Dev Blog

digm520admin / / GameDesign, Physics Engine, physics games, Readings, Research
April 21st, 2018

Exploring Uses of Physics in Gameplay

Physics in Games: A New Gameplay Frontier – from Gamasutra.com

Article by Pascal Luban on Dec. 4th, 2007. This is an older paper explaining some of the possibilities opened up by computers becoming stronger and being able to process physics in games more readily. The author suggests ways of using physics as a core gameplay element as opposed to just some aesthetic element.

digm520admin / / DIGM540, learning games, physics games, Research, serious games
April 16th, 2018

Research Readings for DIGM 540

Automatic generation and analysis of physics-based puzzle games

By: Shaker, Sarhan, Naameh, Shaker, Togelius

Learning Mechanics and Game Mechanics Under the Perspective of Self-Determination Theory to Foster Motivation in Digital Game Based Learning

By: Proulx, Romero, Arnab

Mapping Learning and Game Mechanics for Serious Games Analysis in Engineering Education

By:Callaghan, Savin-Baden, McShaneEguiluz

Link to Circuit Warz Game

Above is the link to Circuit Warz, the game created for the research paper on “Mapping Learning and Game Mechanics for Serious Games Analysis in Engineering Education”. This game attempts to teach some advanced electrical/circuit theories through a first person action game.

digm520admin / / CoralInvasion, DIGM531
April 6th, 2018

Research Games of Similar Genre to Coral Invasion

What genre is it?

Wiki Page for Shooter Genre
Shooter Game – Subgenre: Shoot ’em Up

“Shoot ’em ups are a specific subgenre of shooters wherein the player may move up and down and left and right around the screen, typically firing straight forward.”

Top Down Shooter: “(sometimes referred to as twin-stick shooters) where the levels are controlled from an overhead viewpoint”

Game may also benefit from being categorized as strategy, or potentially puzzle. These two genres help drive the idea that the game may not be pushing the limits of speed, and will be played in a slower and more tactical way than a general shoot em up. This can be useful for rounding out another view on the way the core gameplay can be implemented.

Example Games of this Genre

Armed to the Gears Link to steam page
This game has the player move throughout the level/world, shooting many enemies in a top-down fashion. The player is a very strong robot (could use idea that player is very durable/invincible to focus on other parts of gameplay). Has turrets the player can place down to aid them (has light outline of range to show what the turrets can reach at all times). There are many different types of enemies and weapons for the player.

Blacksea Odyssey Link to steam page
Fast paced game that is still focused on the player surviving more than how they use their projectiles. There is some interesting use in the placement of projectiles as shooting boss enemies in certain locations allows you to dismember them (getting into strategic placement of the player’s weapons).

Tactical Link to steam page
Medium/slow paced top down shooting and puzzle/strategy game. The player must kill enemies by shooting them from behind while remaining undetected. Killing an enemy alerts the other enemies and will affect their movement patterns. Player succeeds by killing all of the enemies in the fastest time.

digm520admin / / DIGM540, Mesh, MeshGenProject
March 25th, 2018

Update on Gear Mesh Generating Toy

Link to Web Build of Prototype Currently

Current Controls
  • Left Mouse Button – Press: Select a gear to make it active
  • Let Mouse Button – Drag: Move selected gear around
  • Left Mouse Button – Drag + Spacebar: Destroy selected gear
  • w : makes the gear spawning object the active object (instead of any gears)
  • Typing in input fields: Changing the number in this input field will alter the corresponding parameter of the currently active (selected) object.

Selecting a gear and changing the value in the input field will immediately change that corresponding parameter on that gear. For example, if you left click a gear, then type the value “1” into the “Body Radius” input field, that gear will have its body radius value immediately change to 1, and its mesh and colliders will update along with it.

There is an invisible gear spawning object (“gear spawner”) that creates a gear when the “Create Gear” button is pressed. The gear created will have values based on whatever the spawner’s current values are. To change the spawner’s values, the spawner must be the active object. This is where the “w” key control comes in. Once the player presses “w”, as long as they don’t left click another gear in the mean time, changes to the input field will become the values of the spawner. Then the next time the “Create Gear” button is pressed, it will use those updated spawner values to create the new gear. This gear can then be altered as any other gear.

Current Issues to Avoid

The input fields do not show the values of an object when it is selected. This can be a bit confusing since it makes it hard to tell what the currently selected object’s values are, unless the player just remembers them. This is something that would be crucial to update as there is currently no way to actually see the current values.

The spawner does initialize at all values of “0”. Just be aware that if you try to create gears before changing the spawner’s parameters, you will be creating invisible empty objects.

When attempting to update the spawner, make sure to press “w” before changing any values in the input fields. This was something I found myself messing up a lot, and would be a feature to improve in the future. Again, make sure to press “w”, and not click any other gears, before changing the input fields to update the spawner’s values.