Assignment 5 – Game Development Project – Trench Warfare

Concept and Final Game, with differences discussed-

The delivered game, for the most part, fits the concept report rather well. Deviating primarily in the form of sprite pixel detail and lack of role-playing elements. This is evident in the fact that much of the initial scoping intended for AI voice interactions, a variety of atmospheric music and sounds (as opposed to one repeating track), and player goals or mission.

                This is due to project re-scoping and minimization which was reassessed with each passing week of development. Eventually, particular priority was placed on alternative elements forgoing the more traditional role-playing concepts that were initially intended.

The game setting followed particularly well, with barbed wire, sounds, events, and a morbidly themed playstyle, as was originally structured. The game world, modelled off the battle of the Somme, while overly simple in detail, lacking a number of trenches and soldiers, emulated the scene well and fit the concept specifications as planned. This was supported by the fact that post processing effects were utilized in the perception of the terrain, using global modifiers.

Mechanics in the game, while functional, fell short of concept expectations. This is evident in relation to the lack of a stealthing mechanic, grenade weaponry, inventory size (4 as opposed to 9), and interactable vehicles. At a particular point in development, priority was placed else ware in production, and left mechanics trailing behind the bar, similar to RPG implementation.

The concept document mentions artwork within the game that was intended for 32-64 pixels per sprite. The delivered game exceeded these definitions, with not only all required sprites meeting these detail goals, but with multiple sprites sitting at 128-pixel units of detail, these specific sprites were each side’s supply trucks which are quite detailed and lengthy.

Testing session feedback summery. The developers observations and form responses implementation influences

Trench Warfare, as of week 12 in development, was tested by means of Google Forms for:

The results (8) of the forms, and practical demonstrational observation data, proved extremely useful, and has been summarized and made viewable through tabling below.

As was physically observable during the testing session, a re-occurring theme was the glitches and bugs discovered with certain audio death function mechanics for AI and Players, which the visible gameplay from this session helped shine light, and Quelch this bug rather quick.

As is evident above, the results of the feedback form are quite clear, and the influence each response had towards the developer’s perception of the game is now known and well detailed. Additionally, these feedback form entries provided an extremely useful baseline as to what worked in the game, what didn’t, and what should be done next. The feedback form is also available from the link below, and should be in operation for some time.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zm9wNT_TqR4Jkm4vzgwHi82yKXfcLD5VFfGbAFaaI5g/edit

Comprehensive assets list - tabalized into groups with short descriptions of purpose and use for each category

The following includes a complete asset list of items (within each folder) within trench warfare, and provides sources and a description for each instance.

As you could guess, this is where anything to do with animations in the game are stored, and consist mainly of controllers and specific animations all of which have been labelled accordingly.

The audio has been separated into useful folders and labelled conventionally. All representing the different subsections of sound used throughout the game. Observe the totally unique and not generic naming of sound files here!

Some terrain and material assets were imported externally, and can be found from (Toby Dammit Studios., 2021) in references below. This includes a bundle of ~3 dozen material assets, of which only a couple were used, and have been included in the table above. Within the game scene, they are visible representing the conventional dirt terrain, and the player trenches in-which the AI patrols, and nothing more.

To no surprise, this folder represents the assets that were used in the simple post processing within the scene. This includes 1 global effect that was placed on the main camera, designed to help the player with emersion and variety of gameplay.

This folder held all the prefabs that were used within the game. The scene is primarily made up of these assets. There is also an internal backup folder of old prefabs that would be reverted to in the event a game breaking bug was discovered and detail was lost.

 These scene assets consist of all the scenes within the game, some of which not making the final cut in V0.61, such as the settings scene. Otherwise, they are fairly self-explanatory. The only noteworthy detail being that from this list, ‘SettingEins’ is a poorly named scene for the first level, battle of the Somme.

 This is perhaps the largest, and or most important folder of files within the entire project and consists of scripts from many different locations and influences. To begin, the scripts initially borrowed and altered from the tutorial content include:

DestroyAfterTime, LerpToPosition, Dash, and SceneSwitcher. Most other scripts throughout this list applied some loose inspiration from unity source material / documentation which will not be listed here.

