Final Project Team 1 Devlog 2

Development Process

Inspired by the Weeping Angels from science fiction Doctor Who episode Blink, the enemy in the game will follow the player with a movement speed faster than the player’s. The only way to temporarily stop/freeze the enemy is by looking at it. The game will also have small events where players have no control on their own visions to increase the hardness of the game, e.g. blinking lights. In order to make the game more interesting and challenging as well, we make sure the mazes are randomly generated each time while keeping the same level of hardness based on current level. Therefore, players will not be playing the same maze repeatedly.

Increasing Gameplay

We were able to achieve the minimal viable product in the beta version of the game, and it led us to think: what could we do to make the game more interesting? We tried to add functionality to the other characters in the Pac-man game, which are the ghosts and fruits. We have two type of ghosts which are to trigger the blindness of the player and to froze the position of the player, so it is easier for the pacman to catch the player. Similar to the pacman, ghosts would appear at random locations in map but move aimlessly. There are also two type of fruits that could help the player, one would help accelerate the speed of the player, and one could froze the movement of all characters except the player. Besides different triggers, we also adjust the difficulty of the game by level. For level 1, the light is on the entire time, and the speed of the pacman is relatively slow. For level 2 and 3, the light would be flickering the entire time. The light is even darker in level 3 with pacman moving relatively fast.

Building UI and Models

Different from games we developed previously, Pac-Dot not only contain the main menu, which offers Start Game, Instruction, and Quit options. This time we have an intro video shown in the beginning of the game to provide game background. We also have pause menu that let player pause the game, return to the main menu, or adjust the rotation of the camera (sensitivity).

We built the models for the main characters of the game shown as following:

We also have different fruits models for triggers:

Upgrading the Scenes

Besides the gameplay, we also upgraded the game by polishing its art and sound. For beta version of the game, the light is too dim and the player can harder see anything. We added torches with fire to make it easier for the player to see the roads.

We also put in more assets such as door to achieve to the next level. 

Playtesting

We were thinking about adding small events to the blue ghosts to increase the hardness of the game. The first setting we have tried is that if the player ran into the ghost, the player’s vision will go blink for a few seconds. Yet after some playtesting, we realized that it could be too easy for players to escape and explore the maze. Thus, we changed the blinking lights to light out. We also invited some our friends to help us try out the game, and they have provided us with great feedbacks as the following that were accomplished in the gameplay section:

• Have an option to jump over the intro video, so I don't need to watch it multiple times.
• Provide a trigger to increase the speed of the player to accelerate the game.
• Make the light level 2 to be flickering the entire time.
• Play a sound  the player encounter the ghost or Pac-Man.
• A bug that the player keeps blinking when encounter the ghost.