Evaluation: Destiny of Destony

What was it like to Develop Destony and how were the Results?

Things are coming to a close and it's time to reflect on the whole process and development of my honours project. From what started as a simple idea has now come to fruition in a final developed game concept. In general, developing Destony was an educational and growing experience, one of which I feel I gained a substantial amount of knowledge and skill. The results were far more than I expected, having no coding experience I went in scared of ending up with nothing to show, although I managed to create a polished game with 4 levels, including an intro and an ending.

Excerpt from Dissertation:

Project Practice:

As aforementioned in the methodology, an interactive game, namely: Destony would be created with the purpose of incorporating the theories, principles, trends and information on game aesthetics focusing on the core systemic and visual values. The result of this was the created game aesthetics critical framework, and due to the systemic success of Thomas was Alone and the visual value of Tiny Wings, a lot of the core aspects of both games were fused into the creation of this game. As with Thomas was Alone, this would focus more on the polish of a simple concept, rather than an unrefined complex one, focusing on the feel and narrative immersive qualities.

 As a single developer with an artistic background, the gameplay design was minimal, consisting of a single jump mechanic and the interactive physics to move your surroundings and collect items. The game’s focus was on creating a compact experience which would represent the significant aspects of the systemic and visual, rather than creating a full game within the timescale. To incorporate the balance of challenge, small puzzles were incorporated to keep the users interest. To include freedom, the physics were enabled so that the blocks could be moved around and be unpredictable. The retention was sought after through collecting items as was the value. The immersive and feel qualities of the game were to do with the visuals of the character, the animations and subtle attention to detail.

The game was previously developed in flash a 2D engine, but was then recreated within Unity for the flexibility and the in more appropriate physics engine. During development, many decisions needed to be made for the betterment of the gaming experience. One of the first decisions that were encountered was whether the game would be 3D with a fixed front view (2.5D) or just 2D planes with a fixed front view. It was soon established that having 3D blocks moving around without certain axis restraints would over complicate the game and also impact the effectiveness of the puzzles, so it was concluded that 2D planes with a fixed frontal view would be the best course of action. 

As it often is with game development, many technical issues were encountered and addressed. The walk cycle would glitch every time you walk for more than a second, which was fixed by changing the number of runs the cycle would make per second. A fundamental problem which took a great amount of time to fix was when the Javascript for a collision code for the light box would not work, although a similar code would function within the game in C#. Another problem was that the characters collision sphere would not collect the item which was fixed by creating a box instead of a sphere.

Largely, although some problems were encountered, the project practise and implementation was carried out and established as planned. Inevitably, originally planned features were cut out and not all issues were solved to perfection, although the purpose was not to create an immaculate product but to create an aesthetic design experience which could test and bring further practise based insight into the balance of systemic and visual significance.   

Destony Evaluation

Destony, like the previously researched games is created by a single developer. The game is an atmospheric puzzle platformer with a very strong focus on story and feel. You play as a postman named Tony who previously died in a bus accident and his spirits was released in order to help those struggling with negative thoughts in their lives and help them fulfil their destiny. As you dive into their private subconscious, you can see all the blocks of negativity stored in their minds and can assist them in clearing out the negative blocks and collecting the positive blocks to progress through the game. As you progress throughout the game, the puzzles progressively become more difficult and if you don’t catch the positive block before it hits the ground, the fragile positivity fades away. 

This game, although short and very basic, holds a core sense of systemic worth and the art style really creates a sense of intrigue and wonder. The mechanic of jumping and pushing blocks out the way, although minimal, holds a substantial pleasurable response. The narrative of the game creates a sense of urgency and mission within the game as progress and tread carefully on the path to fulfilling your goals. 

Challenge 4/5: The balance of skill and challenge is amply accomplished with the playful nature of exploration and experimentation. The physics of the game create quite a challenge as your goal of reaching the positive blocks without letting them fall and can sometimes require skill and planning. The game can be contently played as time flies by as you find joy in jumping around and accessing one positive block to the other. Although it being a prototype, the sense of challenge is certainly not in full bloom and more features could be added.

Freedom 4/5: The game allows you to have a certain level of creative freedom to explore and effect your environment differently each time you touch the blocks from a different angle, velocity or even height and allows the player to define their own outcome. You are able to move around freely around the environment and there are no time restraints, although you are only limited to jumping. Despite this, the mechanic is pressure sensitive and requires certain jump heights to pass certain areas of the game.  

Retention 3/5: The game has enough content and story to keep the player engaged and content within the prototype. The freedoms to explore and effect your environment have quite an addictive nature all throughout the game. Each time you fail to collect the certain blocks, you are motivated to try and try again until you succeed. Although the game can become slightly repetitive when you collect blocks which are too easy again and again as well as the game lacking depth within the content and the amount of levels.

Immersion 4/5: The story creates an emotive vibe which is translated from the start of the game as you progress throughout. The visuals have a really vibrant and soft nature to them which draws the user within the experience. The world that is created has a really psychedelic dreamlike feel to it and when playing, you can get a sense of magical fantasy. The immersive qualities could be further expanded with more polish to the story, although after seeing the cut scene of the game and understanding the story, you begin to feel a connection with the purpose of the experience.  

Value 4/5: The game manages to balance the rewarding system very well. As you play throughout the game, 

you know that collecting 3 white blocks will bring you to the next level, each block you collect gives off a satisfying spark and make you feel you are progressing throughout. The general sense of the game is very pleasing, from the visuals, music to the polished jump, you feel that the game has had a lot of consideration put into it. There are also some small glitches with the re-spawn and game over screen which can slightly dampen the experience. Once you complete the game you are left feeling that it was too short being a prototype, and having more features and varied levels would create further value, although there is certainly much value within the game.

Feel 4/5: The feel is familiar to many early platformers, it’s a simple and barebones experience, although the simplicity maintains a sense of polished influence throughout. There is a certain amount of harmony in regards to the character, blocks and environment; the characters have box shaped body, although there is harmony within the spherical look within the eyes which unite well with the clouds and rounded aspects of the environment. Overall, the game has quite a unique feel in comparison to other platformers, one of a certain polish which certainly could be expanded on for an even more pleasing overall experience.   

	RATING
CHALLENGE	4
FREEDOM	4
RETENTION	3
IMMERSION	4
VALUE	4
FEEL	4
TOTAL (Mean)	3.8

  

Table of results for Destony

In assessing all the factors of Destony, it is apparent that a lot of the game aesthetics are clearly well thought out and executed and incorporate prior research of successful games. The challenge, freedom, immersion, value and feel all score a high rating due to the certain level of polish created within several aspects of the game. The story, the art style, the programming of the simple jump mechanic are all done with meticulous attention to detail which potentially separate this game from other traditional platformers. The incorporation of physics and the innovative concept of collecting fragile blocks bring great prominence within the aesthetic experience of the game.

Although, to its detriment, it is also evident that it is a prototype and not a finished game. The retention factor suffers due to the certain lacking features such as a limited amount of levels, small glitches and program heavy features due to it being created by an artist. Despite these drawbacks, the game is certainly a well thought out prototype with much potential and values the majority of the elements presented within the framework.