Investigate

About Gamestar Mechanic

For this project we are going to be making a game with Gamestar mechanic, using the design cycle and following the easy-to-folllow instructions of Gamestar Mechanic. Gamestar Mechanic lets you play games and slowly teaches you and gives you tools to create your own game. The idea and graphics of the games are quite simple but it slowly adds more elements to them. You start by doing a quest which consists  of 7 episodes. Once you are done with that you can go and make a game in the Workshop or play other people's games in Game Alley. It seems like this site is made for school kids and teens from the ages 7-18. The layout is very comical for kids and there is also tabs for teachers and parents. I think Gamestar Mechanic will be a great site to learn how to make a game because it is simple and teaches you well, going slowly through all the steps.
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Episode 1 - Journey to Factory 7

The first episode consists of 4 missions and each missions consists of three games. The first mission is very basic and all you have to do is get a key and find the door to unlock it without running into any of the other creatures. In the second mission you are able to jump and you have to collect all the coins to unlock the door while avoiding the other creatures. In the third mission you have a shooter now and the goal is to kill all the other shooting creatures and then the door opens. On the fourth and last mission, it's basically a maze and you have to find the door. 
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I though this episode was quite simple but I liked that because i'm not a big gamer. The graphics were simple and so were the ideas of the games but it slowly builds up and gives you more things to do in the games. I like how they slowly teach you how to play starting from very simple to more difficult. Above is a picture of each mission in epsiode 1.

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Episode 2 - Elevator Emergency

Episode 2 has two missions. The first mission has a new creature added. Its a gost which is there and then dissapears for a few seconds and then you can pass through them without being hurt. On the next level of that mission, you get a gun and have the same ghosts and sometimes you have to use the gun to break the glass to get through. During the second mission you can now jump higher. In this mission you have to jump on the ice to get to the door. On this episode there is also a bonus mission which is a bit more difficult that the levels before. There is shooter creature standing at each of the sides and there are also ghosts. You have to jump your way up to the door and be careful you don't get hit by the bullets or run into ghosts as well as not falling. 
I thought this level was a little more difficult and annoying because of the ghosts which would keep appearing and kill me. The graphics stayed the same while the difficulty increased.
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This episode was quite simple and to be frank, boring. I played a few games, but they were simple and didn't teach much new or interesting. One thing that did happen was that I got to jump higher which is quite nice. This episode most relates to the Investigate Phase of the design cycle. You see some games, and the elements of them, and slowly you get more sprites to play with and get to jump higher and shoot.

Comments

Episode 3 - Samson's League of Mechanics

At the beginning of Episode 3 there are a bunch of comics and they tell you about the elements of making a game and a bit about fixing the game.
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Then the story comes and there are 6 missions and 2 bonus levels in episode 3. In the first mission they let you play a game and then take it apart and let you do each task and teach you about Security System Goals. For example in one level you only have enemies and you have to kill them. In the next level you just have to collect coins and in another you just have to get to the target. You do all of these levels in the same game setting, the maze. 
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On the second mission the only goal is to repair a game. You just move one black somewhere so that you can reach the target. On the fourth mission it taught me about space and how it effects the level of the game. It's much easier to get the coins when there are no blocks than when there are blocks all around with bad creatures pacing through them. 
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In the fourth mission you had to repair the space of a game by taking away blocks so that you could move and get the coins and get to the target. 
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In mission five, they teach you about dealing with a health and time limit vesus the easiness of having to just get to the target without thinking about those elements. In mission six, I had to repair the rules of the game. They start off by giving you only 5 seconds and 1 health to win the game, which makes it impossible to win. I edited the rules and made the time limit 30 seconds and gave them 3 healths and then I could win!
I really liked this episode because it started to teach me about the elements of a game and editing it. I learned about space and rules and how to use and repair them to make the game better. It was very easy to repair the games so I hope in the next few episodes it will get a bit more challenging. The first mission of the first bonus level is about collecting all the coins and making it through the maze before the timer runs out. The levels were quite difficult and took me a few tries to win. The second and last bonus level is also quite difficult. It is about safe spots where you go and have to time it right to get between the creatures and get the coins. I find that the bonus missions are much more difficult then the normal missions and give me more of a challenge.


Comments

Episode 4 - Gaining Perspective

The first mission is very simple just playing a game without jumping and a game with jumping. The second mission is to adjust the gravity in order to be able to jump higher to get all the coins. On the third mission, it taught me about components and how adding and taking away opponents greatly effects the level of difficulty of the game. On the first level it's just normal. Then on the second level they take away a few blocks. And on the third level they take away blocks and add bad creatures.
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In the fourth mission, you have to make it possible to reach the target which is in the air. There are a bunch of pacers and you have to make clouds for them and also to make it possible for the avatar to reach the target. 
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I really liked this level because it taught me a lot about actually building the game, which relates to the create part of the design cycle. I learned about all the components of the game and how changing them affects the game. It was quite an easy episode but it taught a lot.

