SpellStrike: Final Project

This game has already been through one iteration. It started as a simple idea where elements combine and became a full fledged fighting game. As far as the core mechanics and gameplay are concerned, we have that all done. But I like to think that a game is never done. You can always tweak and tweak and strive for perfection with an inhumane level of thought. That being said what are we going to add for the final version as the game. Well we need a thorough tutorial level so no one is dropped into the game not knowing how to play. We need add a match system that allows players to fight in a best of three and keep a tally of most wins in a row so we can have a leaderboard. We still need animations for the players, while casting and taking damage, and for their health and mana bars, as well as tweak the animations we currently have.

These are all the changes we need to make that the user can see but we still have some work to do behind the scenes as well. We need to modify the spells to make sure nothing is too overpowered and everything is behaving as expected. But honestly the game has reached a really good place. We just can't add too much because we don't have enough time to implement both the logic and get all the animations for them as well. For example, I was thinking about having combo spells, but the time it would take for all the animations is too much. I am also planning on working on this game over winter break, turning it into a full scale MMORPG, with a story and items and armor and boss battles, so I am super excited to get started on that and this game will give me a really good jumping point.

SpellStrike: The First Beta

       SpellStrike started out as a simple concept. I wanted to make a game where two mages were battling. Of course I also wanted this game to be an MMORPG, but that is just not possible in 6 months(for obvious reasons). So I decided to make a two player fighting game where players can cast spells to hit each other in a confined space. The first spell was obvious, a fireball. No mage battle is possible without those, and soon followed all the other spells. A lightning bolt, rock throw, and tsunami wave. So now I had an elemental battle taking place so I decided that elements combine in real life, why not combine them in my game. So rock and fire made magma, water and rock sprouted trees, and the other combinations are equally as epic.
       My role in making this game was the designer. I was in complete control of the direction the game took and made all final decisions on gameplay mechanics. I attempted to balance the game and made sure that no one spell or combination of spells would be deemed too powerful, by providing an adequate in-game response to any particular spell. As I played the game today some was spamming the rock throw against me, so I countered with the tsunami turning them all into trees, which absorb all damage except fire. Someone tried to get me with the tsunami so I countered with the fireball, turning it into a raincloud that heals me. Every spell I hope has a counter.
       People seemed to really enjoy the game and thought very highly of all the spell mechanics. And the answer to the question are the trees OP was answered. They are not! In my own play testing I thought perhaps they were a bit overpowered but one person suggested the fireball leaving a damage over time on the tree, which I thought was fantastic. It leaves the tree there to suck up damage but the player doesn't need to constantly shoot 4 fireballs into a tree to destroy it. Some players thought the game was a bit too fast and I agree to an extent. As some other people suggested high speed usually equates to high level of play, which I absolutely agree with as well. But I do think the spells speed could go down a couple notches or leave room after casting so players can't cast multiple spells in a row. Overall, the response seemed great and I can't wait to keep working on this game.

Here is link to a dropbox download of .exe file
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8rea8q4i1mcaq4j/Project1.exe?dl=0

Wizard Wizard, QWOP, and Prismic Shift

So on Monday we played a few video games to get a feel for different mechanics and dynamics, and as always pay attention to the art in the games as well. Wizard Wizard is a traditional platforming game with the basic mechanic of a jump and double jump. It is really simple and really fun and definitely has an addicting "want to finish it" type feel. This feeling I got from Wizard Wizard I think is also present in the other two games I played. QWOP is a game that is impossible to say the least. The goal is to use the Q and W keys to control an Olympic runners thighs and use O and P to control his calves. Sounds simple, but there is nothing harder in this world. Once again a game with an extremely simple mechanic leaves the player wanting more. I kept losing and losing and barely getting the runner to take a single step, but the perceived difficulty of the game just made me want to keep going and keep getting better. The final game I played was called Prismic Shift. It was a game made at the SJSU game dev club and it is a really nice game, similar to asteroids. There are shapes flying at you and you have to shoot them. Of course the game has more to it but the core mechanics involve simple movement and shoot. This game also leaves the player wanting more, since the game is so fast paced and pleasing to the eye. I think this was definitely one of the better looking games I've played of this genre. The art combined with simple fun mechanics allows for hours of gameplay. These three games all have a certain level of mastery required, but the difficulty is shrouded by the simple mechanics. 

Mage Battle 3000!

This is a board game that focuses on player elimination with two people going head to head in a battle of spells and magic. The objective is to destroy your opponents walls and get a direct hit on them, reducing their hit points to 0. The game is played on a 4 by 10 board with two character pieces, a deck of cards, and two dice. The first time I played this game I had a clear vision as to what kind of game I wanted to make. I really enjoyed the Megaman Battle Network series, which pit two opponents on a grid against each other. What I did not foresee was the just how difficult it would be to balance all the different parts of the game. Each player would place 4 cards face up on their side of the field to act as their walls. The walls had hit points equal to their cost(Ex. Jack of Hearts has 11HP). Then each player would draw 5 cards which acted as the spells a player could cast. The four suites formed the strengths and weaknesses. Hearts beat Clover, Clover beat Spade, Spade beat Diamond, and Diamond beat Hearts. So Hearts does double damage to Spade and half damage to Diamond. Each turn a player could choose to move and attack, or set up a wall only if they had less than four walls. Each turn a player would roll the two dice and that would determine the distance a spell could travel in a straight line. We decided that rolls greater than 9 would equate to more movement for the player and all leftover points were used to determine the distance of the spells. A spell that hit a wall can only destroy it. Hit points are not deducted. If a player casts a spell on their opponent, that player can stop the attack by playing the weakness of the spell that was cast on them(Ex. 5 of Hearts is stopped by 3 of Diamond, because Hearts is weak to Diamond and 3 times 2 is greater than 5). All these rules were defined on the first day of playing this game. We didn't have much of a chance to iterate through and actually play multiple games all the way through.

