to notice that the best games were the ones that were incredibly simplistic and could be played by anyone. I was at a crossroads, there were two directions I could now take my game in, I could keep the story as it was with the pixel monsters still in a castle after having made the world two dimensional, however rather than having shooting games I could replace them with assorted puzzles.

Or I could fully jump on the pick up and play wagon and make a simple game that used accelerometer code and create a simple tilt and dodge game. I didn’t know what to do, then it hit me, this wasn’t for me to decide but rather for the people who play games to decide. I decided to make rapid prototypes of both games and see which people liked best, which they found more enjoyable and fun to play. So I started to develop the two games.

PanicQuest.

PanicQuest implemented the interactive narrative with puzzle games rather than the augmented reality element.

Tilt.

Tilt used simple accelerometer code to make a quick pick up and play tilting game.

(27) Stylization

After about two weeks of rapid prototyping and testing the two games it became very clear that tilt was the more popular. Majority of my audience with which I had tested the two game with suggested that Panicquests narrative kept the player waiting to long to get to the gameplay, resulting in an overall boring experience. Basically the time spent in the gameplay didn’t make up for the time spent in the story.

So the clear winner was Tilt with everyone enjoying the pick up and play factor. The simplicity of the gameplay added to the easy to use interface resulting in everyone enjoying the game. It was shortly after this however that I realized there was still a problem I hadn’t addressed. In a tutorial with Liam he suggested that an area of my main focus should be on the design, he continued to remind me that my visuals were as much a part of my ideas, as the ideas themselves and that I should spend time making a good very visually appealing game.

When I considered what Liam had said I couldn’t help but agree and thus began to consider in what direction I could take the art style, would I theme the design to portray a story, would I design around a current event or would I just work with colour as a basis.

Here are some images of the layout and gameplay style of Tilt.

This is the Title page for the game Tilt.

This is the main menu page for the game.

This is the level select for the levels ranging from easy to medium to hard.

This is the credit page displaying mine and Holly’s information.

This is the gameplay featuring in Tilt, this is level one.

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