Jurassic Arena Devlog

10.7

Title: “Jurassic Arena”

Theme: Dinosaurs (but not girls or with guns?)

Tense, but humorous

Platformer, Open Field, First-person with split screens?

2D, 2.5D or 3D?

• 2.5D or Top-down view 
• Playing as Amazonian Warriors 
• Asymmetrical: Distinct types of dinosaurs (“Fast”, “Strong”, “Tank”)
• Two Asymmetrical Amazonian Warriors (Gunner & Big Axe) against vs Two Asymmetrical Dinosaurs
• “Cadillacs and Dinosaurs” - Comic Book, Jungle-Barbarian aesthetic coupled with technology 
• The “Cage”, Enter the Jurassic Arena [Waves of dinosaurs, then final boss]
• Narrator controlling environment ?, Big ol meteors 
• [1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2? Or even 2 vs 1?]
• [Player vs Player, 1v1] Arena Battles
• [Multiplayer, Player vs Game] Two Players vs AI
• [Multilateral Competition, 3+] Players vs Players 
• [Unilateral Competition, 2+v1] Players vs Game
• [Constraint: Pressure] Element of Time?
• Resources?
• Are dinosaurs against each other in an all-out battle or are there puzzles they have to complete to win a round?
• Arena-based with the last dino standing or quick rounds?

Objectives:

1. Defeat enemies under a certain time, difficulty spike?
2. Defeat the Waves of Dinosaurs within the arena
3. Escape the Cage
4. Escape the Arena
5. Escape the Jungle?

Dino Traits:

• Size, Mass
• Speed
• Inherent traits
• Skills: Chomp, Tail Whip, Ramming, Claws

Level Design:

• Stage 1: “The Cage”
• Goal: Escape the Prison, testing abilities
• One of the prisoners point to an arsenal to the room above
• Stage 2: “Guns, Lots of Guns”
• Goal: Beat up the prison guards and search for an arsenal
• Stage 3: “The Warden”
• Goal: Defeat the Warden to enter The Arena, testing new weapons
• Stage 4: “The Arena/Colosseum”
• Goal: Defeat the waves of dinosaurs, the first one being a dino that has already beaten one of the prisoners and is eating their flesh
• Stage 5: “The Ring Leader”
• Goal: Defeat the Ring Leader, the owner of the arena and tamer of dinosaurs
• Stage 6: “GET TO THE CHOPPA”
• Goal: Reach the entrance of the Arena, get in the truck and escape, gun your way through

Each character has a melee attack (melee with guns), and a dash

Secondhand weapon? Knife?

Primal aesthetic 

[DPS, Tank] Minigun: slow, BIG impact; charge to shoot an array of bullets (it’s got to be some sick ass bullets, I dunno, something sci-fi?)

Light Saber? Dual Pistols? Shotgun?  

[low DPS, Support, quick] Sci-fi Pistol: fast shots with a bit impact, Charging shot that penetrates through barriers, shields

“Playing with Aggro”

[2D or 2.5D, Open Field]

Players start out in a maze, and while testing out their abilities, they soon realize the difference of each dino’s strengths and weaknesses. One will be fast but unable to break through walls, another will discover that they can smash through walls, while the tank-like one, slow but unyielding, takes its time towards the exit (it can also break through walls, but its abilities have a charge time).

KUNG FURY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg [13:00]

Initial Concept Design:

Game Designer

• Rules
• Inspirations from precedents
• Level Design
• Balancing Strategy
• Storyboard

Engineer

• Basic movement controls
• “Producers” or procedures (I can’t see)
• Introducing the visuals of the environment
• Same pipeline, so that everyone is on the same page

Artists

• Sketches, thumbnails of concept art
• Characters, Enemies
• Environment
• Color Palette
• Resources, items
• Mood, ambiance 
• Sample Animations
• Possible Logo
• User Testing

Graybox: 

Game Designer

• Respond to User testing
• Framing
• UX testing

Engineer

• Playable game
• Playable length of the game

Artist

• Continuing assests, but in detail
• Design visual patterns

Beta:

Game Designer

• Effects
• Partial Systems
• Feedback, how do playtesters respond to the feedback from the art in the game?