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Episiode 5 - The Balance Room

Episode 5 has 5 missions, 1 Inter-mission and one bonus level. On the first mission it's just about having different goals and then having a few goals to complete the game. The second mission is about the balance between the right number of lives and the amount of time you had to complete the game. In the first level, you had an hour and a half to complete the game and only one life. It was a very bad balance. In the next level, you only have 5 seconds and 5 lives to win. That's also a very uneven balance. But in the third level, you have 3 lives and 15 seconds to complete the game; a good balance. 
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The third mission taught me about space and how it changes the game and makes it much more difficult and snug to play with many blocks and not so many ways to get to the target. In the fourth mission you had to fix the chasers. They were moving very fast and everywhere so it was impossible to win. So i had to edit it to make them move slower and only patrol a certain space and also bring the damage they did, down.
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In the fifth, and last mission, you had to build your own game fitting a set of requirements. It was like a little version of game building.

I liked this episode because I learned about even more of the game components such as time, lives and sprites. I also got to make a small game, which gave me an idea of what we will be doing making our own games, just on a bigger scale. This level taught a lot about the evaluate phase of the design cycle, because they would give you a game, which you couldn't win, so you had to fix it. 

Comments

I Finished the Gamestar Mechanic Quest!

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I finished the Gamestar Mechanic Quest! Doing this quest was a great first step to investigating making a game. While playing many games, i learned about Top-Down and Platformer games. I learned about the different elemetns to games. I learned about how to fix games. This quest makes me feel like I know more about games and has taught me the basics of how to make a game!

Design Brief

I am going to design and create a platform game for 7-10 year olds that is about the harsh ways of making money. The game take place in the clouds, where the protagonist has to collect all the coins and kill the enemies standing in their way. 

Comments

Design Specifications

What type of game are you making? A Platform or a Top Down game? 
- I am making a Platform Game.
How difficult would you like your game to be?
- I would like my game to be quite easy and fun. A game that you don't have to think too much about. 
How many lives should the gamer have?

- The gamer should have 5 lives, because there will be quite a few enemies.
How much does time the gamer have to complete the challenge?
- The gamer will have around a minute to complete the game.
Which blocks would you like to use?
- I am going to use Clouds, Grass, and Dirt.
Which setting will your game be set in? Underground, ground level or in the sky?
- My game has 3 levels, and each one with be in a different setting. The first one in the sky, the second on ground, and the third underground.
What is the aim of the game?
- The aim of the game is to get all the coins and kill all the enemies.
Do you have to collect coins of kill enemies? Or both?
- You have to collect coins and kill enemies.

Comments

Game Reviews

Game One – Killer Halloween

My first impression of the game was that it would be difficult, but it actually wasn’t too hard. On the first level there are 3 types of sprites that you have to kill as well as collecting coins. You have 8 lives but some sprites take more than 1 life with each shot. The background is very cool and the game is made up of clouds and grass. The second level is super easy and not very well made. You start on the ground level and have to jump up over a bunch of vampire sprites. But the game designer made the sprite jump way too high and you can’t jump over all the sprites lined up in a row, so you lose a life no matter what. All you have to do is kill the sprites in that line, and then get to the box to win. Way too simple.  http://gamestarmechanic.com/game/player/143741

Game Two – Pollution

I chose this game because it reminded me of all the pollution in Hong Kong. But this title didn’t seem to relate to the game. I liked the game because it had very a very simple objective but had really cool sprites. On the first level, the sprite was a penguin. The second level was a fox and the third was a seal swimming in the water. I loved the backgrounds and the sprites of this game and I hope I can use one of them in one of my games.
http://gamestarmechanic.com/game/player/145243

Game Three – Impossible Journey

I really didn’t like this game. I couldn’t even get past the first level. The Sprite didn’t jump high to get up on the platforms to get the coins. You had to go all the way to the end to climb up to the top and by then you only had 9 seconds left to do it. The music and background were cool, but the game designer just made it too difficult to play. http://gamestarmechanic.com/game/player/2540


Comments

Design

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Design Drawings

Level One.

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This is the drawing of what the  first levels of my game will look like. This level is in the sky and you have to jump from cloud to cloud. The yellow square is the goal block, the yellow dots are the bonus points and the blue squares are the clouds. This is just a mini version of my game, it will be on a much larger scale, with more enemies and more platforms and coins.


Level Two.

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This is a drawing of what the second level will look like. This level is on the ground and the green platforms are grass. The player will have to jump from platform to platform of grass and avoid the enemies. This is also on a very small scale and the actual game will be on a much larger scale with more enemies.

Level Three.

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This is a drawing of what the third level will look like. This level takes place underground and the brown squares are dirt. The player will have to avoid the jumper enemies and the shooters and reach the goal box. This drawing is also on a small scale, and the game will be on a much bigger scale and have more enemies.



Create

Building My Game

Step 1 : Make General Game Settings

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The very first step is to make your game a top-down or a platformer game. Then you have to decide how much gravity there will be and how long your game will be. Also if there will be edge bounding and the background. 

Step 2 : Make Design

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I started first by adding the blocks, following my design drawing. Here are just a few pictures of some of the layouts of parts of my level.

