CAGD 377 Mobile Game Development

Roll With It Final

For this class, we are assigned to design a fully functional mobile phone game and upload it to the Android Play Store by the end of the semester. There are 6 teams in this class, and each hold about 3 to 4 people. Each person is assigned roles they must fulfill throughout the project. Roles will be assigned such as a Team Lead/Producer, Programmer, Level Designer, and Artist. For our first mobile project, I ended up taking the role of Level Designer, as well as a minor role of 3D Artist.

Blog Post 3 & 4

Roll With It - Sprints 6-7

Trello Board

Assigned Cards

Sprint 6:

(3) As a Team, we need to test our game before the end of this Sprint to find any remaining bugs/errors in-game.
(3) As a player, I would like to have levels 2 & 3 to have balanced difficulties overall.
Have Levels 2 & 3 to be the last levels (Changed to 4 & 5)
(3) As a Player, I would like all placeholder objects in-game to be replaced with their textured models.
(3) As a Player, I would like TWO more levels of Medium difficulty to play through.
Total Sprint Points: 12

Sprint 7:

(3) As a Player, I would like each level to have small aesthetic differences to make them feel unique from one another.
(1) As a Producer, we need the newly created Big Coin to be implemented into our levels.
Total Sprint Points: 4

Incomplete Tasks (assigned but not moved):

(3) As a Player, I would like TWO more levels of Medium difficulty to play through.
(3) As a Player, I would like each level to have small aesthetic differences to make them feel unique from one another.
(1) As a Producer, we need the newly created Big Coin to be implemented into our levels.

Tasks In-Progress:

(3) As a Player, I would like TWO more levels of Medium difficulty to play through
Completed Tasks:

(3) As a Team, we need to test our game before the end of this Sprint to find any remaining bugs/errors in-game.
(3) As a player, I would like to have levels 2 & 3 to have balanced difficulties overall. Have Levels 2 & 3 to be the last levels (Changed to 4 & 5)
(3) As a Player, I would like all placeholder objects in-game to be replaced with their textured models.
Total Sprint points: 9

Work accomplished/future work

For Sprint 6, I adjusted and balanced the intermediate levels (2 & 3), as well as replaced all placeholder objects in-game with their textured models appropriately.

In Sprint 6, I replaced the basic placeholder obstacles with textured models, and adjusted their size and colliders accordingly. This process was a bit tedious, but relatively simple for the most part. To get textures to accurately fit in their appropriate models, I scaled most of the model's axis (x,y,z) to 1/1/1 and 2/2/2. There was no big issues during this process other than fixing potential problems from new spike model colliders. When applying mesh collider for the spike, there was a weird collider that stuck out of place. This caused the ball to be destroyed in abnormal placed. This issue was later fixed by applying two box colliders on top of each other.

According to several play testing feedback, a majority of play testers thought that the ending levels were too difficult, the spike level mostly. Players thought the spike level was too challenging and struggled to complete the level. Some also mentioned that the level difficulty transition from level 2 to 3 was too much needed to be looked into. 

To make levels 2 and 3 more balanced and intermediate, I deleted some unnecessary objects in some critical areas, spaced out obstacles so that players have more time to react, and made the path to follow more visually clear for players to follow. I also made more coin trails so that players don't get too lost within the obstacles. 

For Sprint 7, I plan to look more into player feedback and fix minor issues, such as bigger objects blocking player's point of view too often in areas. As well as creating two more intermediate levels and making each level more aesthetically unique. 

To make each level more noticeably unique from each other, I plan to have each level with a unique shape that stands out from the rest, such as one level that consists of mostly cubes, one with sphere, triangle, etc.. I would also want to add more textures and models to help differentiate levels apart.

Blog Post 1 & 2

Roll With It - Sprints 1-5

Trello Board

Assigned Cards

Sprint 4:

• (3) As a Player, I would like a block out of Level 3
• (3) As a developer, I would like to have models for the different obstacles in-game (Lasers, Stationary walls, Moving walls, Falling Tiles)
• (1) As a Player, I would like a 3D model of a spike obstacle 
• (1) As a Player, I would like a block out of Level 1 
• (1) As a Player, I would like a block out of Level 2 
• (1) As a Producer, I would like the tutorial level to be twice as long to give the players a more immersive tutorial level 
• (1) As a Producer, I would like players to come across the laser trap in-game throughout each level 

Total Sprint Points: 11

Sprint 5:

• (3) As a Player, I would like the intro levels and tutorial levels to be made easier for the player to understand the initial flow of the game.
• (3) As a player, I would like the spike obstacle to be textured
• (1) As a Player, I would like the endings of every level to be more obvious, giving me a clear and defined area where I will win the level.
• (1) As a Player, I would like the intro and tutorial levels to be made into our middle and end game levels.

Total Sprint Points: 8

Incomplete Tasks (assigned but not moved): 

• As a Player, I would like the endings of every level to be more obvious, giving me a clear and defined area where I will win the level. 
• As a Player, I would like the intro levels and tutorial levels to be made easier for the player to understand the initial flow of the game.
• As a Player, I would like the intro and tutorial levels to be made into our middle and end game levels.
• As a player, I would like the spike obstacle to be textured

Tasks In-Progress:

• As a player, I would like the spike obstacle to be textured
• As a Player, I would like the intro and tutorial levels to be made into our middle and end game levels.

Completed Tasks:

• (3) As a Player, I would like a block out of Level 3.
• (3) As a developer, I would like to have models for the different obstacles in-game (Lasers, Stationary walls, Moving walls, Falling Tiles).
• (1) As a player, I would like a 3D model of a spike obstacle
• (1) As a Player, I would like a block out of Level 2.
• (1) As a Producer, I would like players to come across the laser trap in-game throughout each level.
• (1) As a Player, I would like a block out of Level 1.
• (1) As a Producer, I would like the tutorial level to be twice as long to give the players a more immersive tutorial level.

Total Sprint points: 11

Progression:

Our work progression as a group from the first few Sprints to Sprints 4-5 has been a gradually increasing pace. We have been completing a majority of our cards on time, as well as our Team lead Tyler starting to assign more often. Since our team has no artists, we are soon planning to start implementing some ideas and concept details into the project to make it feel more alive than just a gray skybox in the background.

For Sprints 4-5, I was able to complete a majority of my tasks

  

Problems/Solutions:

The work we are able to accomplish have been relatively good. However, the absence of some group members (including myself) did not help. As for my case, I missed a group meeting or two, as well as class play testing days due to personal/outside issues. I definitely need to resolve this issue in order to help the group's work flow and contribute more communication overall for our group. The absence of missing the Alpha build play testing took a toll on my end as I missed the opportunity to experience the play through of others and get their opinions about the overall level design. I missed valuable information to get other player's opinions on which parts they struggled on and what they found difficult. Not being to get information from other play testers first hand on how they perceive the level's difficulty caused some confusion on lowering the difficulty of the Tutorial and first level. 

Time management is another issue I have that needs to be worked around for this project. I need to find the right balance to share equal quality work

Other problems: Technical difficulties testing on mobile

I'm determined to get more tasks done and am excited to see the development for our game.

Walkthrough of Tutorial

Sprint 5 Progress

End Point (Portal)

Tutorial Level Update

Level 1 Update