Prototype

Eterna Hunt Prototype

This week, using the GDD I have designed, I have began to develop my game using the Unity engine.

I decided to start by laying out the basic terrain of the map since it's an open world game, and getting the general layout and placements right will help me develop the game more efficiently.

I started by sketching out the general map of my game- I did this using a mobile drawing app called IbisPaint X. Bordering the entire map are mountains so that the player has a set map to explore.

There are three main sections- The forest, the volcanic region and the tundra region, along with a lake subsection. All areas are coloured for visual representation of how big the areas will be.

Map design of "Eterna Hunt"

Source: Me

Screenshots of  my developing game
Source: My Unity project


I'm finding it easy to apply textures, grass, trees and building basic terrain! My main focus was building up some terrain this time around, so I have yet to add any scripting to my game, but that will come when adding objects and creatures to my game. I'm finding scripting a little difficult; I don't really understand it and it tends to not work all too well for me, but I will combat this by looking at plenty of tutorials and sample code!

Though I have textures, grass and trees down, they're too natural looking for my liking and I would like more fantasy-esque plants and colours in my game. There are some things available in the assets store but I'm not willing to spend money on anything since it's very unlikely I'll use them outside of assignment work, so I'll have to look into free options.

I find that when I add more trees, grass and terrain to my map, it slows down my laptop considerably... it's painful to work on it when it's that slow, and there's unfortunately not much I can do to fix this slowness. This is already a big issue in this early stage, so it will probably only worsen as development continues.

I may possibly have to make the map considerably smaller than I would have liked, and be sparing with my many trees to go in the terrain in order to make my laptop a bit faster and responsive when developing. The map I have currently is bigger than I actually thought, so cutting it down shouldn't have a huge impact. Plus, this gives me chance to build and detail the terrain more since the map would be smaller.

I feel that I am meeting my targets relatively well as I have been following the majority of the Jimmy Vegas tutorials and they have taught me the basics of Unity and provide helpful tutorials on things I can add to my game. Also, having done all the project work is very helpful as it's given me a solid idea of what I want my game to look like and the things I need to do to achieve that.

Next up, I'm going to work on making my map smaller, start adding interactive objects into my game, and start working on a cursor and UI.

Game Decisions

Game Decisions

In this week’s reading explores the problems with making an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) including looking at social psychology, friendship, design insights and the social motivation of players.

Looking into aspects of social psychology aids in the development of social design in games.

Friendship between players in a game built up in a variety of in game activities and spaces allows users to build bonds with one another. Important factors in order to determine if individuals are likely to become friends include being close together, being similar to one another, interact back and forth and also be able to confide in the other person. Designing features in the game that allows players to interact, engage and observe is beneficial. Dunbar’s layers explores in depth how people socialise with one another- almost like a network of connections a person may have. It states that people tend to have about 150 friendships in total, branching off into good friendships, casual friendships, best friendships and intimate friendships. Here you can read more about Dunbar’s layers.

This blog goes into extreme detail regarding the social psychology of people, including Dunbar’s Layers.

Dunbar's Number image

Source: Wikipedia

Design Insights

Exploring game design that keeps in mind the social nature and psychology of players will help build a game in which players can bond with others and maintain these bonds.

Designing public and private spaces for players to bond, promoting shared goals, promoting positivity in growth and support aid in players sharing goals and building bonds. It also helps socially motivate players.

Having several communication channels, such as personal/private, tiered, and broadcast channels is an important factor to look into when designing an MMO.

One piece of advice the readings give is to not build a big world first, but to rather define social activities, map out group size and to build social support systems.

Keeping in mind how players interact using social psychology and knowledge of game design allows for a game where player’s social needs are satisfied to be made and is important to learn from.