Gamestar Mechanic

Gamestar Mechanic really gave me chance to experience what it's like having tools to make games. Computer games are my childhood favourite, so I think that it would be really fun to create a game by myself. Gamestar Mechanic is a really simple website to use. I'm really bad at using computers, but this website is really simple for me. So if I can do it, many people can do it too. First, you need to register for a account, so you can login anytime you use it. Then, you have to go back to the homepage of Gamestar Mechanic and you need to play the "Quest" in order to gain tools at your workshop. Once you gain tools at your workshop, you can start creating a game that you want. Gamestar Mechanics are mainly for 11 to up, so it's not a super complicated website to use.

INVESTIGATION:

Episode 1

Episode 1 is basically shooting enemies( the type that walks around) and getting health points. In order, to complete the episode, you need to shoot the enemies along the way, collect all the keys to open another area and to have enough health to go to the golden star to survive the level. This level for me, gives me a head start of what you need to create. It relates to the design phase because it gives me a image of how the game is suppose to look like. It kind of reminds me of mario, where he tries to collect the points and stay away from the enemies.

Episode 2

Episode 2 is basically collecting a certain amount of points to win the game. In some levels there would be enemies (ghosts), so you would have to wait until they disappear in order to complete the level. It shows more sprites that I would probably be using in the workshop, so I would get a sense of what I want. I feel that level 2 is pretty similar to level 1 with teh golden star, so it's trying to lead its way to episode 3.

Episode 3

Episode 3 shows you how to occupy the space with the blocks. It's very different from episode 2 because the games in episode 3 is more maze like and some of the games would make you fix broken mazes. I really like episode 3 because it shows you the first step of creating the game. This episode reminds me of silly sausage from Nitrome and Pac-Man.

Episode 4

Episode 4 is all about gaining points to complete the level. It's pretty similar to episode 2 because its all about collecting certain amount of points to complete the level. But the thing is, there is no golden star. You have health points to maintain your health to survive the game. There are more fixing broken games in episode 4 than episode 3. This episode makes fix broken time, enemies, and points so it's very different from episode 3. I feel that I learnt some necessary components in making a game and show me what is bad and good in a game (sort of like researching). It reminds me of Fancy Pants, collecting points.

Episode 5

Episode 5 mostly consist of broken games for other people to fix it. Since after this episode, we will be able to have enough sprites for our workshop. So that means this episode will teach us most of the things that we need to create our own game. I feel that know after playing all these episodes, I feel more comfortable creating a game. It's better for me, because I don't what to jump in making a game if I don't have a clue of what I'm doing. I am going to say that it does remind me of fancy pants again, because I can collect points and change his outfit.

1st Review For Game Alley

I played this game called energy certification and it was a really bad game. There was no goal and the time limit is really long and I feel like it is a really boring game. In this game, you basically collect points for 45 seconds, and you will receive some points before you start playing and you don't want it to drop down. So basically your character is running around collecting points so it doesn't go down.

2nd Review

This is another game called Farming and it was pretty good. In each level the character that you are using is different and the expectation of each level is different. I like the fact that I don't die in the first few seconds of the game. In the 1st level the character just goes and collects point. In the 2nd level the you get character that shoots the enemies (I really like that). The 3rd level has a goal to reach so I think it's a really great variety of levels.

3rd Review

There is a decent game I played called Parfait. It was okay because there is some enemies and my character shoots, but the problem is that there is only one level in the whole game, so I didn't get to experience a complete game.

Design Brief and Specification

I am making a computer game with the help of gamestar mechanic. This game is targeted for 7-12 years old because it 's about a little boy trying to save people from a mega tsunami, and to save the people he must reach the goal before the tsunami wipes out everybody. So there will be a lot of obstacles and it involves a lot of shooting to shoot down the obstacles (tsunami wind debris) along the way. I am doing this because I feel kids should learn bravery, courage and care, so in the future they will grow up to be a better person.
What's in my game
There is going to be keys and goals to reach.
I'm just going to have a regular enemy that just walks around in normal speed.
I am going to probably have 5-6 enemies.
Yes there is going to be health points in my game
There is going to be 5 health points
A shooting character because I think it's fun shooting the enemies
There is going to be a time limit and I'll give it 2 minutes.
Yes there is going to be points collected in the game and I'll put on top how many points you need to collect.
A platform game.

My game rough sketch:

The maroon represents the enemies (league pacer) and the blue represents the points. The purple blob is the main character (acheron marksman).
I'm making a platform game, and it is going to look somewhat like this with points and enemies walking around.
I'm most probably going to use this kind of format, but I have other ideas at the bottom.

