Description
|
Design Process
|
Post Partum
Doodle is a 3-player cooperative Beat-em Up style game. Players control 3 different characters, each with their
unique combat role and skills that they bring to the table. Players must coordinate and help each other in order
to combat groups of enemies. No battle can be won with just a single player alone, so cooperation is key!
The core mechanic of this game is based on color mixing. Enemies take massive damage from attacks that are their own color, and receive no damage from other attacks otherwise. The players attacks are colored: Red, Yellow, and Blue, whereas enemy colors are: Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Green, Purple. Secondary colors must be mixed in order for the enemy to take damage, so players must cooperate with each other to approach different enemies.
Credits:
Game Designer/Software Engineer/Animator - Thomas Lu
Game Designer/Artist - Christina Orcutt
Sound Designer/Composer - Julie Buchanan
The core mechanic of this game is based on color mixing. Enemies take massive damage from attacks that are their own color, and receive no damage from other attacks otherwise. The players attacks are colored: Red, Yellow, and Blue, whereas enemy colors are: Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Green, Purple. Secondary colors must be mixed in order for the enemy to take damage, so players must cooperate with each other to approach different enemies.
Credits:
Game Designer/Software Engineer/Animator - Thomas Lu
Game Designer/Artist - Christina Orcutt
Sound Designer/Composer - Julie Buchanan
Design Challenges
- There was a lot of trouble initially getting players eased into the mechanic. We needed to teach the players that the colors meant something, and that there was a color mixing mechanic.
- Cooperation was difficult to convey in the intial stages of the game. There were many playtests where we had three players playing three separate games - and this was not part of our audience experience goal. Sometimes certain players finished fighting their colors before others, so they would sit around doing nothing for a period of time. Our design decision in the end was to create a unique special attack for each character that would assist each other in battle.
Art Challenges
- Initially our vision for the game had many disagreements. Since the team consisted of two designers, the design of the art around the mechanic was divided. I had initially opted for wanting a sketchbook-type look where the main characters were robots whereas my partner had wanted a more colorful medieval-Jester-like look. We eventually settled on the sketchbook aesthetic since it made more sense within the context of the color-based attacks, and we had agreed on an "anything goes" type character roster since sketchbooks can have almost any type of character aesthetic.
- We had an issue initially on how to communicate that a multi-hit enemy (orange, green, purple) had already taken hit from a certain color. Since we wanted the players to mix the colors, we had trouble communicating that an enemy had already been hit by a color. We eventually settled on a small particle effect glow which got our point across to most players.
Programming Challenges
- Enemy AI was challenging in this project - how can I get the enemies to behave in a fashion that felt more tactically natural rather than a large bum rush? During my research, I found an article that had a wolf-pack attack pattern algorithm that assisted in creating patterns for the enemies. This article essentially stated that in a pack, two to three enemies would be in "attack mode" - entering the circle while the others would circle around the player, while keeping distance from each other. This pattern created a flower around the players which was desirable for the game.
Design Process
Doodle's design idea was to create a beat em up game where cooperation was required in order to complete the objective.
Multiplayer Beat 'em ups and Shoot 'em ups are typically multiple players playing a single player game together, rather
than two players working together to play the game. We wanted to create the second experience more.
We came to a design that color would most likely be the most easily understood concept in conveying this idea. Color is the first thing noticed in visual design and associations can be made with their own character and enemy designs. Red attacks red enemies, Yellow attacks yellow, and Blue attacks blue. We were unsure when we introduced tertiary colors such as purple, green, and orange - but after a some playtests, we found that although individual players did not understand right away - a group of people were almost always able to figure it out. We felt that this was successful in our final product.
The core of our development process was to rapidly prototype gameplay ideas that we think would work, and then cut out things that did not work after gathering sufficient playtest data. We ended up condensing the features in the game to two core combat mechanics per player - a basic attack, and a special attack that can help aid allies. The core of the gameplay revolves around using the two elements together in order to overcome foes.
Enemy development was more of a balancing act. We started off with two basic enemies - a ranged enemy and a melee enemy. After properly balancing the two, we felt that a third enemy that would cause chaos on the field would be appropriate - this was our chainsaw enemy - who would run around dealing damage to all that is around it.
We came to a design that color would most likely be the most easily understood concept in conveying this idea. Color is the first thing noticed in visual design and associations can be made with their own character and enemy designs. Red attacks red enemies, Yellow attacks yellow, and Blue attacks blue. We were unsure when we introduced tertiary colors such as purple, green, and orange - but after a some playtests, we found that although individual players did not understand right away - a group of people were almost always able to figure it out. We felt that this was successful in our final product.
The core of our development process was to rapidly prototype gameplay ideas that we think would work, and then cut out things that did not work after gathering sufficient playtest data. We ended up condensing the features in the game to two core combat mechanics per player - a basic attack, and a special attack that can help aid allies. The core of the gameplay revolves around using the two elements together in order to overcome foes.
Enemy development was more of a balancing act. We started off with two basic enemies - a ranged enemy and a melee enemy. After properly balancing the two, we felt that a third enemy that would cause chaos on the field would be appropriate - this was our chainsaw enemy - who would run around dealing damage to all that is around it.
What went right
- End product was polished and fun to play - The asymmetry of the players worked well and players felt the need to work together in order to approach situations.
- Constant iterations of a incoherent mechanic made it more coherent with each iteration. The end product turned out to be successful due to this process.
- The design iteration process of trying many different things and then seeing what worked was highly successful.
- Visuals were highly praised
What went wrong
- Team communication - During the mid/late stages of development, it became difficult to keep track of what assets were needed to complete the game. This turned communication into a bit of a nightmare.
- The color mixing mechanic was extremely incoherent in the initial stages of the game, and play testers were often extremely confused at how to approach situations initially. This had a harsh effect on the core mechanic, and many players were frustrated with it.
- General team energy/morale was low. Due to the frustrations with the mechanic and being generally overworked - morale was relatively low for the majority of the project, and this residual low morale plagued the project.
What I learned
- A good mechanic from the start does not always happen. A good mechanic is based off of many iterations, and this game exemplifies that design experience.
- Clear team communication is key, and keeping a list to keep track of assets is crucial during all times of production.
- Pace yourself - This project was longer and faster paced than other projects that I have worked on, which easily lead to burn outs. Constantly overworking is detrimental to both morale and health. Scoping down is far more sensible than overworking to achieve a goal.