Board Game Analysis – Game 2: Carcassonne

Introduction
The first assignment in the course was to play three different board games and make an analysis of them. Get an understanding of their components, core systems, properties and player behaviours. The goal with the assignment was to get a basic idea of game analysis overall. But most importantly, to get an understanding of game systems in order to prevent us in the future from designing the same game systems multiple times by mistake.

Game Description
Carcassonne takes […]

Board Game Analysis – Game 1: Pandemic

Introduction

The first assignment in the course was to play three different board games and make an analysis of them. Get an understanding of their components, core systems, properties and player behaviours. The goal with the assignment was to get a basic idea of game analysis overall. But most importantly, to get an understanding of game systems in order to prevent us in the future from designing the same game systems multiple times by mistake.

Game Description

Pandemic takes place in a near […]

Escape – Group 4 – Week 9 – Level Editing – Part 2

3rd week working on the level design. With two weeks left on the project, I was supposed to spend the rest of the time to finish the last, largest and most complex level in the game. Instead, I spent most of the week to fix a mistake I missed last week.
When using the level editor, I sett the walls and outside boundaries by them dividing it into rectangles. I sett these rectangles by choosing coordinates for the upper left corner […]

Escape – Group 4 – Week 8 – Apparent Issues

Still working with the level editor, since we underestimated just how time consuming the process could be.Another problem became apparent at the play-testing session last Monday. There was no way to test the actual levels. The lead programmer wasn’t able to generate the levels via the TXT’s until a few hours before the session. And so, testers would see weirdly placed furniture, empty rooms and run into invisible walls. Another problem was that if an object would be set so […]

Escape – Group 4 – Week 7 – Level Editing

After a few delays, the lead programmer gave the “ok” to start using his level editor for the project. As per the SCRUM-meeting for the week, I took on the task of using the editor to build all planned levels. Little did I know what lied in wait for me.
Using the editor and building the levels (or “sectors”, as we call them for this project), goes like this:

A mockup of the level done by the graphics designers is loaded as […]

Escape – Group 4 – Week 6 – Audio Options & Credits

Progress on the main menu is going surprisingly smoothly. Not only did I finish visual functionality in one day, but practical functionality is almost finished as well.Both music and sound can now be muted and the slider for lowering sound works like a charm. This however has been tested with only one sound file. There’s still a lot of work to make this work for every sound file in the game.Music and sound has to be dealt with individually, since […]

Escape – Group 4 – Week 5 – Sound Manager

In an earlier meeting with the advising 3rd year student, it was suggested that I shift my focus off the main menu and start working on something with higher priority. “Sound manager” was on the list in the backlog and as lead sound designer, I chose to start work on it.
To make my job easier, I searched the internet for existing open source sound managers. There were only two existing managers, strange considering you’d find many open source managers for […]

Escape – Group 4 – Week 4 – Start Menu State

This past week, I’ve been working on the main menu. The first state that the player runs into when the game starts. First and foremost, I’ve been working on the menu’s visual function. Doing this first will make it easier for me to program the practical functions.

I decided to work on programming the main menu, because of my little experience with C++ and programming overall. Graphics was done by Henrik Forsman. The design is inspired by 1950s commercial light signs […]

The start and lack of Progress

Ever since we received our assignment in programming, it’s been a mess. My lack of concentration, experience and patience has left a big blank in my work.All throughout the holiday weeks, I haven’t been able to make much progress. Not only because I forgot my earlier work and files, but because of uncertainty. I had no idea where or how to start. The Engine? Sprite manager? Particle effects?Mostly graphics and sound-work were among the things I could contribute, even though […]

Motivation – Why Game Design/Development?

For a long time I’ve always had a lot of ideas and scenarios popping in my head and constantly developing. All this time I’ve hoped to one day be able to put them on paper or/and screen. I’ve been writing and drawing every change I’ve got, but without enough motivation to continue and get better.I realise that there isn’t really anything special about this, a lot of people have ideas they want to put into practice. That is what made […]

Greetings

I’m a Swedish student in game design and -programming at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland. Last year I finished a one year course of “Game Design” at Ädelfors Public College. I was inspired to continue my studies and work in the field and Campus Gotland seems like great place for just that.
I’ve spent the first five weeks of the program’s first two courses:  “Game Analysis and Game Design – an Introduction” and “Written and spoken communication”.
Here are my experiences so far:
Game […]