Project 4 - Goobles!

The last prototype was very unique. Surprisingly, this time we had no clients!! This time we are to make our own game idea and work on top of that. We were given a few restirctions though. We are not to have any AAA game themes , the producers are not to be involved in the game design process and we are to develop a razor and work on top of that while designing the game.

Also, the teams were of bigger sizes this time around. My team was comprised of AJ, JJ, Mike, Max, Jon, Yang, Chris, Triston, Nathan and I. That's 9 people in all! We started brainstorming. Many ideas were thrown about, but we finally decided to make the game around destroying a laughing ball of Goo as suggested by Nathan.

The idea revolved around a ball of goo which is falling down a level. The player has to use traps, rockets and other weapons to destroy the Goo or atleast a significant part of it before it reaches the bottom of the level. The Goo would also be laughing. As it gets attacked, it splits up into 2 based where it gets hit till it gets so small that it cannot split anymore. At this point, an attack can destroy the Goo.

The first week, we were building up a concrete idea. I spent time learning Unity. I went through some tutorials at Digital Tutors and got pretty comfortable with Unity. 

Next week, we got together and discussed how to go about programming. Max had made a demo level which looked good. I decided to work on top of that I took up the task of building an inventory and buy system and the GUI of the game initially. Worked with Max to streamline development and had a good prototype by the 3rd week.

By this time, our big ball of Goo had changed to a collection of smaller units of Goo which separate based on forces acting on it. This seemed better from a prototyping point of view.

Chris, Yang, and Jon also worked to create new levels. This was awesome as this enabled us to utilize our strength of higher numbers and also to figure out what type of levels would work best. I integrated code to Yang's level and made it work. It also helped me learn a lot about importing assets into Unity and working with them.

As there was a bit of a communication gap between Nathan and the team, finally it was suggested that a black and white look would suite the game. Also, it was decided that the Goo does not laugh.

AJ, JJ and Mike provided good direction and did a good job of keeping things working together. They also provided some sound assets.

I thought the game was good. But it needed a lot more playtesting. Also, i think every team member put in efforts. Max and Jon were awesome with their programming.

And that's it.. the end of the last prototype for this semester.