Brent Knowles's Blog, page 6

Back in Florida

Sorry for the long delay!

This has been a challenging year and I intend to talk more about what’s going on… But probably not until the fall.

Right now I’m helping out some friends down here in Orlando, and yes, I will explain more about that in a future post. This is the second time I have been here and really enjoy the weather, the city, and the team I am assisting. Orlando is an exciting place! 

What else is going on? Well, I have not been writing a lot this year but have been editing my previous work. Several of my novels have been published and I’ll devote some time here to talk about them over the next couple months.

However as much as I am enjoying Orlando I am looking forward to seeing my kids again. I have several fun adventures planned for them in August!

For now I’ll leave you with a pic from my last trip to Orlando…. I was going to take another today but it is a bit gloomy here this Saturday ????

  

Brent Returns (Briefly)

I realize it has been a long time since I’ve last posted here. I cannot really get into the details as to why yet, but my personal life has been rather messed up since January. I’m trying to focus on my kids as much as possible through a challenging time.

That said, I intend to release another blog entry on my StarHaul Unity Example game in the next couple weeks and another entry in the Lazy Designer series for my newsletter.

I also received a nice review for a recent story of mine (which appeared in On Spec #98) over at SFCrowsnest. Check it out!

The Next Game

Yes, “The Next Game” is the title of my second Lazy Designer book but today I actually want to talk about the next Unity prototype-game that I am actually working on.

While building a technical framework to help me get Unity projects up and running faster I also started to think about what might be a fun game concept to explore for my next prototype. I decided upon a simple grid-based area editor. While this does not sound overly exciting it has been an interesting challenge.

I’ve gotten it to the point where I can place buildings from an list and rotate them. It ensures no buildings overlap and all the various grid rules are honored. It is also able to serialize and deserialize data to/from my server.

The main reason for building this is that I’m going to attempt to build a Simpsons Tapped Out styled game, albeit simpler and with a different “end goal” than current games of this type (more on that in a later post). But I’m also excited by a range of other uses for the system, which I’ve managed to keep fairly generic. It will serve as the core system for a couple board game translations I’ve been wanting to create in Unity for a while. It will also serve as a rudimentary area editor for simpler games that I might build in the future.

Anyways here’s an image of a small grid with a couple test buildings placed. Obviously lots of work left to go but with the core system in place I’m eager to mess around with it more (however I won’t, as I’ve accomplished this month’s milestone already and need to wait till next month).

I’ll do a proper write up like I did with the Hauler stuff, but that won’t be until later in the year, but basically my first prototype is complete and its just halfway through the month, so I’m pleased.

p.s.

In writing related news, edits are proceeding on my kid’s novel. I’m taking a phase approach to these edits, with each phase focusing on one or two areas at a time (i.e., character development, setting development, et cetera). We’ll see how it works out.

Game Hauler Version 4 (Part 5 / ?)

If you want to play the latest build before reading the commentary then scroll down to the end of this post.

PROTOTYPE 4 (BUILD# 0.0.5.0)

This time around I’m lumping a couple releases and discussing them together.

In the previous post I highlighted a few issues that I wanted to address next. These included a better feedback system for picking up and depositing energy and improved level design. However, as I hinted in that post, I changed my mind (though I partly address the latter issue still).

Mainly, I ended up increasing the number of players from two to four and putting in the rudiments of a proper “player/control” selection system. Effectively we see the emergence of the “Ugly But Functional Start Screen”, as I like to call it.

The New Start Screen

This control scheme allows the four players to set themselves up as they want. It indicates when game controllers are connected and players can decide which player slot has control of which of the two available keyboard control schemes. The “gears” icon allows a player to turn an opponent into an AI-controlled entity (though only placeholder AI at this point).

I went with this system because having it obvious to the players how many can participate, right from the beginning, is something I appreciate in the couch games I play. For a proper game I’d want this to look better and the icons I’m using are not very helpful. There’s also no tooltips or other instruction on how to set the game up. But the core functionality I would want, with a quick and dirty start screen, is all present.

