Cycle 1 – Activity 2 – Game Objects, Rules and Mechanics

After defining our Player Experience Goals, we began developing the core game mechanics and game objects that we would incorporate into the SCHMUP. We each had our own variations of what we wanted in our individual games but outlined the key concepts that we would each follow in order to create these separate game objects.

The following table details the core mechanics and game objects of our SCHMUP and their various rules and in-game relationships.

Game Object Purpose and Rules Relationship to Other Objects Interaction with Player
Underwater Game world, all game objects are limited to its boundaries Once enemies, have spawned they cannot exit the boundaries. powerups/health boosts can exit the boundaries but will de-spawn once they have Affects how the player moves as they are limited to its boundaries
Submarine Player controlled avatar in the ‘Underwater’. Fires projectiles that are used to damage/kill enemies. Can fire more projectiles if ‘Powerups’ are acquired Is vulnerable to contact with enemies and can interact with ‘Powerups’ and ‘Health Boosts’.

Movement is limited to the ‘Underwater’ boundaries

Movement is controlled via a combination of 4 keys and projectiles are fired via the use of one key. The defaults are the following;

W – forwards

S – backwards

A – left rotation

D – right rotation

SPACEBAR – shoot

Enemy Player enemy controlled by an AI designed to move towards the player in order to deal damage. Will spawn randomly from the boundaries of the ‘Underwater’. Enemies come in various levels that define their individual health and damage dealing capabilities and movement style and speed Movement towards player is unaffected by other enemies or objects but is bound to the ‘Underwater’ boundaries. If hit by the player’s projectiles the enemy will die or lose a portion of its health until destroyed. The player’s goal is to destroy all enemies and avoid being damaged by them. If enemies come into contact with the player, they will deal damage then be destroyed
Projectiles Fired by the player in order to deal damage to enemies. Damage and speed levels can be altered through ‘Powerups Damages or destroys enemies when it comes in contact with them. Different enemy levels require more hits to be destroyed unless the player has ‘Powerups’.

Projectiles disappear once the ‘Underwater’ boundary is reached

Gets fired from the front of the player’s position. A constant rate of fire when the shoot key is pressed. Players cannot be damaged by their own projectiles, as they will always be slower than the projectile
Powerup/Health Boost Player upgrades that take the form of game objects. If contact is made, a projectile damage increase, speed increase or health restoration is applied Does not interact with any game object besides the player and will move at a steady rate once spawned until it exits the ‘Underwater’ boundaries Effects of the power up/health boost are applied if the player comes into contact with the game object
HUD The display that the player will see upon playing the game. Contains relevant in-game information such as player health, score, high score and pause menus. Score increases with each enemy destroyed, health bar is restored with every ‘Health Boost’ interacted with. Score increases with each enemy destroyed, health bar is restored with every ‘Health Boost’ interacted with.

Vincent Bornaghi – N9463020


Cycle 1 – Activity 3 – Player Stories

Last week during discussion of PX Goals it was grounded that the main focus for the SHMUP would revolve around “Cognitive Player Experiences”.  

Following the rules that were created in Activity 2, we concluded that the player would traverse around the ocean floor in attempt to destroy the enemy object (in this case fish, however, for the more environmentally friendly players, perhaps enemy submarines or even bundles of garbage floating in the water.)

As such the player stories would stem from the rules created, incorporating our theme of underwater.  Hence some examples of these aforementioned stories may be:

  1. As a submarine, I want my torpedoes to destroy the fish to achieve a high score
  2. As a player, I want the submarine object to move to avoid enemies and remain alive
  3. As a submarine, I want my torpedoes to destroy the fish so I can stay alive
  4. As a submarine, I want to obtain powers to be able to destroy more enemies
  5. As a handler of the torpedo I want the enemies to come into the scene so I can destroy them
  6. As an object with a torpedo I want to be able to shoot the enemies so I can collect power ups later
  7. As a deep-sea diver, I want my bullets to perform destruction to achieve liberation of the seas
  8. As an explorer of the deep ocean I want nukes to vaporise the fish to sweep the oceans clean
  9. As a sea archaeologist, I want my torpedoes to destroy fish so I can leave with treasure (High score)
  10. As an operator of a submarine I want to traverse the ocean floor to explore the area and remain alive so I can achieve a higher score