Gamestarter Projects
Both levels made during the class Game Mechanics II 10/2021
Postmortem
In Game Mechanics II, we were put in teams and tasked with creating two levels for two different genres that were preselected by the instructors. We would then bring one of the levels through asset integration. My team, Team Aviators, decided to create a first-person shooter level and a platformer level, and we brought the first-person shooter level through asset integration.
Restrictions
Genres
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We were required to create a game based on the available genres provided to us, those being: first-person shooter, top-down shooter, platformer, vehicle, and soccer.
Twists/Additions
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Due to the basics of the genre already being created (such as shooting in the first-person shooter or the 2D camera in the platformer), we were required to create at least five twists or additions through the use of mechanics and enemies.​​​
Time Minimum
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All levels had to last for at least about three minutes
What Went Right
Jetpack
The jetpack worked great for giving the player another movement option and making parts of the level more vertical.
Stun Enemy
The stun enemy fulfilled its purpose as a hazard for the player, stunning them on contact or when they emitted sparks. Their player facing feedback for health was also really cool, with their emissive changing color to show their health.
Level Timer
The level timer worked great as a way not only to push the player forward, but to make sure that our level was always paced for the three-minute mark.
What Went Wrong
Jetpack Acting Different in Build
For the first week, the jetpack had a different maximum height in the build compared to the editor, which cause problems with level layout. The problem was that I wasn't using delta time when launching the player, so it was being tied to the framerate.
Player Could Shoot Out of Starting Room
There was a problem with the starting room where the player could gain an advantage by shooting enemies in the first area before the timer started. This was because the collision to start the timer was at the doorway out of the starting room. To fix this, I simply made the collision block the player's projectiles.
Player Not Being Able to Shoot While Stunned
A problem with the stun enemies showed up where the player would be stunned, and when they tried to shoot, their projectile would instantly be destroyed. It basically made them a sitting duck, which wasn't what I wanted. It was easy to fix though, I just had to change the collision to not block the player's projectiles.
Conclusion
Even though I think my better ideas came through in the platformer level, I think we made the right call with taking this level to asset integration. The jetpack caused me some trouble, but nothing compared to what was happening in the platformer level. Everything else went pretty smoothly.
Level Pictures
Presentation
What Went Right
Boss
For the end of the level, I really wanted to have something big happen. While taking Game Mechanics II, we were also learning about basic state machines and AI in Scripting for Designers III. To try and put what I was learning in that class to use, I decided to make a boss with a state machine that would change its behavior so that it could take advantage of the camera flip mechanic by switching which plane it attacked the player. It turned out pretty good for the time I had, I think. It attacks the player by spitting flames and moving along one of the two planes, switching the plane every few attack runs.
Camera Flip
To make our platformer stand out, I really wanted to do something with perspective with our level. I decided to try and emulate the camera flip mechanic from Super Paper Mario to make the level have some more exploration type gameplay. It allowed us to hide things outside of the normal 2D plane's view and extend the level in different directions. I also used it as the main mechanic for designing the boss.
What Went Wrong
Keys
The keys to unlock the boss that the player has to collect throughout the level turned out to not work as well as I thought it would. If the player misses one, it doesn't feel great that they have to backtrack to find them. It also doesn't help that some portions of the level don't allow backtracking, and so the player is forced to teleport to checkpoints. I feel as though these would have been immediately cut if this level had gone to week three.
Big Boss Navigation
Originally, I wanted the boss to be really big and intimidating. However, I had a lot of trouble getting its navigation to work correctly whenever I scaled its model to the proportions I wanted, which led to me having to scrap this part of the vision and have the boss be much smaller.
Camera Flip while near Jump Pads
The camera flip mechanic conflicted heavily with the Jump Pads. This was due to it already not working great while the player was in mid-air, and these objects exemplified that weakness. The controls of the player would be messed up and reversed. So, I ended up making it so the player couldn't flip the camera while in mid-air and when near the jump pads to prevent the bug from recurring.
Conclusion
The camera flip mechanic had more conflicts than I would have liked and took longer than I thought it would due to fiddling with the provided camera. The boss' state machine took really long and I had to make compromises with its scale to just get it to navigate properly. And the keys ended up not meshing well with the pacing of the level at all unfortunately. Overall, some good and some bad. I learned a fair bit and I was able to exercise what I have learned. Even though the boss isn't as grandiose as I wanted it to be, for my first attempt at something like this, I'm still proud of what I was able to make in just a few days, and how well I was able to tie the two mechanics together.
Level Pictures