The stock Unity controller system does not allow me to poll which controllers are active, so I kept it simple. If, on the start screen, there were four controllers “checking in” then four players will be spawned into the game.

Game AI

As noted, if the gears icon on the start screen is “turned on”, then that opponent slot will be AI controlled. This first pass implementation only uses a wandering-AI however, so it does not attempt to compete with you. The AI improves a bit in later builds, though never becomes “shippable”.

Level Geometry

After the first level is completed the player is spawned to a second level with some geometry. I have three or four level designs in place, as the player progresses.

I wanted to add a bit more interest into the actual levels and so I created a simple system that allowed me to spawn blocks in, on a grid. I actually created an area editor in Microsoft Excel, that generates the code required for the blocks. So a very simple system, but adequate to demonstrate a design feature that would heighten the player’s experience. In a proper game significantly more time would be spent designing proper levels, that encourage particular types of play, between the players, but these are just the test levels I whipped up.

Immediately though I started noticing some major problems… problems that would persist throughout the remaining prototypes. For one, the player can get caught on level geometry; a situation much heightened for the AI. Worse, the “energy balls”, once they start moving in later levels, often hang out under the geometry.

Other Features

I managed a few other, minor tweaks.

Points Balance

For this build I took my first unofficial stab at balancing the point distribution. I had already implemented a fairly simple system that allowed me to tweak scoring parameters, but I had neglected it. During this phase, I appreciated the initial design and implementation work I had put into the system, because it made it fairly trivial to tweak point values.

Overall, powerups matter less now. I added them in a previous prototype but with the introduction of the energy-hauling mechanic, their importance is now diminished. (In many ways they should actually be cut, or radically redesigned, but I never do do that).

So, most of the point scoring comes from the “Hauler” system, itself, now.

To fine-tine this in a later build I really should run some simulations and start comparing results of “poor play” versus “perfect play”.

Level Progress

You will notice that if you are playing through several games, each time you return to the start menu, your level count resets. (That is, if you made it to level 5 and then return to the start screen, and play another game, you are back on level 1).

This was an intentional design decision.

I decided that a return to the start screen meant that new players were coming into the game or an old player was leaving or the group had decided to add an AI opponent. So I made a decision to reset scoring and level progress, to level the playing field. Everybody was starting off fresh, making it easier to compare scores and progress.

I could have given players the control of this, but decided I wanted to keep the interface simpler without adding confusing options.

What’s Missing

Again, improved sound and graphics are top concerns for later iterations. In addition, I know I must improve how entities interact with the newly added level geometry. I want AI to avoid the walls, for example. In general, there’s a lot that needs to be improved with the AI and that will become a top priority for the next build.

As is usually the case, newly added features from one build need clean up and refinement in the next build.

Summary

At this point in development I was starting to run out of time to work on Hauler (busy with a new novel), so the number of hours spent on it each month became significantly reduced. I had also lost interest and did consider abandoning this prototyping exercise. But I feel it is generally important to finish what you start and though I knew I wasn’t intending to ship a proper game, I did want to have enough material to write a reasonably informative “design summary” (i.e., these blog posts). So I stuck with it.

Play It

PC Version:

Download 

Or play in browser.

Thoughts/Feedback

Please let me know if you have any questions about the prototype, or suggestions for it.

Newsletter

From time to time I’ll be releasing these “Hauler” updates and other design goodies to my newsletter a few weeks prior to publishing them on my blog, so if you want to stay up to date with the latest and greatest, I encourage you to sign up for the newsletter.

2014 Year in Review

I sold three stories this year. (The first two can be read online, for free, if you are so inclined.)

“Some We Eat and Some We Keep” to Robot and Raygun

“Her Robot Babies” to Perihelion

“Red Means Go” to On Spec Magazine (forthcoming)

Recently I also learned that my short story ‘Digital Rights’, which was published several years ago after winning the Writers of the Future contest, now has an audio version courtesy of StarShipSofa! You can listen here (the story is towards the end of the podcast).

