Update #5: GDC and MMF Demo Feedback

Hey guys. I've been doing a lot of traveling lately in order to get some feedback on Quest For Funk. Two weeks ago I showed off the game at GDC and last weekend I had the game on display at the Mini Maker Faire in downtown Cleveland. Quite a few people got their hands on the game during these events, and it was very insightful to be able to get some feedback on everything. Some people seemed to like it a lot, others simply scratched their head in confusion, but overall I think it was a fairly positive experience.

At GDC, I actually entered the game into Pocket Gamer's Big Indie Pitch event, where I got to show off the prototype to a panel of judges, ranging from various game journalists to folks from Rovio. This was my first time really showing off any gameplay to anyone, so as expected it was messy and nerve-wracking. As you'd expect from a prototype, certain things broke and there was a lot of "well in the full game, this will be..." But I'm really happy that I presented the game in the stage that it was in. It opened my eyes to quite a few issues that I might have otherwise overlooked, and I think it will change the final product for the better. Here are some of the biggest takeaways that I learned.

1. The cross-genre gameplay might not work. When I explained the whole twinstick-shooter crossed with a 2D platformer idea, a lot of people nodded their heads but I could tell they were a bit confused. Even regardless of people's reactions, the gameplay sounded a bit ridiculous coming from my own mouth. I think the core flow of the game might be a bit more complicated than it needs to be, and I've been thinking of ways to amend that.

My solution is going to be that I will primarily focus on the 2D platforming stages. The twinstick shooter portions feel too out of place in the flow of the game, and I'm going to do away with the 2-stage setup for each level. The twinstick part won't go to waste, as I will repurpose it as a bonus stage that shows up every so often. But I think keeping it as 50% of the game is just unnecessary, as most players seemed to have a lot less fun with this portion as they did with the platforming stage. Speaking of the platforming...

2. The platforming controls need to be reworked. A lot of folks seemed to have trouble navigating some of the sewer areas, especially the younger crowd that tried out the game. Something about the controls just doesn't feel as smooth as it should, and I think I need to research some good platforming games to get a better feel for how to fix this. In addition to that, the layout of the sewers could probably also use some work. Jumping from pipe to pipe in the current design is too difficult (especially once I throw touch screen controls in), so I might need to change up the layout. Wall jumping or being able to jump through the bottom of platforms are also possible solutions to this problem.

3. The art was fairly well received. Considering I'm an artist first and an everything else second, this one actually made me pretty happy. I got complements on the color palette and most people seemed to dig the character designs. A minor issue, but I need to make doors in the sewer area more obvious, because a lot of people had trouble locating them. Also EVERY SINGLE PERSON initially walked right past the ladder in the first room. There wasn't even ONE person who went up there before heading right. So I might need to make it a bit more obvious that you can climb up there.

4. The game is still pretty buggy in places. On numerous occasions, I encountered the bug where Dyll spawns backwards. This means he ends up running backwards for the entire game, which looks pretty sloppy. I thought I had fixed this issue, but there is clearly still a bug out there somewhere. Also I need to tighten up collisions because people often went in places that they weren't supposed to. Luckily no one made it to the very end of the stage because there is just an endless chasm over there that I was terrified someone would try to go to. This is all pretty minor stuff, but it's things I wish I would have fixed before demoing the game.

All-in-all though, I'm happy with the state of the game. I know what needs to be addressed, and now I'm fired up to make even more progress on the game. As a side note, the images you see throughout this post were last minute cutscene images I drew before leaving for GDC. I wanted to make sure the story was clear rather than just dropping the player in the level, so I threw them in there right before I left. They will all be replaced with proper artwork later, but for now they do a decent job of telling the story. Anyways, that's all I've got for you this time. Hopefully I'll have another update soon talking about how I fixed all of these new issues that I discovered. Until then... Adios!

Update #4: GDC Prototype

Hey guys! As I kinda mentioned last time, I'm going to GDC next week! It's my first time attending, and I'm super excited about all of the cool people I will hopefully meet there. I've been very hard at work trying to get Quest For Funk ready for the conference, and I'm happy to say that I will indeed have a playable prototype with me. I'll be wandering around the expo hall all week, so if you're attending, make sure to come say hello and give the game a try!

Quite a bit has been done since the last update. The bulk of the time has been spent laying the groundwork for Stage 1 levels (the Twinstick Shooter portion of the game). As you may recall, Quest For Funk has 2 stages in each level: a Twinstick Shooter where you get points for every enemy you destroy, and a 2D Platformer where you must find all of the hidden NPCs before time runs out. The length of the timer in Stage 2 is determined by your score in Stage 1, so it's a continuing process. Everything I've shown off so far has been from Stage 2, so it's time I posted some Stage 1 images.