Perhaps the smallest folder system within the project, nevertheless an important one. This area contains all unique fonts used within the project, and was sourced from free unity content from (Tiny Worlds., 2021) under references below.

This folder contains all sprites of which prefabs, and terrain objects were created. These sprites were edited and spawned new variations of effects that were used throughout the game.

This folder contains the sourced wallpaper material, primarily used on the title screens and loading background, throughout the game. Sources for this material can be found from (2021, Heading – ‘German WW1 Wallpaper’s) under the references below.

This folder contains all the weapons, particularly their sprites, used in the game. These sprites were children of the player, and AI's weapon holsters, and are equip-able through certain button interactions, discussed later under player guides. They were all created manually and within sprite editors.

Detailed user guide. From game launch to success!

Trench Warfare. The aim of the game is simple, destroy the opposing faction, and remain alive while doing so. This is achievable through the use of given weapons and mechanics, discussed here below!

You may traverse the menu / title screens using the simple click buttons overlay. The battle scene is entered through the ‘Axis Menu’ and then ‘Battle of the Somme’.

Moving about the scene can be done with the WASD, or ARROW keys. Use the following GIF as a guideline of what to expect. Alternatively, you may use SPACE to dash. This allows you to sprint short distances and escape danger more efficiently. Use the following gif to see the differences!

You also have an inventory with many weapons, you can alternate through these using the Q and E keys at your leisure. They include a rifle, pistol, and a knife. All of which may be discharged using the mouse 0 (or left click) button as you like. Examine the following GIF to see this in action!

The terrain is a scary place, with traps and dangers to look-out for. Stay away from the barbed wire surrounding the battlefield as it will cause you to bleed and lose health. On the subject of health, Red Medkits have been placed around the battlefield, once damaged, pick them up to re-gain your health back!

Use the following GIF as an example-

Each firearm has an ammunition capacity, visible while equipped from the bottom left-hand corner of the window. Once your magazine is empty you may press the R key to start the reload animation, once complete you may begin firing again!

Here is a few images as an example of that effect in action-

Enemies have large rifles, a good visibility, and a large range. Be cautious of them, as a direct engagement can often lead to pre-mature causality. In the event of soldier destruction, press the RESET SCENE button in the bottom right-hand corner of your canvas, this will reset the scene and allow you to retry the battle!

In the event you run out of ammunition, you may resort to your melee weapon. The knife. This is a last resort weapon and takes many attacks to destroy an enemy, try and master the animation cycle prior to launching a direct engagement with this weapon!

You are now fully equipped and ready to help your Kamerads in their fight, best of luck soldier!

"Für das Land, für die Leute"

References

Rusty, 2017, French Pixel Soldier, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://zombie-phoenix.tumblr.com/post/158301033731/french-soldier-my-gf-was-doing-pixel-art-and-i

Pixelartmaker, 2021, Pixel Gas Mask, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: http://pixelartmaker.com/art/3e04c2e14c1d3f1

Katarn., L, 2014, ‘Frtiz’, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: http://angryjoeshow.com/ajsa/forums/topic/22008-fritz-a-video-game-about-world-war-one-pc-and-linux-unsuccessful/

Ashwell., S, 2008, Warfare 1917, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://heterogenoustasks.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/warfare-1917/

M2H, 2019, Tannenberg, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://www.macgamestore.com/product/10250/WW1-Game-Series/

Wikipedia, 2021, Women in Video Games, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_and_video_games

Clement., J, 2021, Distribution of video gamers in the United States in 2021, by age group, [Accessed 29th August 2021], Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/189582/age-of-us-video-game-players/

2021, German WW1 Wallpapers, [Accessed 22nd September 2021], Available at: https://wallpaperaccess.com/german-ww1

Tiny Worlds., 2021, 'Free Pixel Font - Thaleah', [Accessed 18th October 2021], Available at: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/fonts/free-pixel-font-thaleah-140059

Toby Dammit Studios., 2021, 'PBR Dirt and Mud Material Pack', [Accessed 18th October 2021], Available at: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/floors/pbr-dirt-and-...