Hi,
Wasn't really sure where to put this so I guess this will have to do. This is a summer project me and two other lads did after our first year on a game design course. We've another two years to go. It took us about two months. It's basically a driving game but there just happens to be a zombie apocalypse happening as well. I've been a member on facepunch for a while but don't post a lot, so figured I'd stick it up here for the hell of it. You can play the game in a browser or DL it if you want and just so you know one of the other lads put it on gamejolt. Cheers.
[url]http://gamejolt.com/games/action/the-driven-dead/17004/[/url]
this is kinda confusing
how much of this game was built yourself? assuming this was all coded from scratch and didn't use any sort of existing bases/plugins, i'm really impressed by how stable it is and how mechanically functional it is
what confuses me is though is the that the technical prowess of the art and coding doesn't match up to the design at all. to but it bluntly, the game design work that's gone in here is pretty terrible
the general mechanics of the game aren't explained very well at all. let me explain what happened on my first play-through:
the level begins. i didn't notice the sign that says "zone closes in 60 seconds" so i didn't realise there was a timelimit. i spent a few seconds shooting the zombie but it had no effect. i drove into him at a slow speed and he died. i got stuck on a few walls and eventually ran out of fuel and lost the game
retrying the level, i noticed the timelimit of 60 seconds. i get further into the level, ignoring the gun, getting stuck on a few walls where the camera angle doesn't allow for any kind of spacial-awareness. eventually the timer stops on 59 seconds and i assume the door at the end of the level locks. i assumed the level would have failed there but i still had fuel so i drove around for a bit wondering what the heck was going on and at that point i closed the game
ignoring the fact that the idea for the game is really flawed anyway and you should have realised that (i'll go into this later), there was no explanation of the game mechanics at all. after playing it, these were the questions in my head:
why is the gun even in the game?
why does the timelimit lock you inside the level but doesn't result in a fail-state?
why is the fuel a fail-state but the timelimit is not?
things need to be explained much more clearly. the cheapest way to do this would be to have more explanation in the instructions part of the menu, but really there should be some way of letting the player know what's going on in-game. here is a list of smaller issues that should be altered, based on the questions above:
the gun should actually do something. there needs to be a tradeoff between driving into zombies and shooting zombies. currently there's no reason for the gun to be in the game. perhaps the car should take damage from running zombies over, making it the easier but more dangerous option for killing (where-as the gun is more tricky because it needs to be aimed, but it allows you to kill enemies more safely)
the camera angle should probably be higher and not be blocked by the environment (there's a very annoying bit where a bus blocks the whole view. maybe this was an attempt at difficulty but it was very artificial and irritating)
the timelimit needs to have a fail-state. there's no point making it so a level can't be completed after a certain trigger but not telling the player - they'll just roam around pointlessly not knowing what's going on
if the timelimit is the fail-state, there's really no need for the fuel to also be a fail-state. if you're driving so badly that you use up the fuel, you'll also not make it in the timelimit anyway
overall though i think the idea for the game is pretty flawed anyway. the 2.5D driving experience doesn't really function well. it'd be better with some kind of isometric view and wider environments. as it stands, it's very difficult to understand the spacial awareness because you often can't see the whole shape of the car in relation to the environment. coupling this with very harsh collision physics on the walls (the car will almost always stop dead if it touches the walls at all) makes the game very frustrating and, assuming i'm supposed to finish the level in the 60 second timelimit, very difficult
there should have been way more consideration for the game design here, not just the art, coding, and backstory
i recommend in the future you do much more prototyping and testing, but especially prototyping. make some sort of paper-based version of the game and work out the pacing and difficulty. is it fun? if not you should probably fuck the idea off there or make some huge changes to it. prototype the game digitally without any art and see if it's still fun. i can guarantee this game would still not be fun with or without all of the art assets and that's a big issue
for your next game you should probably take a much more stripped-down, simpler idea, and see if you can make it compelling and fun with minimal art. that's the true merit of a game's design
Wow thx for the extensive feedback. All the points you made are valid and were issues we had while building the game. As I said in my 1st post we only finished our 1st year of game design. A LUDO course. None of us even new what 3Ds max was up until 9 months ago nor java for that matter.
I wrote all of the scripts and configured the physics for the car and game. I never expected to like the coding side of it but I just kinda understood it somehow and I designed level 1, 4 and 6. The other two lads did the models and the story and levels 2,3 and 5. We reused as much as possible from our end of year project and the gun was a last minute thing we put in. It was never meant for shooting the zombies but more a debris clearer.
I understand your frustration with getting stuck. I couldn't figure out a way of increasing the "slippyness" of a collision with a barrier. When we first started the car launched up in the air everytime. Not gonna lie I'm pretty good at driving games, like well above average and I set the goal times for each level. So I guess I may have left them a little low.
You are right about the attempt at difficulty in regards to the doors closing and being left in the level to die. We wanted each run to be a learning experience for the player and personally I thought the warning at the start of the levels was enough to make one realise one's gotta haul ass.
Either way I'm very appreciative of your post and it definitely has opened my eyes to some flaws and issues we need to take on board for the future. By no means did any of us think this was the greatest thing since fried bread and your post is exactly what we need. This is our first game and it's more like an experiment and learning experience. Thanks again.
sounds good mate, glad i could be of some assistance. good luck with your next project! i look forward to playing it
I'd suggest working on the camera angle. I personally sort of like what was done with it though adjusting where the camera points would be nice to avoid obstacles.
Hi, thx for the suggestion, I guess it would be possible to widen the field of view a little. We are attending an event that microsoft Dublin is running and are currently working on all issues mentioned so far. Cheers man
Hi guys,
We've updated the game and changed a lot of stuff, most of which on the suggestions made here. We actually attended Microsoft Ireland's first game jam last Saturday and ended up winning the top prize for the best port to windows 8. If anybody fancies have a look or downloading the new version here's the link. College has started back up so this will probably be the last update.
[url]http://gamejolt.com/games/action/the-driven-dead/17004/[/url]
Thanks again guys
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