Game Development

For the Quarter 2 Semester 1 project, our Game Development class was tasked with programming and designing a particle system of our choice based on what we learned in class.  The program itself should contain at least five particle simulations of different kinds. Henceforth, I decided and conceptualized a basic hypothetical idea of objects interacting with black hole bodies within a space vacuum.

The most difficult particle system was the black hole. In and of itself, it consists of three different systems: one for the accretion disc, one for the relativistic jet, and one for the photon sphere rotation. Out of these three, the most complicated was the accretion disc which had to utilize a multiple-object system with the object constantly decreasing in scale and starting at an excessive x-scale. This had to be done to provide realistic movement in accretion discs. Other particle systems included the random spawning and sparkling of the stars, the random left-side spawning of the spacecraft and the attraction to the black hole, and the increasing scale of the relativistic jet.

In the end, I received an overall grade of 18/20 or 90% for this project, mainly because nothing showed excellence or excessive/clever simulation techniques. However, I did show originality in the black hole system concept and the shrinking effect of the black hole. In hindsight, especially after discussing it with my teacher, I could have added the distortion of the black hole and object or increased/decreased the scope to show the black hole from several different viewpoints.

In terms of the ESLOs, this project mainly involved three. Firstly, Strategic Learners as we had to learn many challenging and complex topics to build the different particle systems and understand the fundamentals. Furthermore, it required me to learn from my previous project in Quarter 1 where I was overly and excessively ambitious leading to the project not working. Secondly, Innovative Thinkers as demonstrated by the originality and creativity behind the concept and simulation itself along with the different systems and unconventional thinking. Last but not least, Leaders of the Future set manageable yet challenging goals and make decisions.

For the beginning project of Semester Two and final project of 2024, our teacher tasked us with designing, programming, testing, and debugging a SH\MUP (Shoot 'Em Up) Game. I began conceptualizing the game immediately, wanting a complex, challenging, and original game which had different bullet types, enemies, and selectable characters (in this case spacecraft models) with different stats. 

However, I misheard my teacher at the beginning, thinking the in-class project was our practice and we would have to design the game from scratch at the end. This led to me switching the game to a simple tank SHMUP design to understand the fundamentals and use my initial concept for the actual project. Near the end, when my grave foresight was correct, I spent around the last week or two redoing, testing, programming, and finalizing the game (see gameplay).

Near the end, I was running into many problems, which led to emotional and mental breakdowns to find root causes and fix the program. I used the time to finalize and add what was possible after troubleshooting fixes. To me, it was clear that I didn't want a repeat of my Quarter One project, which my aspirations and ambitions led to the game not working at all.

Thankfully, I was able to get everything working within the last day, and submitting the project one day overdue to ensure the game worked fundamentally and essentially correctly, being as good as it could be.

I learned a lot doing this project. Firstly, of course, I am very challenged-focused and ambitious, sometimes excessively. This could hurt me and I need to learn to manage my expectations more and set better goals. Secondly, I learned good ways to use multiple-object programming in general and in game development. Thirdly, I learned better time management and testing/troubleshooting essentials, using debugging techniques, analyses, testing, and other methods to fix the program. I also learned that you need to be objective. Furthermore, risk management is key. Weigh the pros and cons extensively to understand whether or not you should take the risk or not.

Hence, in terms of ESLOs, there are a couple for this project. Firstly, Strategic Learners as we had to learn many challenging and complex topics to build the different mechanics, stages, and packages for the game. Furthermore, it required me to learn from my previous project in Quarter 1 where I was overly and excessively ambitious leading to the project not working, and how to avoid it, including what I stated previously. Secondly, Innovative Thinkers as demonstrated by the originality and creativity behind the concept and simulation itself along with the different systems and unconventional thinking. Thirdly, Articulated Communicators through the showing of excellence and listening to others (primarily peer feedback, teacher critique, and family members) on how to better the game and myself through this experience. Last but not least, Leaders of the Future set manageable yet challenging goals and make decisions.

For our final project in Game Development, we were tasked with designing, programming, conceptualizing, building, finalizing, & distributing an Adventure Game.

With the guidance of our teacher, we learned how to do realistic collision, dialogue, entity spawn & control, complex updatable, data saving & loading, & ultimately build a game start to finish from scratch. The games were suppose to be individually unique in some aspect & ultimately showcased to others & uploaded to a public platform (ie. Itch.io) for download.

This project taught me a lot of important & new concepts & subjects. It helped me understand the full reality of Game Development, and how Games are made from start to finish. I believe this project was the culmination of this class & we were able to add as much as we wanted to build the best game we envisioned.

Now for my game, I initially went with a basic Adventure Game with initial ideas of adding a lot of unique, challenging to implement features like inventory, shopping, & customization. Around halfway or three-fourths of the way into the project, I decided to redo & implement a entirely different game: a 2D platformer.  This is mainly because I didn't like the ultimate direction my game was taking & I felt a Platformer was unique, challenging, yet fun & enjoyable to implement. I also thought it would be a great learning opportunity, & was ultimately correct on all accounts.

I did run into several issues unfortunately. Firstly, due to wasting so much time on the previous idea, I was behind compared to the rest of my peers. Also, a Platformer has some unique characteristics & game behaviors, which were challenging. For example, jumping proved to be challenging due to how I programmed collision, gravity, & ground. Also there are bugs in the movement & minor gameplay errors that are too much of a nuisance, too little of a feature to waste time on, & too cumbersome, especially when I still had to complete a good amount of major game features in less than a week.

Another problem due to all of this was that everything was last minute. I only completed everything on the previous day.

Last but not least, several ESLOs applied to this project. Firstly, we had to be Innovative Thinkers as we had to develop our game idea, implementation, & everything from start to finish by ourselves. Furthermore, we decided on the theme, ultimate gameplay & experience, & direction. Secondly, Strategic Learners applied our findings & everything that we learned into our program & game. Thirdly, Articulated Communicators, especially during periods with multiple problems, & initially switching from generic Adventure to Platformer. I had to describe & explain my thought process & features, decisions, program/code both verbally & via comments.