User Manual

For my final project in Technical Writing, I decided to do a user manual of my game (by the way, it's called Supernova 2577, at least right now).  I doubt there will be many printed copies of this, but at least I can post it here to provide some useful information on the game.  It sums up aspects such as story, characters, and gameplay, so this should answer some of the questions people might have.

http://www.mediafire.com/view/mv864w79bdexnnl/Manual%20Final.pdf

Downloadable Prototype

Here it is, the first publicly playable prototype.  Try it out and leave a comment below about what you think!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/06qk2b6ccxea423/Supernova+-+Prototype.exe

When commenting, let me know what you liked, what you had issues with, and ideas on what to add or how to improve the game.  Thanks for your time and feedback!

DISCLAIMER: Current version is not playable on Mac.

Review of Literature

I already talked a bit before about games that influenced mine, so this will be sort of an addendum.  The two games I seem to keep bringing up are Mega Man X and Castlevania.  Right now, it very much feels like a hybrid between the two; some of the weapons function very similar to those of Castlevania, like the throwing axe and the holy water, with my respective equivalents being shurikens and acid vials.  But while your main weapon in Castlevania is a short-ranged melee weapon, Mega Man gives you a projectile weapon, which is where the hybrid element of my game comes in.  Additionally, it features actions such as wall-jumping and sliding, which I'd like to incorporate if I figure it out.  Overall, fans of these two series should find a lot to like here.

I kept talking about Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon as my inspiration for the game's soundtrack, with what I suppose I'd classify as 80s synth-rock, for lack of a better term.  However, as I've crafted some of the music for my game, I find that it's not quite the same style.  There's nothing necessarily "alien" sounding about Blood Dragon's soundtrack, and my music is more along the lines of heavy metal with a sci-fi twist.  Of course, not all the songs in the game will be the same, so we'll see what else I end up churning out.

So now, let's talk art style.  A lot of indie games like Fez and VVVVVV go for a retro 8-bit look, sort of like NES games.  There's a certain nostalgic appeal from this for some people, but I felt like that would be taking the easy way out.  For me, it's all about the 16-bit era, which in my opinion has held up almost flawlessly from an aesthetic standpoint, moreso even over the ones that came after it.  While it would take some work, I'd love if my game could look as good as some of the greats from back then, plus the added enhancements of modern technology.  Take Super Metroid (pictured below), which pulls of the alien atmosphere perfectly.  Obviously, a full team of professional artists can make a better-looking game than I can with my limited time frame, but I'll perform to the best of my abilities.

Characters and music

Here are some of the characters that appear in the game.  The first guy is the player, and the rest are various enemies that you'll be fighting.

Next, we've got some music.  I've been making a lot of songs recently, being both a fun and productive way to kill time.  Here are a few of the better ones I've churned out.

https://soundcloud.com/jeffstip-1/sets/senior-thesis

Prototype Progress

About a week and a half ago, I got started on programming a working prototype of my game in Game Maker.  So far, it's been surprisingly easy.

I used a few templates and tutorials from the internet to get some of the basic things down, although I did have a friend give me a hand with a few of the trickier aspects, such as how to incorporate variables into the code.  While the game has a long way to go, its current state is at least somewhat playable.  Projectiles work well, the enemies pose a threat, and the player character's movement, for the most part, works well.  However, jumping isn't as responsive as it needs to be, enemy AI is almost non-existent, the player character has a tendency to get stuck on things, sound and music volume is out of whack, certain situations give you little to no time to react, and there are still more features I want to add (like wall-jumping).

Gotta love re-colored backgrounds.  At any rate, it's best to get everything working sooner rather than later.  As soon as I get the core gameplay down, it's just a manner of producing art and crafting levels.

Annotated Bibliography

Gamer Maker 8: Engine for programming games.  Between this and Unity, this appears to be easier to learn.   I'm leaning towards this one.

Unity: Another game engine.  Supposedly has some nice features that put it ahead of Game Maker, but is a little harder to learn.  Still trying to figure out which one I should use.

Adobe Photoshop: Image editing software.  What I plan to use for most of the game's artwork.  Graphics will consist of bitmap sprites.

