Litter Box: Version 2.0

Link to Game Below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aq549rjox6gqxun/Litter%20Box%20Final.exe

 I started creating a digital game called Litter Box during my spring 2014 semester at San Jose State University (SJSU). The game is about a cat that is lost in the dream world. Everyone knows that cats sleep for most of their day and that's pretty much all they do. I decided that I could make a game about what goes on in the cat's mind while they are sleeping to make their life seem a lot more exciting. I mean after the recent hero cat video went viral I thought it would be appropriate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6GQR3Ym5M8. 

     Litter Box lets the player go through each dream world avoiding the enemy by collecting food scraps and playing with yarn balls. After eight levels, the cat completes the game and wins. They have nine cat lives to beat the game. After each death, the player restarts the level with the same amount of treats they previously acquired during the mission.

     Future updates include adding a level indicator to let the player know which level they are on and adding one additional level so there are nine levels. I would love to eventually create the Litter Box phone app and also get the game put on an arcade machine at the SJSU game development club. I would also like to add a timer that would award the player for finishing each level in a certain amount of time by unlocking a secret level where they would be able to earn some lost lives back. I will continue to develop the game until it is a fully functional game that can be run on many different platforms including Android, IOS, Windows, and the other popular platforms that can be enjoyed by everyone that has access to an electronic device.    

Litter Box: The digital game

     The name of the digital game prototype that I created is called Litter Box. The object of the game is to help a cat named Riskers collect food scraps and get through the obstacles of the game without dying. In my first design phase I was required to have a game idea and character art along with a tutorial level that shows you how the game is played. I created 2 levels in the first design and added a 3^rd level in the most recent design. The game has glitches that will be resolved in the final version later this semester. I will add a story and integrate a lives counter so you do not have to restart the level each time you die. I also know that the cats jump has glitches when the cat touches a wall and some of the movements are off.

                During the game development I worked on the design, art, programming, and production for the game and I am pleased with the results of the first and second prototype. Overall the game is really fun and difficult. Once the glitches are fixed and I make the story line I believe the game has potential to become a great game that can offer hours of fun and frustration. 

The questions that I have for people who play the game?

 Is the game fun?

 How difficult do you find the game?

 Should I have an option to select different difficulty levels? (Easy, Medium, Hard)

 How many levels should this game have?

 When would you play the game?

 Would you replay the game if you won?

 Should there be more than one type of enemy?

Here is a Link to Download and play the game.

This will only work with windows for now.

The file is an .exe so you can ignore the warnings from your machine and say yes to the prompts

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tt5d0wdman5df6r/Litter%20Box.exe

Gameplay and Game Prototyping

GamePlay:

I was asked to play 5 games out of a list of over 10 in order to evaluate the experience and get ideas for creating my own game. My main focus was on the mechanics, the story line, and the game controls. Out of all the game types I played, I enjoyed the plat-former based games the most. These games have obstacles and allow the player to jump onto objects and evade enemies. 

The Games:

There is only one Level:

http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/there_is_only_one_level
     

This game was very entertaining. It has a little elephant character and the level design is simple and challenging at the same time. I will not spoil it but I could not beat the game without help.

Canabalt:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/AdamAtomic/canabalt

Canabalt gets harder and harder the longer you play. You run as far as you can in the level without dying.

Burn The Rope:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/mazapan/you-have-to-burn-the-rope

Burn The Rope requires you to use the level to beat the monster. Your weapons are useless so you have to improvise a way to destroy the Grinning Colossus.

Jurassic Heart:

http://hima.gptouch.com/games/jurassic_heart/

The graphics in this game are very cool. The game is about a dinosaur and a girl who have the chance to go on a date if win the game one of the ways that it can be won.

QWOP:

 http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html

QWOP is a very difficult game and funny at the same time. You truly have to master the controls to get anywhere in this game. 

Drone Strike: The Board Game Rev. 1

Game Name: Drone Strike

Game Idea:

On an assignment to create a prototype board game in my game development class at San Jose State University (SJSU), I created a board game called 
Drone Strike. The game is inspired by modern technology and how drones can be used in combat situations. Drone Strike is a start-to-finish board game consisting of a 100 spaces. It uses a six-sided die and 33 chance cards.

Game Board:

Game Board 2nd Revision

Game Board 1st Revision

Game Cards:

Game Rules:

·      1) 2-4 Players

·      2) Ages 5 to End of Charge

·      3) (1) 6-Sided Die

·      4) 33 Cards (See card descriptions)

o  13 – Hostility Cards with Negative Outcomes.

o  19 – Intelligence Cards with Positive Outcomes.

o  1 - Special Card.

o  For the prototype, the cards are numbered and correlate to a sentence with that number.

·      5) Player Must Roll Greater Than 1 to Start a Mission.

·      6) The Person with the Highest Rolled Number Goes first.

