Final Devlog

Educating The Extraterrestrials » Devlog

3 years ago by WillBruce

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Final Devlog

Today is the final day I will be posting my progress on Educating The Extraterrestrials, in the words of Dr Suess, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.".

Today vs Conception

Educating The Extraterrestrials has definitely gone through a great many changes since the original concept statement, not only mechanically but thematically as well. Originally my project was going to show everyday scenarios, this did not last long in development for a few reasons. I struggled coming up with mundane situations to turn into mini-games (wonder why), I also found the concept tiring soon after, I asked some of my peers whilst testing and the feeling was mutual so I decided to revamp the whole concept, I think for the better. What did make it out alive was the quick passed mini-games related to situations, however it was about an alien traveling to earth to discover human customs and habits. In my original statement I explained what I wanted graphically, it was going to be a hand drawn game reminiscent of early flash games, originally I did try this style but it was quickly evident that it was better in theory than practice. In it's stead I decided to do a mixture of real-life images and pixel art, very similar to my original concept for a mini-game. I'm a bit sorry that this design choice didn't work out but using sprites opened some opportunities for graphical effects not originally in the concept, such as the pulsing effect on the appliances and the hover effect on the player. A feature that I would have added if given any more time was the sticky-note mechanic, essentially you could check what tasks had been completed by clicking on the fridge, I didn't add this because of time reasons but if I keep working on Educating The Extraterrestrials I'd be sure to add it. A lot of my favourite things in Educating the Extraterrestrials were mechanics I added post the original concept, such as the pulsing appliances. Originally an undone chore was going to be shown with an exclamation mark overlay but I'm very glad I got the chance to make a more quirky looking function. The mini-games were always a part of my project but a lot of my original concepts were thrown because of thematic changes, what stayed was my first mini-game, the popcorn one. My reasoning being both humans and aliens could probably eat it, the other mini-games I added were more fitting with the theme. The second game being the phone home mini-game, a pretty shallow reference of E.T that I thought Educating The Extraterrestrials would be sore to miss and the third being 'scrub the documents' I thought it would be entertaining to scrub documents with pictures of the player character with a randomly selected pose or angle but it never came to fruition.

Rundown of testing session

In the test session I received a lot of valuable feedback, I've tried to cater to as much as I've been able to whilst finishing Educating The Extraterrestrials and I'm happy with the outcome, I think if the test session was ran again it show the improved and smoother game play I've managed to achieve but I also know there are things I would have liked to add if I had time.

Asset List

A list of the purpose of all of the assets used in Educating The Extraterrestrials;

Top of mouth https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/torus-palatinus#pictures Medical News Today (Accessed 1/09/21)

I used this in my popcorn mini-game, I wanted to make it as uncomfortable as possible so I got this from a medical site with plenty of gross images.

Microwave image https://spartanelectrical.com.au/wmf4102sa-40l-countertop-microwave-oven-1100w-6... Spartan (Accessed 1/09/21)

Fridge image https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/heller-206l-fridge-and-freezer... OfficeWorks (Accessed 1/09/21)

Hand image https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/palm-of-hand iStock (Accessed 11/09/21)

White Wall https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/white-wall-background-texture-seamless-pattern... iStock (Accessed 12/09/21)

Popcorn https://www.labnol.org/reverse/ PNGITEM (Accessed 1/09/21)

Wall Phone https://www.amazon.com/AT-CL2909-Corded-Speakerphone-Waiting/dp/B001S2PKPE Amazon (Accessed 20/09/21)

Pay Phone https://www.crushpixel.com/stock-photo/old-public-payphone-2854566.html Crush Pixel (Accessed 21/09/21)

Bowl image https://www.mijeurope.com/bowls/white-star-ramen-bowl-25cm/ mijEurope (Accessed 1/09/21)

Backspace https://www.shutterstock.com/search/backspace+key ShutterStock (Accessed 15/10/21)

Random File https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/03/22/twih-m22.html World Socialist Website (Accessed 15/10/21)

Important Documents http://www.personaltrust.co.za/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PO_September_2016_F... Personal Trust (Accessed 15/10/21)

Marker https://www.winc.com.au/main-catalogue-productdetail/artline-579-whiteboard-mark... WINC (Accessed 15/10/21)

These images were selected just because I needed a real-life images of an object in my project to fit the aesthetic I was trying to achieve.

Fbi file background image https://worldofescapes.com/buffalo/quests/3600-escape-conspiracy-theory World of Escapes (Accessed 17/10/21)

Leaves https://videohive.net/item/leaves-in-the-foreground/11615025 EnvatoMarket (Accessed 20/9/21)

Bush https://www.123rf.com/photo_12913188_coral-beauty-bush-isolated-on-white-backgro... 123rf (Accessed 20/9/21)

Asteroid Background https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1055070605-retro-space-arcade-video-game... ShutterStock

These images were chosen because I needed a background for the mini-games

I wanted an arm for the player to control that wasn't like a conventional human arm

A tileset I made to replace the stock image floors I had

A little alien I made for the player to control

A desk to replace the stock image table I had

A table I made to put the file mini-game on

Lamp I made for decoration

Alien planet I made for flavouring the title screen

Alien spaceship I made to put on the title screen

The original table I made but didn't use

Will Bruce (2021) Educating The Extraterrestrials. (Accessed: 17/10/21).

For the aliens furniture I wanted to make it as weird as possible so I had the idea of furniture with human characteristics, as if they were turned into furniture so the alien didn't have to go shopping or something.

Scripts:

ArmControl controls the players arm
Backspace controls the backspace in the phone home mini-game
destroyOnCollision destroys the popcorn that makes it to the mouse whilst adding to the score
explanation moves the camera in the game start screen and reveals the instruction
HandToMouse makes and object follow the mouse
marker controls lets the marker blackout information in the document mini-game
movement lets the player control the little alien
phoneCall manages the making of the random number and receives the user input, after this it will see if they match
phoneClick manages the buttons pressed and sends the numbers to phoneCall
playerHover lets the player hover in air
pulse lets the appliances pulsate when not pressed before
quit quits the game
RenderChange switches between the camera either by fading in/out or spinning around and getting smaller then changing cameras
sceneSwitch switches the scenes
score keeps track of the score and switches the scene when all have been attempted
startscript just makes the cursor invisable

User Guide

Educating The Extraterrestrials

You play as a little green alien that came a long way to study Earth, use A and D to move around and your mouse to click to play fun, quick mini-games and learn about human culture.

Move around and reach with your claw, press on the pulsating appliances and enter a mini-game.

The first mini-game, you're challenged with shoveling your gaping maw with as much popcorn you can. Use your mouse to throw the popcorn into your mouth.