This is my first blog post for my Games Creation Processes module I am taking in my third year at university. For the first part of this module we are sorted into teams to create a mobile game that will be published on the Google Play Store.
This post covers the first couple of weeks and is about the idea our group is working with. In the first week we came up with a game concept of an endless runner. Where you play the role of a criminal needing to get away from the police. The game went through many changes of different settings and ideas but all had a similar concept where you control a ship that can go underwater, on land and in the air. Each of these areas you could go in would also have 3 lanes that you had to switch between to dodge obstacles.
A week after this we had a lecture that convinced us to have a go at coming with a new idea, then compare the two to see what we have. This led to our second idea. Based off our group name for the module, the second idea was about a Barracuda underwater that needs to swim along and eat fish. The game is 3D and is side on to the fish almost creating a 2D perspective. You need to increase the Barracuda's speed in order to stay away from bigger predators eating you. You can do this by tapping the back of your phone. This mechanic was decided as it will allow you to tap, and still see the entirety of the screen as your hand won't be in the way. After reviewing the previous idea, we went ahead with the Barracuda game as the idea was simpler, got more people interested and had the innovative tapping mechanic.
Our group consists of 2 artists and 3 coders, which works well for dividing up the work for everyone to do. The two artists were split to work on different fish assets by creating 3D models for them. The coders were split across what I like to call the 3 P's. Prey, Predator and Player. Predator refers to the threats the Barracuda will have as you swim along, such as sharks and fishermen. Both these threats can cause the player lose a lot of health if not all, making them a must to avoid for the player. Player refers to the player control, so increasing the Barracuda's speed on the tap amount as well as tilt control to go up and down to dodge stuff. Finally my area is Prey. I need to spawn fish for the Barracuda to try and eat to increase points as it swims along.
Most of the coding work was divided based on coders interests. I was selected to do Prey as I have a huge interest into AI, and as you will see the fish you can eat on screen, they can have AI behaviour to simulate flocking/schooling. Then as we the plan is to have different types of fish, it needs to be realistic by not having different fish school together, as this doesn't happen. These fish are all different sizes so will also mean different points when the Barracuda eats them. There are also separate fish that will have different behaviours to normal fish as these fish can cause damage to the player. For example a Pufferfish.
My plan before next post is to research into flocking behaviours and technically how they work in code.