Development Devlog

Overall Development Process:

Our development process can be divided into three parts: brainstorming, asset-making, and executing. Through various brainstorming sessions, which will be discussed in further detail in the following section, we decided to create a game centered around a dog. Since then, both of us agreed that it should be a visually cute game. Therefore, we spent a lot of time creating visual assets, but in the end it was worth the effort because it definitely created the mood that we aimed for. Our interactions within the game are pretty straight-forward, but we believe the visuals make the story complete and compelling. As a result, once we had the assets ready, it was about compiling them to create interactions within. We were able to collaborate with ease on Unity Collaborate, where we updated work back and forth to make improvements to the game. 

Design Docs / Development Images / Notes:

In the very beginning when we didn't have a clear idea of the game, we organized some thoughts on how to develop different levels in the game. Some of them were:

• More tricky jumps to reach some part of the level
• More hazardous terrain / path
• Enemies that move faster or fire faster or are harder to kill
• Platforms moving

However, we realized these were very general ideas on platformer games that didn't necessarily interested us. As we discussed more about what we like and are passionate about, we came to an agreement to create a game about a dog. Finding a common theme that both interested us helped us to narrow down to specific ideas such as:

Concept Idea:

• Lost dog in the park finding his way back home
• Obstacles: garbage / grumpy cats / drunk people / insects / corpse flowers
• Treats(keys to the next level): sock / biscuit / keys

Level design - 3 levels 

• Morning - no obstacles 
• Afternoon - still obstacles (grumpy cats / insects)
• evening - moving platforms + moving obstacles (people / cars?)

Win: puppy get the key without being hurt at the end of the day

Lose: touch any obstacles 

Interaction parts:

• Space bar - jump
• [K] - shooting tennis ball / football

Assets to create:

• Dog animation
• Obstacles animation
  • Garbage 
  • Corpse flower
  • Cats
• City map background
  • Morning
  • Noon
  • Night 
• Terrain
  • Platform
• Door
• Key
• Treats
• Sock
• Biscuit

We also collected some images for a mood board to agree upon an aesthetic choice before creating the assets mentioned above. Some of the keywords were bitmap, colorful, happy, and cute.

Playtesting Feedback:

After our beta version of the game, we received the following feedback from our peers.

• Ending scene to conclude story 
• How will obstacles affect dog?
• Dog flying off of screen - should set boundaries
• Animation dog with movement
• Score system (irrelevant)
• Sound: 
  • Jump: Cartoon_Whistle.wav
  • Win: Electro win sound
  • Rewards: 8-bit mini win sound effect
  • Lose: Fail Sound Effect - Acco…
  • Obstacles: Game Die
• Moving platforms
• Instruction + UI (how to move, scenario, what objects are treats/obstacles, goal)
• Bench / garbage can as jumping objects

We took these into account and created an informative slide in the beginning to provide the player with the story. We also incorporated the background with box colliders so that the dog could not only jump on the platforms but also the bench and garbage can. We agreed that a score system with the cookies were irrelevant and rather made it confusing, so removed that component. Moreover, with a more illustrative ending scene, it provided an ending for the game as well as the story where the dog finds his way back home.