Week 10 - Interactive Prototype 2

This week, we had to present the games with their physical prototypes. My game was essentially the same as it was in the last post. Here is a link to a video of one of my peers testing the game-play (Blogger can't upload a video of its size!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZMJnWPNKqA

Furthermore, after testing, the users were asked to fill out a survey asking about details for the game, the results of which are seen below:

Overall from this results, people are happy with the game so far and are looking forward to additions and bug fixes. A major bug that seems to be a problem is the fact that the game seems to lag after a certain score has been reached. Hopefully, the problem can be found soon and resolved!

Week 9 - Adding the Collision Detection and Scoring System/The Physical Controller

This week saw the addition of the collision detection between the players and the 'food supply' and also the addition of the scoring system. The collision system is quite straight-forward - as soon as the player comes into contact with a piece - it will instantly delete that piece and spawn another one in that will be fired in a random direction. Furthermore, if the piece is not eaten and collides with the outside rim, it will have the same effect and be reset to the center of the screen again.

In regards to the scoring system, it works as stated in the video prototype - if a player collects their own food supply, then they will have a point added to their score. If they collect food that belongs on another player, then they will not get any points - however this provides a tactical advantage as it can reduce the food your opponent can have. The game screen can be seen below: 

Furthermore, I have decided that the physical controller that is required for the second prototype to be a spoon, as it both represents the 'food' theme of the game and is easily conductive. However, the controller is fairly basic as the user simply has to tap the controller to make it change the players rotation. 

Week 8 - Improving the Gameplay!

From the feedback given, I was able to get a good standing on what people thought of my game. Overall, the general consensus was if people had seen my video, then they understood the prototype. However, if they had not seen the video, then they required an explanation.

Furthermore, those who did understand the prototype approved of the rotation features, stating that it was probably difficult to implement - and as the person who actually did it, I most certainly agree. I have begun to add more players and more pieces into the game itself. From this point, I need to add a score and collision detection into the game, which hopefully will not be too difficult.

Interactive Prototype 1 - Week 7

Now that I had a firm foundation of AS3, I needed to finish the first prototype. After discussing the complexity required for the first prototype, I was told that it doesn't need to be the full game - as long as the 'skeleton' of the game is present, that would be good enough.

 After working off a tutorial that taught me how to implement rotation I managed to have the 'game' be the following: a constantly rotating player around the central point, while the tetris 'food pieces' are constantly being shot out of the central point.

Overall, the game is far from complete - however, I believe that after the video prototype, the basic concept of the game is definitely visible to users.

ActionScript!!

This week saw the beginning of us learning ActionScript 3 - A Flash-based language that will be the core of how we make our website. To learn the basics of AS3  and how it can be used to make games, I've been working on the tutorials which are done using the game of Pong.

 Pong was, in my opinion, a great choice for teaching us how to use the language as it teaches us ways on how to create important things for games. For example, it teaches us about object movement, controlling directions, collision detection and how to keep scores - all of which will be used in my game. Hopefully, this will become a reality in later weeks!

Week 5 - Going over the first wave of feedback!

Continuing on from the last blog post, I've been going over the evaluations given to me about Zoo Frenzy. Its generally quite positive, with a lot of people liking the general idea! (All the results from the survey can be seen below):

The only issues that was pointed out was the relevance of the tetris pieces and issues with fairness in gameplay - which will hopefully be addressed as soon as possible! Furthermore, there were several great ideas pointed out, all of which will definitely make the game much more interesting. Depending on how the base game is and how much time will be left will determine how much of these extra ideas I can implement. But it can be said without a doubt that Zoo Frenzy is now sailing strong! Next week will be the beginning of ActionScript 3 which will also be the beginning of the game making stage!