·      7) If a Player is in an airspace that you will occupy as a result of a roll value. Move that Player 1 Space Back.

·      8) To WIN be the First to Get to the Finish (Space 100). 

·      9) When a player lands on a Mission Space (Marked in red) They Must Pick Up a Card and the Outcome.

·      10) If a player Lands on a Change of Flight Plan (Space Indicated by an arrow) they must follow the flight plan to the space indicated. (If someone is in the space follow rule 7)

·      11) Make sure the deck is shuffled and fair.

·      12) A player may draw another card if they land on mission space while going in the forward direction and it is there turn. Ex I roll a six and land on a Mission space and pull a card that says +2 . I would move +2 and if I landed on another mission space I would get to draw another card. Only works in the positive direction.

·      13) Negative moves do not allow drawing cards.

·      14) If a player lands on an empty space it is the next players turn.

·      15) When all the cards have been used a player will shuffle the deck and the cards can be used again.

Game Sessions:

The game was played around 10 times during the development. Each time the game was played I noticed a flaw. I started playing the game with a six-sided die that was numbered from 0-5. I noticed that the game play was longer than I wanted it to be so in the second game session I adjusted the die to a 12–sided die. The second game session was over to fast. I finally decided to use a regular 6-sided die 1-6 instead of 0-5 and found that the game play was optimized. Throughout the game I used a 33-card deck with a 50% chance of pulling a + or - effect. I noticed that when the game was played that the negative effect made the game last a lot longer so I decided to change some of the negative effects to positive effects. After I changed the card layout the game became a lot more fun and did not last forever.  One of the last changes that I made was to add spaces that allow a player to fly from different locations indicated on the map. With that addition and the change of the cards the game came together really well. I actually enjoy playing the game I designed and will work on it further in the next revision.

To Be Continued...

UNO Sample Card Play and Game Setup

The game I am playing is a familiar card game named UNO. I will use pictures to show the game play and will explain how to start the game. I have interpreted the rules and this is how I play.

 The deck contains 108 cards and can be played by 2-10 people.

This illustration shows game play for 2 people.

The first thing you do is get the deck of UNO cards. Shuffle the cards and deal 7 cards to each player. Do not share the cards you have with the other player. The object of the game is to be the first person to get rid of all your cards. The players play cards on each turn based on the rules of the game.

The Setup:

The Cards:

Wild Card Draw 4 - Allows the player who played the card to change the color to any of their choice and can play an additional card of that color. In addition the other player must pick up 4 cards from the draw deck.

Wild Card - Allows the player who played the card to change the color to any of their choice and can play an additional card of that color.

Draw Two Card - When a player plays this card the other player must draw 2 cards and the other player loses a turn.

Reverse Card - The reverse card returns gameplay to the player who played the card. In a game with more than 2 players the gameplay direction would reverse.

Skip Card - The skip card skips over the next players turn. in a Two player game the person who played the card would go again.

0-9 Cards - There are 4 different colors with various number values from 0 to 9 in the deck.

The Game:

The Dealer flips over a card to determine the color and number that must be played on.
In this case the color to play on is red and the number is a 6. The first player must put the same number of a different color to go or the same color card. If the player cannot go they must pick cards from the draw pile.

To determine order each player flips a card and the player that flips the highest card goes first.

 The player at the top of the image would go first because the Skip card is a higher value than   the 1 card.

 A player is allowed to lay down the same number value with a different color if it is their turn. In the image above you can see a red 6 was covered by a blue 6 changing the color to blue.
The next player must play a blue card or a six. If they cannot play a card they must pick up from the draw pile until they can go.

A game will continue until one player has only no cards left. When a player has one card left they are required to say "UNO". If they fail to say "UNO" and another player calls them out they must pick up 2 cards from the draw deck.  The winner is the first person to have no cards left in their hand.

What Games Have Shown Me

I have been playing games for as long of my life as I rememeber. The first games I learned how to play were standard card games and "start-to-finish" board games. As game technology progressed in the virtual world, I started to play video games and computer games. I've observed games evolve rapidly over the past decades. They have become much more advanced and sophisticated and much more realistic. Of course there will always be the same old deck of cards, but now that there are so many game variants, it is hard to keep up. Even though games are much more advanced, the classic games, and the basic lessons that they teach us, cannot be replaced. Today’s games are almost a reality. The graphics in gaming is so complex that systems are able to render far more data than they were able to in the past which allows them to seem very real. The scenarios that a modern game presents are much more advanced than early game developers ever thought possible. I enjoy playing all types of games but my favorite games to play are console games. I really enjoy online first person shooter(FPS) games. I enjoy the strategy of online play. You have the same equipment as the other players but the person that understands the map and timing of the game will dominate the game. Another great thing about online play is that your opponents can people from all around the world. When I am not occupied by the tasks of daily life, or when I want to take my mind off of things, I turn to the video game world.