Word Count

I set a goal to write 130 000 words in 2014 (which was quite low compared to past years but reflected the time I had available in the first part of 2014). That said I ended up writing a bit over 300 000 words! So I was more productive than I had expected.

Most of this was written in the second half of 2014 — the words split between two novels, plus a few short stories. (To put things in perspective, in January of 2014 I only wrote 200 words! In the first three weeks of December, I wrote over 50 000.)

What’s Next

My main deliverable for the first half of 2015 will be editing the two novels I completed so that I can start shopping them around to agents and publishers. For those following both the blog and the newsletter, you’ll know I’m diving a bit more into game making again and this will continue into 2015. I have some design ideas I want to play with and will likely “ship” a puzzle-based game before 2015 is out.

Enjoy the year!

Another Novel Finished

Yesterday I completed the first draft for my latest novel. No title exists yet so I’ve just been calling it the ‘Blue Bay’ novel to this point. At 158 000 words, I believe this is my longest first draft (aside from another novel that I have since discarded).

I’ve been writing the novel since August of this year, at least a few hundred words every day, but the planning for it started a couple years ago. Overall I’m pleased but I’ve definitely noticed major errors, while writing, that will need to be addressed before I can begin the editing phase. (I generally do not make corrections while writing the first draft and save these sorts of tasks for a pre-editing phase.)

However, my focus will be on editing the other novel I wrote this year (my nanowrimo “kids” novel which is currently titled ‘Playground’.) That novel I started in November — while also working on’Blue Bay’ — and it was completed earlier in December. I hope to have edits on it completed early in 2015 and will then start shopping it around. ‘Blue Bay’ should be ready for submitting to agents and publishers by late 2015.

So… still busy!

Hope you all enjoy the holidays!

Game Hauler Version 3 (Part 4 / ?) “The Big Design Change”

Note: This post has previously appeared on Gamasutra and via my newsletter.

(If you want to play the latest build before reading the commentary then scroll down to the end of this post.)

PROTOTYPE 3 (BUILD# 0.0.4.0)

When I started building my prototype I had a general idea of where I wanted to go with it. Unfortunately my initial ideas didn’t pan out into anything I thought I could make fun. With this prototype I began the process of developing a rather different sort of core gameplay. The components of the game remain similar to the previous prototype (placeholder-art spaceships with deadly trails) but the core gameplay mechanic has evolved changed completely.

Overall, adding a point/scoring system in the last prototype provided some incentives for players to play. But I noted that these incentives were hardly sufficient (or fun) on their own. What I needed was something interesting for the ships to do. A better reason to compete.

I needed a gameplay mechanic.

At this point I could have moved in any direction. Here’s two I considered:

Shooter. I could add enemy ships and utilize a hunt-and-destroy mechanic (or a “survive the onslaught” mechanic). Players could compete for the most kills.
Exploration. A non-combat element might be used that encourages the player to fly around and compete with the other player, in regards to finding point-based items. We have this to a degree with the existing powerup system, but an expansion of that across a map of some kind could be a possible solution.

Both of these I rejected because they:

a. Really strayed from my original objectives.

b. Would likely require split-screen play. As much as possible I wanted to stick with all gameplay happening on a single screen.

Additionally I added another constraint: I wanted to make use of the trails. Now logically there was no reason I couldn’t just discard the idea but I thought the trails had the potential to add fun and flavor to the gameplay mechanic I selected.

Given the limited amount of time I had to work on Hauler each month I had plenty of time between sprints to consider my options. Along the way I started playing some dice games with my kids….

A Relevant Digression

One of the games was Pig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_(dice_game)).

This is a simple game involving a single die. Players take turns rolling the die and accumulating a turn score. At any time they can stop rolling the die and “bank” their score. The first with a total score of 100 or more, wins. However, if the player rolls a 1, they lose their current turn score. So the strategy involves knowing when to bank a turn score.

