Mages Alchemy
Entry posted by tjheldna ·
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Hi all,
I'd like to introduce the game I've been working on since I purchased Leadwerks and am very happy with the results in the short time span. I have been working on games for as long as I can remember, however this is the title that I'm actually going to finish. This has turned out to be quite a long blog entry. I hope you enjoy....
The Title
The title of the game was always going to be a stand in name, however over time I have grown accustomed to it and it may stay.
The Concept
The concept of this game is primarily a learning game in particular addition subtraction and multiplication. I'm sure games like this have been done before, so I am taking what I hope to be a different approach. I want the user to feel like they are playing more of a normal game by creating an immersive and magical world. With that fact I hope to make the user feel like they are not learning when in fact they are and are anticipating the next challenge.
The initial design incorporated a vast world with quite a detailed storyline to match. This being an overwhelming task for 1 developer forced me to trim back features and then trim back some more until I was left with more or less a skeleton of what I originally planned. In doing this it has made the learning side of things much more visible.
The End User
I am a little worried about my target audience for this game. The target audience is for students (not limited to) around the middle primary years. I am hoping that parents like me who see games as a great way to learn and would use this game to supplement the students learning in a fun way. The biggest risk is that the users will not have the required hardware to run this game. Are there may parents out there with gaming machines for there kids to use???
On a personal note I recently had my son (12 months) in front of the game as I was just running the character around, testing some elements and he was glued to the screen and laughing with excitement. This has given me hope that I am on to something here!!! Wow that really made my day.
I intend to expand on the features once the initial game is done and add more game play elements that I really and create the game this intended to be. This will hopefully make the follow up game more manageable and help sow a seed for it.
The Engine
I have tested and tried many different game engines and this seems to be the best combination of ease and features that I can find. I have tested Shiva, Unity, Gamestart, and C4.
Releasing
I am setting a tentative release time frame for around late Jan/Feb 2013 but hopefully sooner. I do not plan to charge any $ for the game however this may change. Regardless if I do, the amount will very minimal. A possibility is to maybe limited to the first limited number registers are free or something like that.
Due to restrictions with the Leadwerks engine I can only release this on the Windows platform, but will port as soon as LE3D becomes available. The no terrain thing will impact heavily on this project as it relies heavily on it, but I'll have to wait and see. I would love to see this on a mobile device it would be perfect for it.
The Game
Camera
The game is like a 2D side scroller that can turn corners and is not just limited to just left right. I think its called a rail camera, well I'm going to call it that anyway. The camera follows the player and transitions between camera nodes in the world and is always facing the direction of the player. The tricky part was how the player controls work in relation to this as if you walk to the opposite direction of the camera you can find your inputs reversed (with fixed up/down/left/right). The way I solved this is that the up movement is always the direction of the camera, it really makes for an easily controlled character however you do need to course correct as the camera moves which is hardly noticeable, but feels natural.
Tasks
Throughout the game you encounter obstacles which block your path. These can be in the form of drawbridges, gates etc. These obstacles can be removed but only by using the magic of math! A successful round will see the obstacle removed and you can proceed to the task and eventually complete the level.
The Math
The game focuses on add, subtract and multiply at this point in time. The math has different levels of difficulty to suit a more larger audience. Initially the game was designed for grade 3-7, however this is not 100% decided as game content and difficulty may not suit years that low. I plan to add divide and number sequences at a later date.
Levels
The levels will range from forests, castle's and dungeons. I am hoping to produce around 10 levels for the initial release. A forrest level and a castle level are in the works, most of the other levels will be variations. Once a level has been completed there is no stopping you from re-playing the level. You may need to as you need to collect enough coins or an item to continue.
GUI
I created my own GUI interface code, purely from using LE functions. The interface includes windows, buttons, image buttons, checkbox, radio buttons, borders, images, listbox, label and text boxes. These are used extensively in the game however, the entire GUI appearance need a lot of work and I am forever optimising this GUI system. I'm currently experimenting with colours.
Reporting
As the player completes math tasks in the game your stats will be saved to your profile for later reporting. The stats are saved to a sqlite database due to it's ease of installation. I don't want the users having difficulty installing something like mysql and then just giving up. MySQL functionality will be added later so that can be installed on a server and the game connects to the database to accommodate many users and to keep data safe . Connecting to a database hosted by me is also an option I'm considering, but it really depends on how big or not this project gets.
Website
Currently I have abandoned my website and am looking at starting from scratch. New company name new website and new host. I am in the process of creating an entire world (on paper) and publishing it on-line so you can go into the website and read up on the game world's lore.
Functionality
Done
- Complete GUI system using only Leadwerks functions.
- Complete Inventory system (Pick ups, mounting weapons etc).
- Near complete Game Interface system.
- Character controller and animations.
- Camera movement system.
- Complete serialization system (serialization of the whole world was not needed for this project however. I will implement this at a later date).
- Math games.
- Complete User login system.
- Database saving.
- Combat system - melee, projectile shooting weapons (not sure if will be used for this game however).
TODO
- Magic system (it has been worked out on paper though)
Testing
I will require some testers when the game is in its Beta stage and will post on the forums when ready.
Here are some preview images some things aren't textured and some are WIP. I'll create a video soon when levels are more complete!
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