Weekly Devlog 1

3/1/23 --> 3/8/23

Summary of the past week: 

• Ever since the analogue test was completed, I’ve been writing down ideas to make the combat portion of our game sensible and detailed for the final presentation. I’ve been prepping for the presentation with advice from Gabriel and Rodney, making sure I mentioned the most important details.
• The analogue presentation went well, especially given the improvised enemy props, but it shows that we need to be a little more creative on our design goal. The game mechanics were handled the best, considering the number of bases to cover.
• I’ve managed to handle a lot of the writing portion that my team can use as a template for continuing the game. I handled the slideshow and gathered as many details as possible we discussed for us to be on the same page.

Goals for Next Week:

• Next week in my area of work, our team should be starting to mold the Itch page into something more eye-catching. We also need to refine our gameplay by making it more interesting and challenging.
• By next week, I will have started to develop the Game Design Document, or at least review how it should look.  I also need to keep in mind that our game assets will play a big part in how much we're using and discarding. Next time we need to present and talk about at least the bare functions of our game mechanics; something playable and presentable.
• I need to stay in constant communication with my group, and can’t leave anything to the last minute. We need to make sure our game stands out, so I need to innovate some ideas that work well with the game mechanics. Additionally, I may need to start studying GDevelop for the long run.

*What were you playtesting? 

• An analogue prototype of the game using a large white board, some game pieces from the room’s cabinets,  and lots of sticky notes for enemy plane models.

*What did you want to learn through this playtest?

• I wanted to find out how our game could hold up without digital tools, seeing if the bare minimum game mechanics could hold up.

*Who were your play testers? Do they represent your target audience?

• The play testers were definitely part of the target audience. It’s a game all ages can play, but it was good to have people who’ve played space shooter games before to understand my group’s point of reference.

*What did you observe? What did you see when they were playing? Did they interact the way you expected?

• The handled it fairly well, certainly as much as could be expected with physical prop limitations. They cooperated and were able to play fairly with the rules. 

*What questions did you ask your play testers after they played the game?

• Some of my personal questions included: How fast or slow is the combat to your likening? Should we add more details to the level, or just more opponents?

*What feedback did you receive from your players?

• The enemies should have distinguishable health points.
• Enemy ships should try to ram into the player’s ship to cause additional damage.

*What, if anything, will you do with that feedback? Did you learn anything?

• This feedback inspires me to work more on the types of enemies featured in this game, and how to counter them. It also made me wary of certain level design, the obstacles particularly.
  
  

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Weekly Devlog 2

3/8/23 --> 3/15/23

Summary of the past week: 

• For the past week, in my area, my team’s focus has been to listing our game’s assets on the macro sheet. The macro sheet will be crucial to describing the assets we currently have so far, as well as the ones we’ve yet to use. They’ll come in handy when we present our demo to the other groups.
• Our demo was very simple showing the basic movement & attacks of the player. With that completed, we managed to display our prominent game assets so far, and I’ve written them down in the macro sheet. I’ve also taken the liberty of writing the type of assets that we don’t have but seek to use for further development.
• In the past week, I worked on organizing the macro sheet and making sure that it would be detailed enough to give our classmates a better idea of what we’re aiming for. It also helps clarify what should be prioritized in our game’s coding, (in terms of game mechanics.)

Goals for Next Week:

• For the next two weeks, in my area, we need to go over what our official Game Design Document will contain. Everything that we need to focus on will be the primary content of the GDD, but we’ll also have to discuss the lengths of which our next demo will reflect on it. We need to meet up multiple times to get on the same page and organize everything properly.
• As an individual, by next class I will have the Game Design Document completed and posted to our Itch.io page. I want to make sure all our current and future bases are covered since we won’t be in class for the following two weeks.
• To accomplish these goals, I will have to notify my teammates daily for their progress, and keep making sure that we’re all on the same page. I’ll also need constructive criticism of the Game Design Document, since they’ve been more hands-on in GDevelop, and I don’t want to list impossible goals.

*What were you playtesting? 

• We were playtesting a small digital sample of our game. Gabriel posted it on Itch.io and we managed to display the basics of movement and shooting.

*What did you want to learn through this playtest?

• I wanted to learn how far our knowledge of GDevelop has come. The demo was very simple, but it wasn’t easy for my team to be able to put it together. Having the movement and combat button working means that we’re closer understanding more complex features.

*Who were your playtesters? Do they represent your target audience?

• The playtesters, our classmates, certainly enjoyed a bit of our demo. 

*What did you observe? What did you see when they were playing? Did they interact the way you expected?

• They were not “wowed” but they did enjoy being able to freely move the ship as far and as much as they wanted. They took turns abusing the shooting button (the X key), and they did give us constructive criticism without overlooking what my team was able to create.  

*What questions did you ask your play testers after they played the game?

• I asked simple questions like: “Is the speed okay with you?” “Should we keep the  unlimited bullets for the future?”

*What feedback did you receive from your players?

• The speed could be increased a little more.
• There should be a solid “window” so the player can’t bypass beyond the screen. 
• They brought up the possibility of different skins and skills for the ship.

*What, if anything, will you do with that feedback? Did you learn anything?

• The feedback we received from the play testers made us a little wary of the pacing our our gameplay & combat. I will make note of how long it takes to dodge, attack, and react to certain enemies. Additionally, there’s a possibility that the ship/alien should receive a little more flair in its appearance,

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Weekly Devlog 3

Summary of the past week: 

• For the past week, in my area, my team’s focus has been to make the game have functional gameplay elements. I've been trying to keep some things structured in preparation for our alpha release as well.
• We've started uploading a lot more assets on our shared Google drive. I've been taking more tutorials in GDevelop to help my teammates in the long run as well. 
• In a new change of pace, I helped Rodney in creating music for our sound effects and the boss stage. We may not use all of them but it should still be sufficient in some areas.

Goals for Next Week:

• For the next weeks, in my area, we still need to refine our gameplay and how much of our planned controls there should be.  We probably can't put everything we want,  but we just need enough.
• As an individual, I will make sure that we have enough of our base game features to make the game enjoyable upon the Alpha release.
• To accomplish these goals, I will have to notify my teammates daily for their progress. I will take more tutorials, particularly in the Space Shooter one in GDevelop and the particle effect assets. 

*What were you playtesting? 

• The destruction of the enemies in our game, as well as how far our player can go in terms of the level.

*What did you want to learn through this playtest?

• I want to know how much is developed well and how far we have to go. The Beta test will have our artistic aspects implemented and whatnot, but it's never too early to make particle effects a part of the Alpha process.

*Who were your playtesters? Do they represent your target audience?

• Before the Alpha due date, we have to test the game ourselves. When we release the Alpha, our professor & classmates will offer up the critiques.

*What did you observe? What did you see when they were playing? Did they interact the way you expected?

• Nothing notable as of yet. The Alpha has not yet been released.

*What questions did you ask your play testers after they played the game?

• As mentioned in the previous devlog: "Is the speed okay with you?” “Should we keep the unlimited bullets for the future?” We (Team Akakage) also ask ourselves how much the players experience in the Alpha release vs Beta release.

*What feedback did you receive from your players?

• The feedback mentioned from previous devlogs. Nothing new as of yet, but we hope to receive a lot more notes when our game approaches completion.

*What, if anything, will you do with that feedback? Did you learn anything?

• We are adjusting our gameplay in accordance to what the previous feedback was, in addition to our own timeframe limits and how much we are able to code.