Over the next weekend, I sat down and played this game with my family. My mother definitely had the hardest time understanding the rules, but after watching my brother and I play she was able to play my dad and held her own fairly well. The rules for the game seemed to be holding up pretty well, but I decided that the extra movement created by die roll was a bad mechanic. So instead I chose to allow those extra points to be saved and used as extra damage or distance on a later turn. This definitely changed the dynamic of the game, because you could choose to use the points instantly or save them and use a big spell on a later turn with more distance. This definitely played out good, but there were still some changes I wanted to test out when we played the game one more time. In class, I decided that the four walls each player had should be turned face down, so the other player doesn't know the strength or type of the wall he or she is attacking. This gave the game an element of surprise which I liked. I also decided that the hand should be limited to 3 cards and not automatically be replenished. Instead a player would have to spend action points to draw a card. I also gave a player the option to move a wall, given that they possessed enough action points. So the way the action points work, is that a player rolls two dice and that is the number of action points they have this turn. Each action has a cost associated with it, movement costs 2, attacking costs 3, drawing a card costs 3, and moving a wall costs 4. A player can do as many of the above actions as long as they don't overspend and any leftover points are gone. This made the game slightly more strategic and gave players the opportunity to plan out turns, instead of having to choose one or the other. The game at the beginning had a very solid base and with some tweaking it definitely became quite entertaining, but alas it still needs work and perhaps a complete revamp of the system itself. I believe this game functions much better as video game and I do plan on making this into a full video game with a real-time battle system.
 

King of Tokyo: Who Will Reign Supreme?

It was a peaceful day in modern Tokyo. The people were going to work in the morning and the commute was especially bad today. Commuters began to worry that they would be late to work, but little did they know that was the least of their worries. The Kraken(Me), the King(Patrick), an Alienoid(Mike) and Gigazaur(Will) had been having an argument recently to see who has the rights to Tokyo City. Today was the day that they had scheduled their clash. Each of them had equal health at 10HP and equal strength. They had agreed that the first monster to gain 20 Victory Points would be the winner. These points were earned either by staying inside Tokyo City or using special abilities, or by die roll. Yes, these monsters use dice to determine their moves. The Kraken was the first to strike and he gained two victory points for crushing two buildings, he also gained 1 energy. The King went next and gained 4 energy and he learned a new skill called Armor Plating which allows King to absorb 1 damage. The Alienoid failed to do much of anything but gain 2 energy. Gigazaur gained 3 Victory Points by rolling some two's and entering Tokyo City. Gigazaur was eager to gain early control of the City, but this made the other three monsters rethink their strategies. The Kraken punched Gigazuar for a hefty 3 damage and gained an energy in the process. Gigazaur decided to stay within Tokyo and see if he can withstand the wrath of the other two monsters. King gains 2 energy and gained a Victory Point but failed to hit Tokyo and Gigazaur. The Alienoid gained 4 energy and learned a new skill called Acid Attack which deals 1 damage even if he doesn't attack, so Gigazaur did sustain some small injury from the Acid. Gigazaur gained 2 more Victory Points and punches each monster for 3 damage. The rounds continue back and forth, each round a different monster moves into the City heavy damage was dealt and the King soon met his demise. Gigazaur who had retreated and healed himself away from the City was in the best position, but little did everyone know that the Alienoid had been scheming something. He had been gaining ground by crushing national landmarks and earning points in various ways all the while avoiding confrontation with the other monsters. Then one round the Alienoid made it's move. It seized Tokyo gaining a point and putting himself at 16 Victory Points and had gained the lead. The Kraken tried it's best but Gigazaur in attempt to kill the Alienoid fatally harmed the Kraken by smashing a Gas Refinery. It was too late the Alienoid had seized Tokyo and had enough steam to withstand any attack, so after much deliberation the Alienoid had conquered Tokyo and was crowned the King of Tokyo. 

Link to Game:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-tokyo

Superman: The Arcade Game

Everyone has definitely heard of Superman before. He is the indestructible, invincible, freeze breath blowing, laser eye beam shooting, faster than a speeding bullet superhero whose only weakness is radioactive pieces of his home planet. So how can someone make a game with a character who seemingly can't die. Well obviously all the enemies have kryptonite coated gloves and boots right? Regardless, if we look past this fatal flaw in the main character this game actually plays really great. It has all the properties of your classic side-scrolling beat 'em up. Superman can punch and kick. He can also charge up an energy attack by holding down the punch button. I find that this energy attack is incredibly effective, since even from the beginning a lot of enemies flood the screen and the energy attack takes care of all enemies in it's path. The main difference between this side-scroller and others I have played is that Superman is flying. Most side-scrollers add an element of platforming but this game does not have that. It focuses and quick-thinking and fast reactions with just punches and kicks and the fly mechanic is actually incredibly smooth. This side-scroller also has a co-op mode just as many other similar games do. And of course the game becomes easier with two people as there are now two superhero's with unlimited power fighting a bunch of henchmen. This game must have been awesome to play in an arcade. On my computer the emulation just felt cheap and not as fun as having a joystick and arcade buttons to mash. Nonetheless, this game is a super fun side-scroller. (Pun intended)

Link to the game:
https://archive.org/details/arcade_superman