Engineer

• Refining code 
• Responding to user testings

Artist

• Assets
• UX testing
• Feedback 

10.8

• Isometric Perspective
• Camera View: Cinematic, camera is on the two players [the view will expand when the players are further apart]
• Adding the theme of Technology to our game, sci-fi?
• One of the players has robotic arms
• The other wields a massive weapon, Zarya’s Weapon?
• The Arena has two sections: An outer ring and an inner ring [the outer ring is elevated]
• The outer ring can be an environment Player 2 interacts with: turrets/cannons [cannon balls], rocks, while throwing traps [snares] onto the center of the ring
• [Unilateral Competition, 2+v1] Escape the Arena Theme: Two Amazonian Warriors vs Dino AIs
• [Player vs Player, 1v1] Arena Battles: Player Gladiator vs Player Dinosaur

Player 1: [DPS, Ranged] Minigun guns enemies down [charge and fire an array]

Player 2: [Support, Fast] Lays down traps to slow, snare enemies

Gladiors:

• Graybox: Amazonian Warrior with minigun
• Chef with dual Chopping Knives
• Man of Culture with a Katana
• Joke Character: “The Dragoon”

Dinosaurs:

• [Think of different sizes]
• Graybox: T-Rex
• Joke Character: Clockwork toy dinosaur

10.10

Big ‘ol Caster Dinosaur

• To progress, they have an evolving meter that increases by attacking the Gladiator

• Evolving: Set of 4(?) abilities, this maybe and most likely be: Evolving the mob dinosaurs, thick skinned, other special abilities, an aura for your mobs, ultimate skill (can only be unlocked when you have at least n abilities locked or reach a certain level [there needs to be a certain criteria])
• Level ups: Each time the evolving meter is filled [the total will be increased with each increment], so is the dinosaur’s health and damage
• Limited amount of Skill points [Capped dino level]
• Let us design a way for the player to follow a “tree path” such as mainly evolving your 
• mobs or evolving yourself, possibly to counter how the player is progressing
• Actions:
• normal attack
• moving(slow)
• Skills:
• 1.Mob upgrade
• Higher attack, more range
• More HP
• Each level: Change texture
• Change Final Form(slightly bigger), Range: Shooters can shoot (fireballs)
• 2.AOE attack: Stomp, Final: Tail Slam
• 3.Range attack: Fire Ball (explode damage in a circle radius)
• 4.Ultimate attack: Meteor Shower: During casting time, the dinosaur player will stand still while meteors will rain down on the field 

Undead Amazonian Gunner 

• To progress, the gunner has a soul meter that increases by killing dinosaur mobs
• Bounty Hunter: Set of 3(?) abilities

• Actions:
• Shoot
• [Reaper] Dual Guns/ Single Axe (hangs on the back)
• Guns shoot at the same time [DUDUDUDUDU], but do less damage than the minigun [no ammo]
• Axe Aoe 
• Dodge
• Skills:
• 1.Soul Swipe: AOE, Swing the axe
• 2.War Cry [Buff Skill]: Increase attack for x% in y seconds
• 3.Explosive Snare [Trap]: explode when enemies get close, deal damage in circle radius
• 3.Switch to Minigun: Burst of damage, but impairs the player’s movement
• “Guns has AMMO.” -Michelle,2019
• 4.Ultimate attack: A fokan ROCKET
• Possible/(Additional?) skills?:
• Ability to clear mobs(AOE damage charge by filling the energy/skill bar)

Hierarchy(HP):

The Gate

Boss Dino Player

Gunner Player

Mobs

The Play:

• How long do we want the playtime to be? [How much are each player allowed to level up?]

