Game Design class journal #1

Currently I am attending my second year at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth OH. One of my classes is a class about game design and game design history. In this class we are just now starting to work on figuring out the basics of getting a team/studio together, everyone's own different roles, and starting to make a game. As far as i know we are not actually going to make a game this semester but we are going to make game design documents and concept art and various assets etc... . Unfortunately due to a cold i missed the class where we discussed what type of game we are planning to make (or not make) but i have pieced together some general information about what the class is doing. 

What i know so far about the game idea

• it is a 2d fighting game in the style of Skullgirls/Blazeblue
• the setting is a high school where some/all of the students have powers/quirks similar to things like Sky High (the Disney movie where Bruce Campbell is a gym teacher who shouts at people) My Hero Academia, and X-men
• students belonging to each stereotypical high school clique/group will probably have a respective character in the game
• the working name is "Green Devils" or "Green Devil"

What i know so far about the project itself

• Each student in class has there own different jobs/positions which they mostly picked themselves
• my job/position is story/character design (and possibly backgrounds and sound effects) and also class bunny (a class in joke ill explain another day)
• i need to write about the first few steps about what im going to do first and talk to the other people in class that are connected to my position (see below)

What im going to do first

My first few steps for starting this project is first off getting some sleep. This is important because for a period of about 3 days last week (9/19/17-9/21/17) i maybe got about 3 to 4 hours of sleep causing me to extremely spaced out Thursday. 

As of when im writing this i have since gotten sleep. My plan of action now is to prepare some general ideas for class on Tuesday and present them to the people i directly need to work with. Along with that i need to figure out who i would be directly working with and write their names down. I did talk to one of the people im working with on Thursday (9/21/17) but i unfortunately forgot his name the minute i went to bed that night (but i do know what he looks like which isn't helpful for this paper). 

Since i am doing story/character design i plan on at least making a list of just general ideas for the story/ characters to share and converse with who i am directly working with so that things can start getting organized. also to help just my own thought process i plan on making a rough character design to help me think of some simple ideas to just present to the group. 

New game idea: "the nightmare"

"The Nightmare" - a idea i came up with at 2 in the morning 

•  first person/possibly changing puzzle game that focuses around the mystery of figuring out whats going on in a nightmare/very much surreal environment


• possibly to figure out the sins of the past?
• figuring deep personal conflict?
• battling with personal emotion and understanding?
• existential crisis?
• grasping the death of someone/personal loss?
• no hidden meaning and let the player impose there own meaning?
• Inspired by
• silent hill
• eternal darkness; sanity's requiem


• portal/half life games
• amnesia games?
• the Stanley parable
• anti-chamber
• among the sleep
• jim hensons labrynth 
• i have no mouth yet i must scream
• personal insomnia

•  game-play elements include:

• change in controls from level to level but still in a way thats fair
• used to simulate lack of control/understanding and complexity of/in a nightmare
• adds a unique challenge to the player as they have to figure out how to act accordingly the changed environment

• purposefully semi-wonky physics
• is probably easier to program
• makes simple task harder than they are again adding to the surrealism

• graphics change throughout the game
• following the same trail as the controls, the changing graphics would change and be used to simulate a changing look and feel of how things are and they constant inconsistency of a nightmare
• adds a unique style that would hopefully stand out
• possible logo or symbol showing up in all different styles?

• changing views/camera angle
• again in similar purpose the the graphics and the controls this would add both challenge and complexity to the game as the player has to adjust and learn the changing rules

• purposeful "breaks" , "crashes", "freezes" , "glitches" and 4th wall breaking puzzles
• makes the player think outside the box and scares/shocks them into thinking that its over when really its just another piece of the puzzle
• see metal gear solid games and eternal darkness

• Art Style



• besides for the fact of the graphics changing throughout the game , i honestly have no idea what the main style should be. 

Currently all i have is what i have written down here but hopefully upon the full or semi-full completion of "The Radical Rider" i can work on this in the hopes of making it or at least a first draft game before i go to college in the fall.

Escape Reality Log #12

Date:3/2/16
Time Started: 4:20 pm

Time Ended: 4:40 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"


Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• I have completed the first version of the game and im waiting for my overall grade for it
• some criticism and comments from people about the game indicate that i should make the game a bit easier to navigate and overall make it easier to play.
• for now i am done working on this game and am going to move forward onto other projects specifically the top down shooter (now called "The Radical Rider") and my unnamed "ordinary" rpg 

Escape Reality Log #11

Date: 2/20/2016 - 2/25/2016
Time Started: 9:30 am 2/20/16 
(every now and then breaks where taken to sleep , eat,  prevent going insane, and on other projects.)
Time Ended: 12:30 pm 2/25/16

Game Title: "Escape Reality"


Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• fully completed first room and menu.
• has and uses multiple variables to change the environment as the player interacts with different things
• made a system for traveling between views fairly smoothly 
• made a fully animated intro 
• am about 70% done with second room
• only need to make computer and what happens when the player interacts with it,
• arguments and variables needed for more interactivity with objects
• after a few puzzles and exploration i am going to put future updates of this program on the back burner while i learn more in the game design field and life in general and then come back to the game when the time is right.

Escape Reality Log #10

Date: 2/12/2016

Time Started: 3:50 pm

Time Ended: 7:30 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"


Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• started making a lot of the assets to use in the game 
• started setting up the different rooms the player goes in to and interacts with objects in

Escape Reality Log #9

Date: 2/12/2016

Time Started: 12:30 pm

Time Ended: 1:25 pm

Game Title: "Escape Reality"

Software using to make game: Game Maker Studio

• so it turns out that i need 15 hours of PROGRAMMING for my RAP project not 15 hours spent working on it so it honestly seems like all ive done before is for pretty much nothing.
• on the plus side i did make some more assets to the game and what i need to do now is focus and spend the time to actually fully build the rest of the game and all of its rooms.
• i will continue to work on this game with the intention of finishing it and turning it in for whatever its worth and then continue to make the game better with each iteration

Game Developer Journal Entry #2

Mind mapping of games

• ordinary rpg?
• the reach?
• escape reality (redo?)
• the side walk cipher?
• unnamed top down shooter game

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one of these days i am going to scan in the mind maps and note pages for all games i have logged in a idea book that has a majority of all ideas listed here in it.