Adobe Illustrator: Vector art software.  Useful for making simple-shaped objects, then bringing them into Photoshop to add more detail.

Adobe InDesign: Documenting software.  Throughout development, I will need to create design documents for easy reference as to what needs to be put in the game.  InDesign offers many more features and more intuitive control than Microsoft Word.

FL Studio (Fruity Loops): Music creation software.  Not the greatest selection of instruments, but is available on PC and very easy to use.

Logic Pro: Another music creation program.  Much better-sounding instruments than Fruity Loops.  However, it's only available on Mac, which I don't have, so I'd have to come to school to use it.  Also, the control is less intuitive than Fruity Loops and takes longer to place notes.

Mega Man X: Time to discuss other games than influenced mine.  This was released in 1993 for the SNES.  It plays similar to how I want my game to be: you can only shoot straight, you can jump from walls (allowing more vertical movement and level design, as well as hitting flying enemies), and enemies are placed at strategic spots in the level, making for a greater challenge.  You can also find upgrades that increase you strength.

Castlevania: Another classic game series, starting in 1986.  The player wields a whip with limited range, and like Mega Man, you can only attack straight.  However, there are also sub-weapons you can have that give you diversity in combat, such as axes that you can throw upward, or holy water you can drop on enemies below.  You can only have one of these at a time, and they require ammunition, adding a layer of strategy to the game.  I had considered allowing 8-directional shooting in my game, but this style will be easier to create a more tightly-balanced experience with, as opposed to your main gun being the end-all solution to everything.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon: A spinoff expansion of Far Cry 3 released in 2013, Blood Dragon is a first-person shooter that parodies 80s action movies, such as Terminator.  The soundtrack, composed by the band Power Glove,  consists of the same early synthesized music found in such movies.  The result is quite effective, and a huge inspiration for my game's soundtrack.  The game also featured comic book-style cutscenes with very limited animation (played for laughs).  I'll have to do the same thing due to time constraints, even if it's not as funny as when a multi-million dollar company does it.

Hi.

I'm Jeff Stippick, Senior IMM major at TCNJ.  This is where I'll be blogging about my Senior Thesis, from initial ideas to progress in development.  I wanted my Thesis to be a culmination of everything I've learned in the 5 years (and counting) that I've spent in college.  So, what better for that than a game?

While I can't for the life of me come up with a cool and catchy name yet, my game is essentially a 2D shooter/platformer in space.  I think I want it to play similar to the Mega Man X titles, where you can only shoot straight, but also perform actions such as wall-jumps and sliding maneuvers.  There may also be sub-weapons like in Castlevania to give you more versatility in combat.  For example, Castlevania has throwing axes that allow you to hit airborne enemies more easily, or holy water that can drop on enemies below.  I was debating over this style or simple 8-directional shooting, but I think this will make for more exciting and challenging gameplay, especially if you can only have one sub-weapon at a time.  There will also be environmental hazards, such as pitfalls and death beams.  Having to worry about both this and the enemies can make for some pretty crazy scenarios.

The art style will probably consist of bitmap sprites made in Photoshop, although programs like Illustrator and Flash certainly have their advantages, too.  There are a couple of reasons that I'm going with 2D graphics, the first of which being that I barely know how to do 3D graphics and more or less know Photoshop like the back of my hand.  Secondly, 2D graphics are sort of becoming a lost art.  I think they can easily look better aesthetically than most 3D games if the art direction is good enough.

This may sound off-topic, but I played Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon a few months ago, and was blown away by its rocking 80s-inspired soundtrack.  That's a big inspiration for my game's music, as it showed me the kind of awesome things you can do with crappy-sounding synths you find in programs like Fruity Loops.  Furthermore, it goes perfectly with the alien atmosphere I'm trying to pull off.

And now to address the elephant in the room: programming.  I'm not the best at it, which is why I went with a simple genre like a platformer.  Luckily, there are tons of tutorials online, and I have friends who have coded much trickier stuff in the past.  As for the engine, I'm leaning towards Game Maker, though I've heard some good things about Unity.  Overall, I think as long as I manage my time wisely and don't slack off, everything should come together nicely.