• Player will kill mobs to progress
• Their goal is to take down the boss dino and to guard the chains of the Gate
• The Gate has the highest HP in the game
• The Gate has a defensive system(trap) that activates when gladiator character is close.
• The traps deals high damage to the Boss Dino.
• There are towers that shoot the dinosaurs near the Gate
• Revive: “Death is not a defeat for the player” - David, 2019
• The dino’s has a relatively large Health bar (more than the player)
• Their goal to destroy the chains of the Gate to harvest more souls in the other realm
• The dino’s mobs:
• Revive from the gates on the dino’s side
• Have less HP than the player at the start
• Do not deal damage to the Gate

10.14

Requires no energy meter or a lot 

[X, Square = Normal]

[Y, Triangle = Light]

[B, Circle = Medium]

[A, X = Hard] 

[R1 = Ultimate] Accumulated Energy Used

[L1 = Dodge]

Big ‘ol Caster Dinosaur

• [R2, L2, L1 unused]
• How to make them asymmetrical? - No meter, just long cooldowns

• Abilities:
• [Passive] Dino Mobs: will upgrade when you kill the gunner n amounts of times or will rank up automatically when killed n times
• [3 ranks]
• [Normal]: mobs jump onto gunner/call the dinos back
• [Light]: stomp 
• [Medium]: Fire Breath [relatively close range]
• [Hard]: Meteor Shower
• [Ultimate]: []: Shoot a goddamn ray

Undead Amazonian Gunner 

• [R2, L2, L1 unused]
• Double Dash for dodge
• Soul Meter

• Dodge: Double Input on Analog Stick or R2 or L2
• When health is zero, revive after n seconds
• Abilities:
• [Passive] Reaper: Collect Souls of enemies to empower attacks for x% in y second - visually the brightness of the player might increase with souls floating around her [Soul Meter]
• [Normal]: Shooting, dual guns
• [Light]: Soul Swipe: AOE, Swing the axe
• [Medium]: Explosive
• [Hard]: Switch to minigun for n seconds
• [Ultimate]: The Ancients: Call upon ancient power residing within you and summon a multitude of rockets 

10.17

• Goals:
• Gunner:
• Switch between three guns:
• [Square] Dual pistols: long range, little damage
• [Circle] Shotgun: short range, larger radius, blast radius that calculates damage done
• [Triangle] Minigun: decrease character speed 
• R2 trigger to shoot
• [X] Dodge
• Has n number of lives and will be symbolized in the UI [not as a health bar]

• Dino:
• [Triangle] Spawn a set of small dino mobs
• [Square] Fireball: Large Radius
• [Triangle] Meteor: Spawning 
• [Square] Spawn a set of flying dino mobs, [homing Dinosaurs]
• [Triangle] Spawn an armour dino
• [X] Blink
• Potential UI:
• Gunner: 3 slots, Character Icon, Health Icon
• Dino: 3 slots, Character Icon, Health Bar

• Design Decisions:
• Take out the damage Buff skill for the Gunner
• Skills reworked

10.19.2019

Production Update:

  -Added advance camera feature that follows multiple players.

  -Added 3 types of mob Dino:

  -Armor Dino

  -More Hp

  -Slower Speed

  -Deals same amount of damage with Normal Dino mob to gunplayer

  -Spawn in two in front of the dinoplayer 

  -Circle Key on the controller

  -Buffed Dino

  -Slightly more HP

  -Normal Speed

  -Deals Higer damage to the gunplayer

  -Spawn in four around the dinoplayer

  -X Key on the controller

  -Little Dino

  -Less HP(one shot)

  -Higher Speed

  -Deals Lower damage to the gun player

  -Spawn in 6 around the dinoplayer

  - Square Key on the Controller

This Update was mainly focused on adding more attack/summoning ability to the dino player. Most of them are still in concept form at this stage and might be replaced by better options during next week’s production progress. 

Roaming Dino and flying dino is still not abandon as one of the possible attacks for the dinoplayer. 

The new dino mobs are still in cube form, we need to model them along with the dying form of them next week. 

10.20 Prototype Playtest (in DT)

• Is the core interaction engaging? 
• Is the content/goal clear? (Is the player experience we want to provide what the players are receiving?)
• What is the emotional tone of the project? (What kind of vibe do you get from the aesthetics) 
• What is missing? What is working and could be made stronger? (Did players require a lot of instructions to play the game?)
• How much “wow” factor does our game have in its mechanics?

Hypotheses (5): 

1. Users will..

Goals (5):

1. Through a series of iterations…

Playtest Introduction: Set up a scenario and give the playtester a task (ask them to share with us their thoughts in in each particular moment)

Record...

