Plan for the 11/03-15/03 2020

Plan for the 11/03-15/03 2020

Over the next few days, I plan on continuing development of my title in consideration of a possible play-testing on the 14/03. This will be an opportunity to have multiple people test the creation, combat, looting and world map mechanics of my title, giving me the opportunity to have a visual on the required improvements to the game, possible bugs that need ironing out and the need for clearer instruction on certain areas of the game. 

In order to have a successful play-testing session, I must complete the following, in order to give players the opportunity to have a semi-complete experience with the title. One at least, that asks questions about a players attachment to their characters and the potential for them to care about the characters story. Below, I will list all areas that I must complete and that I should consider looking back over, in order to give the title the best chance of being playable and most importantly, understandable and enjoyable, on its own:

Looting: I had this system nailed down for bodies in the previous iteration of this game and it will be a fairly simple process to transfer that interaction across. However, I must also look at the implementation of looting containers, as these will allow me to place items in the world that the player may not be able to get from the enemies they kill. 

AI: Again, the AI in the previous iteration was sufficient for the purposes of play-testing. Whilst improvements can obviously be made, these will become more clear through more play-testing. I will implement this AI into my title, whilst improving it to give the AI a sense of cohesion with the rest of the mechanics. These initial improvements will be the use of the new weapon system, which will allow the AI to use new weapons. Having said this, I want the AI to feel like a force in unison, and so their equipment will likely remain similar, for example, similar types of weapons. Additionally, I aim to add proofing for future improvements, such as the players level impacting their spawn rate and difficulty.

Initial Level Designs: Before play-testing, I aim to have at least 1 level implemented into the game. This is likely to be a looting opportunity mission, as mentioned previously, as this will allow me to showcase the majority of the work I have done so far, offering players the biggest glimpse of the direction my game is going in. This will essentially be a block out level, which will have verticality for the player to use their abilities on. I believe a maze like level will offer me the best opportunity to give the player an exciting experience, as each corridor of the maze will be able to offer a new challenge.

Ability Usage: I had the initial working of the abilities system working in my previous iteration and I would be more than happy to use that system again. However, there is additional functionality I feel could be put in very quickly, to make it more user friendly. This will include a UI element to show the players currently active ability and the control function to switch abilities in game. This will be a Q (Held) keyboard input, which in a similar vein to my current Fire rate and Holster functions, will give the Q key, which is use for powers an additional function which is easy to understand. The initial abilities my player will have access to, will be cloak and blink, the same as in my previous iteration. However, I must make sure that they are future proof for the mechanics I want to implement later, mainly the restriction and application of these abilities in conjunction with the characters key traits. 

Further down the line, I want to add many more abilities, such as High Jump, Mind Control, Element Manipulation and X-Ray vision.

Game Time: In my world map, I want the player to see the current time and date of the game they are playing. This is vital right now, as adding this will allow me to implement the world map fully, by giving it functions such as randomly occurring points of interest and the development of relationships over time. The randomly occurring points of interest are most essential right now, as these will be the players opportunities to use their characters in missions and test their weapons and abilities, which for some will be the most exciting and influential part of the game.

Looking Ahead:

Without getting ahead of myself in lieu of everything I have just mentioned that needs vital attention, here are some of the plans I have for the future:

Levels: I want to have at least 2 iterations each of my possible mission scenarios, in order to give the player fresh experiences with their characters. These will be 2 levels each for the Trader, Enemy Base, Enemy Presence and Looting opportunity missions, as well as one mission for the Boat based insertion mission. These only need to be block outs, as the majority of the mechanics on show will be ability, character and looting based. 

Weapon Implementation: In order to give the player a wide variety of options and keep the experiences and discoveries fresh, I want to have at least 5 examples of the 5 categories of weapon I currently have in my game. These are Pistols, Shotguns, SMGs, Assault Rifles and Bolt Action Rifles. The implementation of these weapons is quick and simple, but balancing the weapons will take more active playtesting.