I always carry dice with me now so we can play the game while waiting in restaurants and the like; the kids really enjoy it. I even entertained my nephews and nieces one afternoon by playing it with them. It was fascinating to watch them evolve various strategies. They might see me gamble and win and then on the next turn all the kids really gamble… rolling long streaks. Some of them set turn totals that they aimed towards and once they were reached, they banked. Others just kept rolling and rolling and rolling and never banked (these kids never won).

When you play such a simple game, it lets you really focus on the gameplay mechanic and how different player types interact with it. I’ve used this banking concept in all the games I worked on but it was always buried and made more complex by its interactions to other gameplay systems. Seeing it on its own, made me realize how powerful the concept could be.

Could I add banking to Hauler?

The Solution: Space Banking!

Indeed I could.

If you have played the latest prototype you will notice a glowing green energy orb. Fly your ship over that and it will siphon some energy from the orb. Now you can deliver it back to your home port (the one the same color as your ship). When you do this you score points.

As energy is removed from the orb, it will get smaller and smaller. Once the final load is removed, it disappears and once that load is delivered, the round ends and a new round begins.

The banking concept, as described in the Pig section, above, comes into play in the following way:

The more energy you absorb BEFORE delivering it to the port, the higher your score will be. You score much higher if you have drained the orb completely and are delivering all its energy at once to the port. However, if you take any damage at all (including hitting your own tail) the energy pops out of your ship and becomes an energy orb again that an enemy can now steal.

Energy Sources

I found that it was a bit too easy for a poacher to swirl around the energy source and just steal all the energy so I put a time delay into place. Once energy is taken from the orb, it deactivates for a few seconds* before more energy can be taken from it. This, I feel, enhanced the banking mechanic as well because the player was now given another incentive to deposit early (instead of saving up for a larger pay-out). Braver players ,who are able to survive a few seconds until the energy returns, score more points.

*The delay is random. I like a bit of randomness in things like this because it keeps players from falling into routine.

The Cautious Designer

Because I was not certain whether my “haul it” idea would pan out, I kept the original gameplay in. Players can start a “classic” version of the game from the main menu where they just attack each other. The Health system that I added in the last prototype has been removed from the “haul it” version but left in for classic mode.

Other Stuff

The gameplay change was the largest feature introduced in this build but I also added:

Music. I found some music tracks that are free to use (with attribution). I hooked these up with the Dark Tonic -> Master Audio. This system made it fairly easy to set up playlists and whatnot. I only added a couple tracks (which turned out to be a good thing because music certainly bloats the file size of a small game like this… a fact that causes me some headaches in a later prototype).

Backwards Design?

Those of you who have been reading this series since the beginning are probably wondering at my approach to the design for this game. Why didn’t I plan my core gameplay from the beginning and then stick to it?

The truth is that when you set out to build an unfamiliar game you need to be cautious about adhering too rigidly to your original idea. (This is not true when building a sequel or creating a game based in large part on a previous game’s mechanics.) A new gameplay element makes it harder to design for all the repercussions of that feature. A robust design document, attempting to anticipate all the consequences, would likely be invalidated after the first prototype. And in this case I did have a core gameplay element I wanted to build upon… and it failed.

At that point I could have abandoned the concept entirely but I decided to stick with it and the last couple prototypes were experimental as I worked my way towards a proper gameplay solution.

A flexible production schedule, a small team, and realistic management expectations, allows a team to prototype in this way.

What’s Missing

Again, the obvious stuff like final art and sound is missing. But in addition to that, after a few minutes playing to refresh myself with this build, I noted the following:

The game lacks feedback. The user should understand clearly when they have picked up more energy or deposited it. I tackle these issues in later sprints and it makes the game a lot more enjoyable.
The current level design is boring.

Summary

SPOILER ALERT!

In the next sprint I don’t actually fix many (any?) of the issues I noticed in this sprint. Instead, I add a new feature.