Playtester Demographics: Age, Occupation, Ethnicity and Education

Questions: What kind of experience do they have with games? What games do they usually play? Do they know what kind of game they are going to test? What are they expecting from this prototype? 

During the Playtest…

Record user testings or take photos

• Observe and take notes of their gameplay (When were they excited or confused?)

After Playtesting…

Questionnaire: 

• What did they find confusing?
• Rate the concept on a spectrum uniqueness and staleness (Lets say 1-5)
• What did they like most about the experience?
• Any Comments on aesthetics? 
• [additional questions]

10.22

• Changes:
• New Scale: issues with Nav Mesh
• Because of new map scale numbers need to be changed: Players, AI dinosaur mobs
• Orange Dinosaur is sinking into the map, so are the cubes  
• Goals:
• Map layout 90% finished
• Continue refining layout and then work on Colosseum walls
• Textures required, reference color palette and concept art
• Work with torch lighting lighting 
• Shotgun and Player 2
• Health UIs players and dinosaur

10.23

Hello my dear egg gunner friend

Goals for 10.24:

• lighting in the scene
• a center light, inspired by the glow-y magic circle thing from original concept art
• I think the minigun player has lighting on its bullets so that'd be cool to test
• and a cone lighting on the shotgun player

Playtest 10.24:

In Class Playtest:

Group #1 Shantanu & John:

• Lower the walls so the players could see the characters and environment better.
• Fix the hit box on walls and obstacles so the bullet won’t go through them.
• UI that indicates character’s HP
• Mobs spawned on walls and pillars.
• Faster movement and Higher HP for the Wizard Dinosaur
• Increase the size of the armored dinosaur.

Group #2 You Jin:

• Environment design: hiding spot/ choke points in the map.
• Items that grant upgrades to characters that can be picked up from the arena.
• Mob spawn cooldown.
• Increase the movement speed of the mobs
• Ui that indicates character’s HP

NYU Playtest:

Group #1 Unknown NYU Game Design Students

• We need a cooldown for the spawning mechanic.
• A control guide at the starting scene.
• The players want special abilities to the characters( i.e. dashes)

Group#2 NYU Student Megan

• We need a Health UI to give players a better visual feedback.
• The player asked if she can run during the playtest.
• Adjust the movement speed of the gunners, inclusion of dash ability in future.
• The player wants some kind of power ups on the map they could pick up.(buffs or health items)

Group#3 Unknown NYU Game Design Student

• The Bullet Ricochet feature seems unnecessary.
• Increase the threat level of the mobs to Gunners
• Faster movement speed
• Perform actions like jump towards the gunners when they were in a set distance.
• Abilities like Grenades would be nice for the gunners to clear the mobs
• Environment elements like traps would also help players to strategies their actions.
• They also asked if the Boss Dino could have an attack ability that with close range but deal high damage to the Gunners.

Group#4 Unknown NYU Game Design Faculty Member & Student

• We need to add that cooldown ASAP
• The players said that it would be nice to add screen shakes whenever the Wizard Dinosaur moves. It might be a nice way to spice up the game
• A Guide for controls is necessary
• There is a mouse aiming issue with the machine-gunner . Cole said something about the ratio of the screen earlier. 
• Some visual indication for the spawn cooldown would be nice
• Adjust the movement speed of the gunners.
• Fix the hit boxes of small dinosaur

We received a lot of feedback based on our observations and player’s direct feedback on Today’s playtest. All of them are valuable information that would help us to take our game to a better stage. However, based on the time we have right now, I do not think it is possible for us to include them all in the game before the Due date which is next Tuesday. So here are the goals for this weekend:

1. A cooldown function for the Wizard’s spawning ability. 
1. It is clear throughout the playtests we’ve got that having the wizard spawning the mobs without any limitation would break the game. This is a main focus for this weekend’s development.
2. HP UI
3. Ending of the Game and restart
4. A Start Menu includes a control guide
5. Visual effects and BGM that would help spiced up the game
6. All Animations and Models
7. Additional abilities for the Gunners
8. Balancing around character and mobs’ stats.