Bird Brain Sprint 2

 This sprint, I worked on creating a couple different systems for the game, including the level points system and rage points.

The first thing I completed was expanding and refining the list of actions a player can do in the game. The list of actions were inspired by the quirky little things that my own birds do, and include throwing toys, vomiting (regurgitation), and pooping - lots of pooping. In this list, I detailed the animation that should be played during each action taken, and a detailed list of where and how the action should take place. These actions were: Pooping, vomiting, looking at reflection, imitate/make noise, ring the bell, eat millet, and throwing toys. In future sprints, I hope to expand on this list if time allows.

An example of the type of thing that my bird, Chicken, does.

Next up was refining and adapting the level points for a digital format. For this, I took advantage of systems like timers and a digitized point system to create conditions such as earning x points every y seconds. For example, you can earn 15 points each time you ring a bell, and in addition to this you also gain the attention of the human (the losing condition), which was not previously possible on a paper format. As I playtest future prototypes, I plan to adjust and fine tune the points to balance the game more, and have planned ideas for things like multipliers that will affect how many points can be earned by a player.

A visual representation of the losing condition in real life.

Last, I worked on creating the rage points system, and adapting the previous system for a digital format. I based the amount of rage points on the level of risk each action had in the paper prototype, and based on feedback from the paper prototype, adjusted how these points were earned for certain actions, one notably being the vomit action. Again, as I playtest future prototypes, I will adjust and fine tune these points and conditions based on feedback.

Unfortunately, we only had one playtest in our responses to go off of, however the feedback was invaluable and definitely helped me better design these systems.

Going forward, I will be taking on this project solo, taking over the roles of programmer, artist, and level designer in addition to lead designer and producer.

The Dreaming Lake - Sprint 2

 This sprint I worked on creating more ground textures for the game. I worked exclusively in Substance Designer to create these textures: a grassy ground, a rocky ground, and a dirty rocky ground. 

The grassy ground was the first thing I worked on. It was primarily a continuation of the grassy ground that I was unable to complete last sprint, however I was able to finally complete this card. Some feedback I received from our lead, Beren, was to adjust the colors and try to make the blades longer, which I will be working on in the future. The end result was far better than I hoped for, and I am very proud of this particular texture.

For the rocky ground, I was tasked with making two variations of them. I began by taking an existing material and began working with it to create a more rocky texture (the original texture was much more concrete-like). Unfortunately I was unable to complete this task, however I will be completing it for the next sprint. I didn’t run into any problems here, just bad time management on my part.

As I get more comfortable with designer, I will begin working more from scratch rather than using existing materials, however I will still be heavily referencing previous materials and tutorials to supplement me.

Bird Brain - Sprint 1

 For this sprint, I primarily worked on designing the game for a paper prototype.

These were the cards assigned to me, all of which were completed.

My ultimate goal was to have a paper prototype to turn in, which I was able to complete. The individual tasks that I were assigned primarily had me working on designing the systems and overall rules of the game to best capture the game concept on paper.

The point system was the first thing I worked on. I decided to have two systems - one that was the players earned points, or level points, and the other was rage points, which determined how close the human was to putting the player back in the cage (the losing condition). I landed on one method that I felt best demonstrated that bigger risk, bigger reward - the multiplier and number of d6 rolled. This number rolled would be used to determine how many rage points were earned (meaning a bigger or more risky task would earn more rage points), but this number would also be multiplied to determine how many level points were earned (meaning that a more risky task would also yield in the most reward, or points). This is how I translated this concept of the game over to paper.

Next was creating a list of actions to be performed by the player. I based these off of my own pet parakeet, named Chicken, and what behaviors he did most often and how much they either annoyed me or entertained me. Pooping, for example, is pretty annoying (as it is simultaneously gross and tedious to have to clean up), so the risk was the second highest of the actions I created. However, vomiting (in reality, regurgitation, but vomiting gets the point across better) is much more annoying and concerning, as well as tedious to clean up, so I made this action the riskiest of all of the actions. In addition to this, I created a condition that could reduce the amount of rage points earned, based on the experience I have. This condition, where the player eats the regurgitation, in reality is actually something that makes me less annoyed when Chicken performs this action. Eating the regurgitation means less clean up (although there is still a bit of a mess left, it’s better than a pile of regurgitated seeds on my phone). This task was definitely the most fun to complete and in addition, it is realistic.

A photo of Chicken, the inspiration for Bird Brain.

My final specific task was to create the rulesheet. The rulesheet was fairly simple to make, and just required some proofreading to complete. I took my points system and action list and combined them into the rulesheet, and added a description of how the point system worked (rage points cannot exceed 30, interacting with props adds x points, etc). Finally, I created a “special event” - the event that contributes to the losing condition. This was the fight between escaping the cage and your human, of which I created an action the player can perform in order to determine whether or not they escape. This action was rolling 2 D6 3 times and having to get higher than a certain amount in order to escape. I wanted something that could simulate something like a quicktime event or rapid tap (or at least the feeling rather than the technique). Additionally, I explained the ending condition so that players could have an end goal.

One of the biggest problems I found was communicating exactly what I wanted to my teammates. Since I am the game lead, it was up to me to assign tasks to my teammates to create the prototype i had in my mind, however I did not communicate exactly what I wanted so the product i was given wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for. Thankfully, I was able to get my group together to create a playable prototype so we could then go in and fine tune details.

Another problem, the very first problem, I encountered was converting a simulation game into a paper game. I found that I didn’t want to use a TON of RNG, but ultimately I didn’t want to set exact points to actions and risk since in the game, these won’t be set as there are factors that will affect the outcome. I ended up using D3 and D6 as well was a multiplier to create a range of points so the player doesn’t have a 100% random playthrough. This also helped with my concept of high-risk high-reward that I wanted to include in this prototype.

In the future, I hope to have more done and in more areas such as programming or modeling. I also hope to be able to better manage my team and better communicate with them.

The Dreaming Lake - Sprint 1

 This sprint I worked on creating ground textures for the game. I worked exclusively in Substance Designer to create three textures: A dirt ground, a grassy ground, and a dirty rocky ground. 

The biggest challenge for me was relearning how to use Designer. Designer was never my strong suit so a big chunk of my time was spent following old tutorials from CAGD 320, as well as looking at new tutorials to cover aspects that I didn’t learn or was not covered by the original tutorials. 

The first item up was the dirt ground. This one was fairly simple as I had already previously done a dirt ground, so I utilized my previous knowledge of that material creation to create one for The Dreaming Lake. Additionally, I was informed by our game design lead, who previously had graded my texturing work in the past, of some shortcuts I could take, so I utilized those and was able to create the material in a far more efficient manner. 

Dirt Ground Material

The second item up was the grassy ground. This item was only partially completed by the end of the sprint, however I was able to get a good chunk done before the deadline. Since I was starting completely from scratch, I followed a tutorial and did not use any shortcuts and created everything exclusively in designer, rather than importing shapes from other programs. I got as far as creating the height map - the portion I was most worried about - for the texture before Designer crashed my computer, ultimately leading to the incompletion of this task before the deadline.

My stopping point. 

For the dirty rocky ground, I was planning on taking an old material I had previously created and adapting it to the needs of this task. It had all the components I needed, and just needed to be adjusted to form a rocky surface, based on a dirty concrete material.

In the future, I think designer will become easier and easier to use to the point where I will be able to produce more materials in a sprint and hopefully be able to start working on the wants and wishes of the project. Next sprint I hope to get not only these tasks completed, but also additional ground materials completed.