I have two kids. They were constantly getting annoyed at me when I would playtest this game with one or the other. One kid always felt left out (and yeah, I’m not going to give up my turn at the controls!) So… I wanted to increase the number of possible players from two to four. In the next update I’ll explain how that went.

Play It

You can download the PC version here. Or you can play it here, in the browser.

Thoughts/Feedback

If you play the prototype and have some thoughts regarding it, let me know via the comments and we can discuss them (or I can incorporate the discussion into a later post).

Story Sale: Red Means Go

Over the summer I sold my story “Red Means Go” to On Spec Magazine. I had planned to reveal this earlier but I like waiting until contracts are signed and all that, so consider this the formal announcement.

This is another of my robot stories — I really enjoy writing about robots, probably in part because I’m terrible at building them (yes, I’m not making much progress on my personal robot army).

I’m not sure when the story will be published, but I’m guessing not until 2016 (On Spec has another of my stories in the queue, I imagine that will head to print first).

This is my seventh story sale to On Spec. They have been really awesome about supporting my writing over the years. The other stories I’ve sold to them are:

1. A Ragman’s Vow

2. From the Sea

3. Touch the Dead

4. A Terrible Loyalty

5. A Primer on the Ins and Outs of Building Bliss (not published yet)

6. Sin and Toil

You can support On Spec Magazine in a variety of ways. Check them out over on Patreon.

Also: If you have missed previous entries in my Newsletter (including free sections from the Lazy Designer as well as the latest Unity Prototyping musings), consider signing up so you don’t miss new entries! Also, you can check out archives of past newsletters, over here.

Evil Snow

We survived our first major snowfall with the only major casualty in our household being our garage door opener, so now I thought I’d give another brief update. Yes, I’m still preparing another post, which will give you more of a glimpse into some new opportunities I am considering, but it is not ready yet.

This November I competed in my second Nanowrimo. If you aren’t familiar with it, Nanowrimo requires participants to write 50K words in November. I participated a couple years ago and managed it, but I wasn’t able to make my schedule work in subsequent years. This year, even though I still wasn’t finished another novel, I decided to force myself to participate.

(Yes, I ended up writing two novels at the same time — counting words on the second one for Nanowrimo.)

Needless to say this made November hectic. But I managed to get my 50K words complete and also almost 20K on the other novel. I came near to writing a full seventy-thousand words last month. I’m happy with my effort — this is more words than the first half of 2014 added together.

The drawback to this is that neither novel is totally complete. It will probably take me to the holiday break to finish things up.

Tonight or tomorrow my newest Newsletter goes out with a glimpse at some major design changes to my Hauler prototype. Sign up if you want to have the first look at it.

State of Things

Okay, I haven’t been around much. Here’s a quick update!

What’s Am I Doing?

I’m finishing novel #7 (8? I’m starting to forget how many I’ve written).
I wanted to participate in Nanowrimo this year so I’m ALSO working on another novel at the same time. Yes, writing two novels at the same time is very silly. I’m very silly. (This novel is my first attempt at writing fiction geared towards children, specifically middle-grade readers. We’ll see how it goes. I didn’t have time to complete a full plan, like I normally do, so I have a cast of oddball characters and a weird situation and I’m just letting it go where it wants).
The fourth post in the Hauler Prototype series will be available in the next week. This time I’ll dive more into a major design decision I made (i.e., there’ll be some game design goodness in that post). Because I’m mean I’m releasing the post first via my Newsletter and Gamasutra. It will appear on this blog a couple weeks after original release.
In regards to Hauler, as I have stated before I am several sprints ahead of what I’m releasing to you. Last month was probably my most disappointing month in regards to not accomplishing what I wanted. I had hoped to refactor the AI system (yeah there’s AI eventually). But I got side tracked with other things, specifically trying to create some art for the various assets. That took far longer than I wanted and looks a lot worse than I desired. Don’t worry, you’ll see it eventually.

I’m also working on a detailed post that will highlight some career redirection I’m considering, but I haven’t had time to finish it. So this quick update will have to suffice. As always, if there are any questions please let me know.