Now this doesn't have any of the actual artwork in yet, because I've mostly been focusing on functionality. Twinstick control setups in Unity aren't as widely documented as a lot of other features (especially involving touch screens, but more on that later). So getting this part up and running was fairly time consuming, but it's pretty solid at this point. You move your character with the left stick (or WASD) and aim with the right stick (or the mouse). Firing happens automatically when the right stick is in a non-neutral position (or when the left mouse button is clicked). Right now you just shoot falling objects, but eventually you will face AI that shoots back and moves in more complex patterns. My goal for this prototype was simply to get the controls working correctly, and I'm happy to say that they are fully functional (with 3 different input methods, in fact!).

)
Another big chunk of my time has been dedicated to implementing touch screen controls. This has been a very challenging task, but thanks to the amazing YouTuber Devin Curry, I've managed to get things working fairly decently. I created an omni-directional touchscreen joystick that behaves similarly to a physical one. Some actions are still a bit buggy using touchscreen commands however, so I plan to have a PS3 controller on-hand at GDC to ensure players can try the game with optimal controls.

Aside from those two major tasks, the rest of my time has been spent adding polish and replacing anything that was still whiteboxed. There are now pipes all over the sewers so that every area is accessible. And the game now has fully functioning ladders!

There are also crates to climb on! Because what kind of game would be complete without the good ol' wooden box?

I've added in a few secret areas as well that give the player a reason to go off the beaten path. I'm a huge fan of hidden rooms and secret powerups, so I plan to include a lot of things like that in Quest For Funk. Now that the base of the prototype is solidifying, I should have some time to start adding in the fun stuff!

Speaking of fun stuff, here's a bouncy collectible! These music notes serve a similar purpose to bananas in DKC or rings in Sonic. The more you collect, the higher your score is, but it's completely optional. I think it really adds something to the game when the player has an extra challenge to work towards. And since levels are timed in Quest For Funk, collecting all of the notes before time runs out could prove fairly difficult!

And that's all I've got for ya this time! There are still a handful of items on my "To Do Before GDC" checklist, but I'm very happy with the state that the game is in right now. If you're going to the conference, get in touch. I'd love to meet you there! For everyone else, stay tuned. Some time in the near future I plan on releasing a playable prototype online. Until next time... Adios!

Update #3: Lots of Background Art!

Hey guys, it's been a busy two weeks! I've been hard at work on the game, and I've got quite a bit of new artwork to share with you. But first thing's first, you may notice a slight difference in the banner. After much deliberation, I've decided to change the title of the game. I was never fully satisfied with "Dyll's Quest For Funk." Having an apostrophe in the title seemed like it could eventually be problematic, and the name Dyll wasn't exactly interesting enough that it felt necessary to be in there. I thought about just calling it 'Quest For Funk' but a name that simple seems like it could eventually be a legal headache (especially with all of this candy nonsense going on right now). And so I finally settled on the title DJ Dyllusion: Quest For Funk. Let me know what you think about the new title in the comments section! I also went ahead and bought QuestForFunk.com so you can now access this blog from that address.

Anyways, without further ado... let's get to the new art!

This is the first building that you enter in the game. A lot of platformers have that flat look where you're standing on boxes directly in front of the camera, with a 100% straight view (original Mario or Sonic games for example). I wanted to go with a visual style with a bit more depth, like something that you'd see in a fighting game or beat 'em up. While the character is still limited to two-dimensional movement, the background gives the illusion that it takes place in a world with three dimensions.

When you're up on the streets, it's a wide open area with scrolling backgrounds and expansive landscapes. But once you go down into the sewers, the area becomes much more confined. The backgrounds down there become static and give you a sense that the character is in a tighter place.I really want to convey a sense of depth with my environments.

These backgrounds are actually composed of many small, individual pieces that are designed to be modular. Placing them in Unity has turned out to be a bit more time consuming than I originally figured it would, but by creating them in such a way it gives me a lot more freedom in my game design. I've toyed with the idea of creating more of a grid-based tile system to make placement easier. But again, I think the sense of scale that I'm currently using provides greater creative freedom than if I was working with tiles. So I'll stick with my current methods, at least for the prototype.

Here's a view of the skyline background. This is actually 4 images on top of one another, each able to scroll at its own speed. I went ahead and completely re-wrote my parallax script to not only be more efficient, but also to give me a bit more control over it from within Unity. I still have a slight issue with some of the layers fighting for Z-space, but I'm sure I'll figure that bug out before the next update. I also plan to add some clouds and stars up in the sky to break up that big dark area.

 

As you may have noticed up above, I finished Dyll's jogging animation! I've included the two sketched versions for comparison. I think I may need to adjust his head a bit in this animation to prevent it from looking so stiff, but I'm certainly happy enough with it for the prototype. This actually took me quite a bit of time, so I feel a slight sense of dread when I look at my list of animations that still need to be done. Hopefully the experience I gained from this one can help to speed up my process a bit. 