Step 3 : Add Sprites and Coins

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The next step was to add the sprites and coins and put them all into position that you think will work and be challenging, but easy enough for the player to be able to kill them. You also have to make edit the sprite to make it do exactly what you want. You control  the height that it jumps and how fast, how many blocks it patrols, how many lives it has and how many lives it takes away when attacking something. For every avatar you have to do that.

Step 4 : Add the System Items

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This is when you add the time, the number of lives your player will have, the number of enemies they will have to kill and the number of coins they will have to collect and the goal block so the player can win the game. These are the requirements for the game.

Step 5 : Play Your Game and Fix the Problems

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It's probably not a good idea to have an attacker have a speed of 10, a very fast jump rate, 5 lives, and damages  3 lives. That makes it almost impossible for the player. Therefore you have to edit that. Maybe he only needs to patrol 3 squares and move a little slower because when you play it you keep dying. During this step, you play your game and fix things that aren't working well. Maybe you have too little time or not enough lives. When you play it a few times, you should realize these problems and fix them so people can play them enjoyably. 

Step 6 : Name Game and Make Rules

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This is when you decide what you would like to name your game and make the rules and messages that the gamer will see and will guide them to playing the game.

Step 7 : Double Check Everything and PUBLISH

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The last step is to play your game once more and make sure everything is good and ready for people to play. Then you make sure you have finished all the requirements and publish the game. You're done! 

Create Reflection

Creating this game took quite awhile, but it was very good that I had already chosen my sprites and had my design specifications so it went much quicker. I knew what I had to put in my game and use. I did change a few things from the design specifications. I changed the sprite I was going to use because I found out that it didn't shoot, so I won a challenge and got the League Hero which could jump and shoot. I also added a sprite, the damage block, and it was a good addition to my game. It took my a long time to make the avatars do the right thing. Many would jump off the clouds because they were patrolling too many blocks. They also sometimes were jumping too fast. Once I had done the design of the clouds, I didn't really change them, I made other elements work around the clouds. Overall I think I created this game well following all my steps and completing it to be a good balanced game.
MY GAME - http://gamestarmechanic.com/game/player/278134

Comments

Evaluate

Summary of Feedback on My Game

- a bit hard
- add another life
- great background
- fun
- variety of sprites
- good balance between hard and easy
- blocks farther apart - then the avatar can jump better
- first and third levels were hard - second level was easy

My Game - Top Rated

My Game, Kill to be Rich, was on the first page of the top rated games on Gamestar Mechanic. I was very proud to have made a game that was well rated, and I felt that I had accomplished something.
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I was also very happy because a few other people who weren't from HKA had commented as well and I knew that people liked my game and were not just playing it because they had to for school.
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My Game Name was Found to be Inappropriate 

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I got this email a few days ago which told me that the name of my game had to be changed because  there was offensive language. I'm assuming they mean 'kill' and I realized they are totally right. I wasn't thinking about the gaming environment I was making this for when I did the title. Gamestar Mechanic is a gaming site for younger kids and words like 'kill' may effect them. I realize that my game name had an effect on the younger people and I will change it, to a more appropriate one. 

How I Will Improve My Game Based On the Feedback

I really liked the product that I made. I thought my game was good and balanced with many sprites and a good level of difficulty, but of course there are changes that can be made. I am going to give the player another life on level 1 and 3, so that they will have four lives, because a few players found it difficult because there were so many enemies that kept killing them. I am going to increase the second level's difficulty by putting the blocks farther apart, and by adding a few more obstacles, because the game was quite boring and simple with just a few platforms close together. Lastly, I will change the name of my game to a more age appropriate one where no one will be offended by the word 'kill'. I hope that by making these improvements, I will increase the enjoyment of playing the game and make it a game that everyone can play. 

Final Reflection

I actually kinda liked this unit. It was cool to make my own game, while learning about and using the design cycle. I thought Gamestar Mechanic was a great tool for people who have never made a game before, so it was perfect. I liked how we did the quest and learned step by step about making your own game and then got to make your own games and let other people play and enjoy them. My favorite part was making my game. I would do a quick layout and then go over it in more detail and add a few things. Then I would play my game and each time I saw something that could be made better, I stopped and fixed it and played it again. I was constantly creating and evaluating. I am also really happy with my game because it was in the top rated games and I felt proud of this game. I knew my game was good then. I had many positive comments, not only from my school friends, who would just say nice things, but other people playing gamestar mechanic, and high ratings and I knew I had made something that people would enjoy playing. I knew that by having comments and ratings from other people I didn't know, they were just judging my game and they liked it, and I had reached my goal of making a good game. I thought we moved a bit fast in this unit, and some of the things we had to do was unclear. I thought Mr. Cooperman was a good teacher who knew a lot about the design cycle and gamestar mechanic, but let is figure most things out ourselves. It was also a good start to making games, to use gamestar mechanic. Overall this was a great way to learn the basics of making a game and using the design cycle, to prepare for the next unit where we have to make our own game using other tools. I am proud of my accomplishment of making a game and of taking all the steps of the design cycle to get there. 

Kill to be Rich Version 2.0 (Do Anything to be Rich)

http://gamestarmechanic.com/game/player/278134