Early Design Plans and Schedule

Original Battle UE4 Mockup

With my base schedule setup for this new PC-Mobile project, I've been able to move forward with a step-by-step of what I want for my end goals and the passes needed to reach it.

Personal Schedule all setup for Sub Content

Dev Areas

By revisiting previous Travellers project plans, making the gameplay section means many of the design points have been planned and could go right into quick testing for iteration as long as the project could utilise a network connection, otherwise things would have to alter to give players the same feeling but in a more streamline environment:

• Selecting a Game Area (Game Length/Difficulty)

• Given a Conflict/Choice prior to the Goal

• Combat/Acting on the Choice as a Team

• Result on cooperation

Core game areas

Where previous project tests already explored Gameplay transiations and RPG dialogue systems, this project will be looking into the Co-Op Battle system itself.

For my submission, I've stated that I'll be delivering an RPG Battle .EXE and a Mobile App Controller .APK to give myself the goal of having a fully looping game with some form of Mobile capability.

As I've explored both split-screen and shared screen local games in previous tasks during my time in study, this target is so I can personally better my understanding of other forms of multiplayer such as Networking between Games (albeit light) by having the Controller connect to the Game via a network.

Design

The turn-based combat design would have users play similar to Mobius Final Fantasy (Square Enix, 2015) with Players discussing and filling-up a timeline of attacks to work around an upcoming enemy problem, then watching it play out before being dealt a new incoming attack.

Turn-based RPG on a grid. Find a good spot to attack.

Light actions to chain and send to fill an Action Slot. Communicate actions with other Players to avoid blocking each others progress.

The attacks functioned more like Puzzles, where Enemies would claim action spots on the timeline first (Wave-based) and Players would spend stamina to adjust their positions and set actions in remaining slots to counter. As a social focused game, the combat was planned to be light to allow participants to engage in communication, but with early iterations, it's clear there's to be a readjusting for a more faster loop for the ExpoTees space.

Plans to address Tech Restrictions

With some early discussions with tutors, I realise that certain networking tasks may not be possible due to the University being strict with their hardware setup, so I've made my personal targets clear encase of needing to rescope. During this time, I've been keeping communications with tutors and colleagues for their advice on the University's stance for networking with student projects and ethics.

If it reveals to be impossible for students, as long as I can have a project with good game feel that has a possible companion app to aid the main game (even if not relied on for enjoying the main game), I believe I've reached a clear goal for development.

I'll be giving the breakdown of the network tests in the following blog.