Lastly we have my favorite bit that I worked on recently - a city bus! This is simply there as an "invisible wall" on the left to prevent the character from going off the map, but I got a bit carried away and had too much fun with it. Eventually I'd like to start the game off with an animation of Dyll getting off the bus and walking into the level. And then maybe looping an animation of the bus driver opening and closing the door. To me, little things like that really push sprite based games over the edge, so I'd like to include as many subtle animations as I can in the backgrounds.

And that's pretty much it for now! I feel happy with what I've accomplished since the last update, but of course there's still tons of stuff to do! I'm hoping to have a somewhat polished and playable first level when I head off to GDC in a few weeks, so look forward to at least one more update before then. Until next time... Adios!

Update #2: Technical Progress!

It's been a little while since the last post. I think it's time to talk about the progress I've made on Dyll's Quest the past few weeks. To all of you who just like looking at pretty pictures, sorry to disappoint! You might want to skip this post since almost all of the recent progress has been on the coding side of things.

So here's what the prototype looks like in it's current state. None of those assets are finished, but it should give a pretty good representation of the direction for this game. I've recently added a lot of functionality into gameplay scripts. I added a HUD script that keeps track of various statistics. I coded a parallax background script that allows multiple background planes to scroll at different speeds when the player walks. I added functionality for Dyll's 'Get Down' move, which allows him to use his Funk powers on NPCs.

Speaking of NPCs, I've spent a lot of time coding enemy AI since the last update. The default Hobo enemy can patrol an area, idle, jump, die, chase the player and return to a home position. He's not all that intelligent yet, but as an artist first and a coder second, I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished on him so far.

I've also implemented a basic pause menu, and fixed a subsequent bug that allowed the player to rocket jump while pressing the jump key on the pause screen. (It's a feature, not a bug!) A countdown timer is now also in place, and you'll be taken to a game over screen when time runs out. I've also created a ladder script so that climbable objects are now fully functional. Things are moving along pretty well.

On a side note, I also got the game listed on IndieDB, so go check that out. Marketing games isn't exactly my area of expertise, so hopefully that will lead to a bit of exposure:



I'm getting to a point where most of the basic gameplay elements are in place (at least for the prototype), so I can finally start concentrating on the art assets! That said, expect the next update to be a bit more visually appealing. Until next time... Adios!

Dyll's Quest - Dawn of the Development Blog

Hey guys! Welcome to the first blog post about my new game, Dyll's Quest for Funk. In this blog I will take you behind the scenes and share all sorts of neat little tidbits about the game development process.

Dyll's Quest for Funk is an idea I've had for a while now. I spent a few months nailing down the concept and writing out the design document. And recently I began to work on the prototype. This is my first time ever writing a blog about game development, and this is your first time ever reading a blog about my game. So it'll be a learning experience for all of us! I want to give you an interesting look behind the scenes as I develop Dyll's Quest, but at the same time I don't want to reveal too much information too early. So these first couple posts will be about finding that right balance.

I'll discuss the details of the gameplay a bit more in a future post. For now though, I'll give you a rundown of the basics. Dyll's Quest actually has two distinct gameplay styles: part 2D platformer, part twinstick shooter. Your progress in one portion of the game directly impacts the other half. You need to continuously build upon the momentum of the previous level to succeed in the next stage.

As I mentioned, I just recently started to really get working on the prototype, so the game is still in the very early stages. Most of the artwork and screenshots that I post now will likely look completely different by the time the game is finally released. Keeping that in mind, let's take a look at some pictures.

This is an early concept piece of the UI. Originally intended to be a sample mockup for my portfolio, this picture actually spawned the idea for the game. While I'm going for a rather over-the-top style with the art direction in this game, I want to make sure that things are also functional. Readability is an important aspect of a good UI, so some tweaking may still be in order. Some of the media player elements will likely remain for the final design, but there will need to be a few changes.

Still frame of the main character, Dyll. This was more for establishing proportions and a color palette, but this sprite may find it's way into the game in some form. Dyll is sort of a laid-back, hippy kind of fella. He runs a relatively unknown radio station, so I'm trying to convey the type of character that you'd imagine DJing  amateur radio in the middle of the night. He's quirky, he's funky, but he has a very optimistic outlook on life.

 

Dyll's jogging animation in progress. First I start with the sketch, then I fill in the base colors. Next comes the details and the shading.

Last, we have a screenshot of the prototype working in Unity. Beautiful, isn't it? I've managed to white-box the first level (or in this case, I guess blue-checker-box would be a more correct term). In addition we have the player character (in all his unfinished glory) running and jumping around the level for testing purposes. It may not look like much from this shot, but this is actually hours and hours of work that have laid down the foundations for the final game.

Well, that's about it for now. A lot of the basic functionality is actually done, so hopefully we'll see a lot of art posts in the near future. I will continue to update this blog as I make more progress on the game. I hope this was interesting to everyone. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to leave them below. Until next time... Adios!