Week 1- Prototype 1
Production II
At Champlain College, we take a class called Production II during the spring semester of our junior year. Each section of the class is considered its own studio and within each class, we are put onto teams to make our own projects. The first three weeks involving rapid prototyping--one for each week--and at the end every time will pick from those prototypes one to refine. Each team will be given the chance to pitch the game to the studio who will then decide which games will continue development. The teams that are cut will be moved to the games that will be continued, simulating real life studios and letting us finish the semester with a strong game we helped to make.
We formed our own teams within our classes. My team consists of Michael-Paul Ho-Kang-You (producer), Zach Phillips (designer), myself (designer), Kelly Herstine (programmer), and Grace Magnant (artist). With each section of the class considered as a studio, we dubbed our team Team Spear-It.
Concepting
For our first week of production, my team wanted to try to get a head start by concepting three game ideas that we might be interested to prototype. We brainstormed during the class time that we were given. That night, I further developed the ideas to present to the team the next day. We called the three concepts Chameleon Hiding Game, Ghost Hunt, and Dogfight. The Chameleon Hiding Game is a two-player asymmetric game in which one player is a chameleon eating bugs who must hide from the second player who is a bird attempting to eat the chameleon. Ghost Hunt is another two-player hide and seek game in which one player goes around collecting pieces of a key to get out of a haunted house with a flashlight as their only weapon meanwhile the other player plays as a ghost who is trying to spook the first player. Finally, Dogfight is a two-player plane shooter game in which players attempt to destroy the other plane using a bunch of humorous types of ammo and bombs. After discussing the concepts with the team, we decided to move forward with the Chameleon Hiding game for the first prototype.
Change or Danger
This was the first project my team was working on together. Given free rein to make a game, we had one week for a rapid prototype. With two designers on the team, my work was rather front loaded, doing the most with the concepting of the game.
My contributions:
Concepting
Screen visualizations
Controller layout
Bug collecting
Home base endgame
In the end, the game had a simple and quick game loop. Taking place on split screen, the player as the chameleon was able to eat bugs, camouflage, and run to the home base. As a bird, the second player was able to fly after the chameleon and eat it. We were not able to implement any level design, but with the core mechanics done, I am proud of the first prototype which we decided to call Change or Danger.
Final Thoughts
For a first and rapid prototype, I think the game turned out very well. We were able to implement a full game loop and players had a lot of fun during the demo session. If we choose to continue development for this game, I am very excited about the possibilities for level design.
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