Assessment 2: 3 in one gaming - The making of Maths Machine (Option 1)

BTEC National Diploma in Games Development
Unit number and title Unit 72 / 22
Start date: 15/2/16
Deadline: 29/2/16
Assessor name: Wayne Gallear
Student Name: Shay Wragg

Assessment 2: 3 in one gaming.

Task: You are an apprenticeship games designer working for a small games developer in the east midlands.

Your manager what’s you to create a 2D platform game to demonstrate your game development skills.

Option 1 - Maths Maze Game

Maths Machine

Maths Machine has no plot,the aim of the game is to progress through rooms and solve an GCSE C Grade maths question, the game isn't necessarily hard but meets the assignment criteria. Note the Maths Machine is NOT a finished game and is a work in progress.

Target Audience 

Maths Machine is aimed at aimed at C Grade GCSE Students or anyone that enjoys maths.

Process

First off i worked on my protagonist the ''Maths Machine'', i started by creating the sprite for him. 

The sprite is 32x32.

I also designed a walking animation for the character but i ran into a bug that mixed up all of the sub images and therefor chose to scrap the animation. This was the first bug i ran into.

I then created the object for this sprite, i added collision events with the walls and key press events so i the player could maneuver the sprite.

NOTE: When creating the game i designed most of my sprites BEFORE the objects, i have put the sprites and objects together for reader convenience. 

Next i designed my wall which again was 32x32.

Then i created the wall's object which had no events but was made a solid, so the player would not walk through it.

I then went on to create several walls and objects for them walls as each room was going to be a different theme.

I then designed my first enemy sprite.

I then created several different enemies for different levels.

Each enemy had similar objects to the others, the only differences are the walls they interact with and the movement styles.

Next i created backgrounds, they're fairly simple as i used plain colours but added shading using the shading tool within Game Maker.

Finally I created the first main room.

The idea of the game is that the player starts in the main room and has to progress through other rooms to complete the game. In each room the player must navigate the room without getting killed by the enemies, there will be a door leading to the problem room of that level which contains a C Grade maths question that once completed they will be take back to the main room but in another section.

When the player completes the problem room he is spawned back in the main room, only this time the previous door is blocked off and the player is spawned in the next room.

To do this i created several 'MAIN Rooms' and in each one the player spawns in a different location. 

In the problem room there are 'portals' with answers next to them, the player must enter the portal next to the correct answer which will take them to the next level of the main room, if the player chooses the wrong answer and enters the wrong portal they will die.

I also created doors for each level, for example ''spr_door_3'' takes the player to the third room, ''spr_problem_3'' takes the player to the problem room of the third room and ''spr_MAIN_3'' gives the player the choice to turn back and return to the main room.

When creating the question for each room i created four objects, "obj_percentage'' is the question itself and the ''obj_answers'' are the correct and incorrect answers.

For the questions object, i created a draw event, drawn the text and then set the colour, the x and y coordinates are for where the question is placed. 

Eventually i got around to creating world interactions for example, i created a switch that opens double doors and a detonator that blows up a bomb. I also created various explosions.

Here are the explosions i created and what they look like in game. 

BUG REPORT/MAJOR CHANGES

• The Players running animation played continuously - FIX = I removed the animation.
• The explosions also played continuously - NO FIX
• On the first room when returning to the main room the player was presented with an error message that crashed the game. - NO FIX
• The Player sprite has been enlarged.
• The player can move left and down, right and down but not left and up or right and up - NO FIX