I was also thinking of doing a jumping game, where you jump over the enemies. The blue blob is the league jumper. The purple spots are the enemies (league pacer) and the point is the light green. There will also be bonus points in the game, so the bonus points is the maroon spots. There will be a damage block and that one is the red and grey.

Create Phase

This is all the sprites in gamestar mechanic that I get to choose to create my game. I used most of the sprites, but there is not much to choose from because I don't have premium. To use this, you basically click and drag the sprite on your screen. There is not just the sprites, you can also edit the setting on your level. You just need to click on setting under "level 1" and it shows you everything you need to . For me I chose the marksmen, all

Here in gamestar mechanic, you get a black grid canvas to add or delete your sprite (I use it a lot). You can change the background of the canvas, it doesn't have to look like this. This is where you drag your sprites to, you can put it anywhere you want.

There are these tools you can use to find out more about your sprite or just simply add or delete your sprite. I use it a lot especially the tool button to get more information about my sprite and whether it's useful for my game or not. The other buttons are just to add or delete a sprite, so this is a very useful element for you to create your game.

This tool is very useful for testing out your game. You can click on it to either edit or play. I am going to show the steps to creating my game.

Here is What I started out first

I started out dragging my avatar (marksmen) to the canvas, so I can do my background around the avatar. You can start out with anything you like, such as the background, blocks. But I am starting out with my avatar, because I feel that it is easier to start out with that.

Adding Blocks

I added the grass block first so there is a ground that my marksmen can walk on, then I put the clouds and dirt on the top so the marksmen can jump around and shoot the enemies. So now I can get an outline of my game and see where I can add the enemies.

Enemies and Points

I added a few enemies here and there. The enemies I used is called a league chaser. It moves around to guard and protect a certain area. I added the points near the enemies, so that they would have to shoot the enemies first and I don't want to make it too easy for the people who are playing this. The points I am using is regular points and bonus points, and you have to collect all these points before you go to the next level.

Changing the settings of the avatars

If you tested your game (click play), you might have run into some problems. For example: your enemy is running too fast or slow, or your avatar jumping to high. There is a way to change that, just use the setting button on your right hand side. Your mouse should turn into a setting sign, then click on the avatar and you can control almost whatever they do. You need to change it quite a bit. So it is useful to know this. For me I use number 4 and left, I don't want it to go to fast and go the wrong direction.

Changing the background, music and etc

I really don't want a black background for my game, so I feel that I should change it up a bit. I also want music for it to, so I can let my player listen to at least something! And also how much space my game is going to take. This is how I changed it. First you click setting under level one (shown on the top image).
Now after you clicked on it, you can see that there is a lot to choose from and change. If you scroll down, there would be background options. It says that you can keep the original background or change it. It would give you some options to choose from, but not many. That would be the same process for music. For more game capacity, you have to click on edge bounding, I chose left to right because it's a platformer game. Now you get more space to build more things for your level :) This is how it's going to look like when you click on it. Check it out

Result: My game, Debris Throwdown

This is the result of my game after using all the elements that I showed on top. It is a platform game and the main sprite is the acheron marksmen. My setting is very bright and fun, so it is age appropriate for my age group. This game is not too difficult, so its very straight forward. It is not difficult to create the game after learning most of the elements from gamestar mechanic's episodes.

Evaluate Phase

I learned from my feedback that I should change my gravity and make my time shorter limit. My feedback did not have any harsh comments, or useless comments so I did learn a bit from my peers. Like how Elisa said the gravity was an issue, because she kept losing the avatar when playing my game. I am going to show what the comments look like in gamestar mechanic and the reviews as well. So this is something I am going to learn and improve on in my new and improved game,

Improvement

I made my time limit faster, and my gravity level lower because it kept jumping really, really high. I want to keep it age appropriate for my group, so my changes won't be too dramatic. Many people wrote good reviews on my game, so I will follow their comments and make any dramatic changes. If I did, It would not be for my age group and I don't think I would even pass my own levels.

Reflection

This is a really good experience for me. I never made a computer game in my life, so this is a good experience for me to try it out. This was actually not as overwhelming as I thought, so I felt quite comfortable making the game. It was really straight forward, and I feel more confident about making a game. This website is a great outline of what "creating a game" is about. I wouldn't recommend people to start out with other complicated website, because people just starting will have no confidence or background knowledge of to make the game. With this website, you get a clear idea of the Design Cycle. First we play the game (researching the good games), then we go to the workshop (creating the game), and testing the game that you created (comments from peers). So now I have more confidence to try out new websites, and I can sort of expect what's there. I am really looking to the next unit surprisingly :)