Devlog 1

Author of documentation: John Kim

Overview: Guide UFBoi and their alien companion through a series of 2D puzzles as they platform to the end of each level. Solve the puzzles, platform across the stage, and make it to the end of each level to progress onward. Each level will increase in difficulty so exercise caution or trial and error your way through the challenges that stand in their way.

Devlog 1:

We started by compiling our characters and I made the project with the github repository to contain it. The main goal for the foundation is to have both characters moving about with different inputs and also to make sure that things work before we set off in making our game. We decided on making a puzzle platformer since we wanted to expand our content beyond a platformer and adding an element of cooperative puzzle solving gave us the avenue to have both players be involved. I advised against making anything competitive since we only have two characters to work with and trying to make anything competitive would probably result in a game loop that would eventually become stale. Vasiliki was also very much on board with the cooperative idea too so it was decided that we would make a cooperative puzzle platformer.

I drafted some concepts for stage ideas and functions that we could build levels around. Developing a 2D game meant that we lose a lot of possibilities in terms of creativity, so we had to make do with what is possible but put some twists on it to make it at least more engaging. Some ideas I thought up involved using points of interaction, like buttons or triggers, that would manipulate the layout of the level. This would create an experience reminiscent of traversing a maze in two dimensions, but by creating methods in which the players can alter the stage we can create puzzles that we can present to the playerbase.

Our first level, drafted up by Vasiliki, consists of the utilization of switches to open up parts of the level. This is more akin to what someone would see in a traditional puzzle platformer but it’s one of those things where if it works it works. Nonetheless, it helped us get a starting feel for how we want to develop our levels going forward.

The maze level was a concept that I developed as an idea that we could pursue so we ended up making that into its own level. From there collectible elements were added to feed into the last level we developed. These collectible elements will eventually become puzzle pieces that the players collect to fill in the puzzle at the end of the game.

The literal puzzle level builds upon the two previous levels as the players use the puzzle pieces they collected from the previous levels to complete a puzzle. The design is chosen at the start of the game and then once the players have progressed through the game this is where the collectibles culminate at the end.

Feedback:

When our work in progress was being playtested, the players were able to get through one loop of the game which was good. They were able to play through each level to the end and at the very least Vasiliki and I know that our game has a loop. The main issues that arose were mostly in the maze level, where the movement of the characters created issues in trying to access parts of the level. Because the characters were still using jump physics to move vertically it ended up creating issues when traversing the maze. We’re taking this into account so for this level the physics of the characters’ movement will differ to make the experience of playing this level more enjoyable. The split camera was well received though as the players were more immersed in the task at hand instead of trying to deal with one camera that might pan too far out depending on where the characters were at