Prototype3 + GDW

So with the new prototype assignment to create a game based on some details off the website link. We decided to go with the idea of the Action survival horror genre that includes bowling as a mechanic. We thought that with the idea here it would allow for more time to get a game to be a bit more polished. How we decided to plan for designing this type of game based on the specs given was that we would stick with a theme that most people would be familiar with for a survival horror game. That would end up being the traditional zombie apocalypse idea that most people are fond of. By the element of having to include bowling as a mechanic to the game, we also thought that it would most likely have to contain some elements that people would also associate bowling with, hence we considered of shooting bowling balls as well as having numbered lanes incorporated with it.

How we planned it out to work was so that there would be a total of 6 bowling lanes. Zombies will spawn on one of the 6 lanes based on the number rolled on a die. The player will be placed on the opposite side where they too, will also need to roll a die to determine which lane they will be shooting the bowling ball through. This was a means to allow for more of a game of chance to keep things more balanced with the game so that none of the sides would be too overpowered.

After the player shoots the bowling ball down the lane, if there are zombies in that lane number that’s been rolled, the first zombie closest to the player in that row will be removed. If in the case the lane is empty, nothing happens and the player’s turn ends.

Following the player’s turn ending, each of the zombies on the field will move 1 step forward, and will have another zombie spawn on the field in the back most row decided by a die roll once again. The game will continue on until the zombies make it all the way to the other end of the field.

After planning all of these things out, we decided to try and test out the idea on a small scale paper prototype to see how long and how well the game will work. Surprisingly it ended up more or less pretty balanced on both ends due to the chances involved in rolling a die. Although the player in a sense is destined to lose in the end, we found that it’s probably more than enough to try and get the player to keep playing since the game more or less ended up lasting for a good 10 minutes or so on paper.

Although there might not be too high of a replay value for the design in general, it more or less seems that it may be something that could be of interest to some players in terms of simplicity and things they may be familiar with. The idea was so that players wouldn’t be too overwhelmed with what they can or can’t do but it might be too restrictive as the only control they have is a die roll.

For the GDW side of things, it's looking like we're near the final push for the current game, more or less all the assets needed are in for use such as enemy models, the level and textures so far. A good chunk of the coding is roughly 90-95% done as well.

GDW - Progress Update

So far with the past few weeks, we more or less finalized most of the designs we needed to have in place for the coming weeks. In terms of models, we're at about 60-70% completion in terms of having all the models built (so far enemy models are done as we've decided to limit the maximum number of enemies we should have to allow for more time with other requirements as well as the level). What remains from the art/modeling side of things is the texture mapping and rigging phase in order for all of our model assets to be completed. In terms of the requirements that are set out, the networking aspect has been implemented into our current base and seems to be working, it will be a matter of getting the actual functions needed to update the info sent and received by the client and server for the player and enemy positions as well as dead reckoning.

As for the sound that we plan to have in there, we plan to start recording sound effects this week to get that out of the way, though we’ll be required to come up with a list of sound effects that will be needed so that we have a better idea of what still needs to be recorded/generated.

For the programming side, we more or less have the base of what we need for game play in terms of bullets/projectiles, enemy and player AI and path finding. So we should be able to get everything up and going with having an actual prototype soon.

What currently remains to be done so fare are completing the rigging of player character models, texture mapping the assets on the modeling/art side, for the programming, it’s a means of creating and testing the functions for dead reckoning and getting those working/tweeked for use.