Good job.

OK guys, we got it in. Good job! I looked over the blog, and realized it's not very representative of the last two weeks, as we have't been putting a lot about what we're actually doing and problems etc. Probably due to being way too busy.

In any case, good job. we had some major issues which nearly destroyed the game, twice, but we got there. It's a shame with all the problems, as any issues in the "finished"-game would not have been there, but oh well.

If you guys are, I'm more than up for fixing it this summer, getting those last things sorted out. I estimate we've spent over 1000hours combined on this, and it seems a waste to not spend a little more getting it perfect.

Good luck with level design, and I will see you around.

Platoon, dismissed.

level 3 textures and boxes

Level 2 textures and boxes

level 1 textures and boxes 2.0

file size is an issue and we may lose clarity in the final one if its taking to long to run and the texture resolution must have to be reduced, but we will see.

Prototyping Report

Digital Prototype Report:-

# Of Testers - 5
#1 - Stephen Kent: No experience of facebook games, rarely plays arcade browser games/limbo/bejeweled.
#2 - Mark Gallie: Plays facebook games often also plays arcade browser games once a week.
#3 - Natasha Warner: Plays a lot of facebook games as well as arcade browser games.
#4 - Kat: Plays a lot of facebook games as well as arcade browser games.
#5 - Bex Sherwood: Plays a lot of facebook games as well as arcade browser games.

----------

The testers weren't able to get very far, and thus these results do not represent the entire level.

Q1 - #3,4,5 - No opinion. #1 - Strongly Disagree. #2 - Agree
Q2 - #1,2,3,5 - Agree. #4 - No Opinion.
Q3 - #1,2,5 - Disagree. #3 - Strongly Agree. #4 - No Opinion
Q4 - #2,4,5 - Agree. #3 - Strongly Agree. #1 - Disagree.
Q5 - #1,5 - Agree. #2,3,4 - Strongly Agree.
Q6 - #1,4 - Disagree. #5 - Strongly Disagree. #2,3 - Agree.
Q7 - #2,4,5 - No Opinion. #1,3 - Disagree.
Q8 - #1,5 - Agree. #2,3 - Disagree. #4 - No Opinion

Q1 - During the test, very few of the players got past the initial power-up and the general feedback was that the slow down power up should not have been placed there. Although due to the Questionnaire feedback, only one person thought the power-ups were well spaced. This should be addressed in further revisions.

Q2 - Everyone died during this prototype, and while none of them got very far, they all agreed that it was challenging overall.

Q3 - Three of the testers decided that the spacing of the obstacles was good, even though it was obvious that it was perhaps too challenging. (Due to the how none of them passed the first 1/3 after several attempts.)

Q4 - Everyone save for our first and most inexperienced tester thought the music was extremely fitting and appropriate.

Q5 - Everyone agreed that the sounds and beeps were appropriate in conjunction with the atmosphere of the game.

Q6 - The controls, a hotly contested subject due to a large and unknown glitch when it came to sliding. This glitch seriously affected the results of this test and once the glitch is corrected, we will have to conduct this experiment again.

Q7 - Only two out of the five testers gave an opinion on this and it was sadly negative. With this feedback, we have already decided to move the checkpoints.

Q8 - The feedback for this is balanced, the agree:disagree ratio is the same. Because of this, we have decided to keep our three lives for the default difficulty yet if we add more difficulties, we could easily add five lives.

The Digital prototyping was extremely useful. As the developers we know the game inside and out and so using people that had no experience with the game showed us just how flawed the layout and design was. Following the wealth of feedback, we have made some substantial improvements to our game:

• Removed a large number of obstacles and stretched the level so that the individual steps are longer. While our testers were happy with the overall layout, we observed that it was far too challenging and there were specific parts that were impossible to overcome without hitting the obstacles and falling behind. 
• Moved the checkpoints: Originally, the checkpoints were every 1/3 of the level. We have still kept three checkpoints, but moved them closer to the start and positioned them in much more rewarding places. 
• Revised the power-ups. The placement and effect of the power-ups have been evaluated and repositioned so that they are now more appropriate for the level difficulty/challenge.

-------------------------------------------------------

Paper Prototype Testing:-

Pre-Word: The paper prototypes were to simply test the logic of the puzzles and in no way reflects the physical challenge. 

# Of Testers - 3
#1 - Michael Craddock - Hardcore Gamer: Extensive experience with platform puzzle games.
#2 - Ryan Quinn - Hardcore Gamer: No real experience with platform puzzle games.
#3 - Dwayne Husbands - Hardcore Gamer: Extensive experience with platform puzzle games.

Test Number 1: Puzzle 1 (Treehouse)
#1 - Thought puzzle was of good length and thought, "It was a little bit" challenging. They also got that it was in a park.
#2 - Thought puzzle was of good length but thought there was no challenge. They also got that it was in a park.
#3 - Thought puzzle was of good length but once again there was no challenge. They also got that it was in a park.

Test Number 2: Puzzle 2 (Factory)
#1 - 24 button presses, 2 minutes, 38 seconds to complete. Thought it was too hard and the puzzle was of good length. Chose Industrial Building.
#2 - 35 button presses, 3 minutes, 57 seconds to complete. Thought it was challenging and the puzzle was of good length. Chose Industrial Building.
#3 - 13 button presses, 1 minute, 24 seconds to complete. Thought it was challenging and that it was of good length. Chose Factory.

Test Number 3: Puzzle 3 (Industrial Building)
#1 - 7 button presses, 1 minute, 56 seconds to complete. Thought it there was a "Small Challenge" and the puzzle was of good length. Thought it was in the Industrial Building.
#2 - 4 button presses, 3 minutes, 13 seconds to complete. Thought it was challenging and the puzzle was of good length. Thought it was a factory.
#3 - 5 button presses, 1 minute, 30 seconds to complete. Thought it was challenging but that the puzzle was too short. Thought it was Industrial Building.

The Paper Prototype opened up a lot of issues we hadn't previously thought of. During puzzle two, we realized that there was no real indication of what you had to do. Which lent itself to large amounts of confusion and was why there are massive differences in results. Through this feedback we have changed the puzzles by thus:

• Puzzle 2: We have added a sign stating: All other levers must be deactivated if they crate is to descend. 
• Puzzle 3: We found a glitch where the player presses lever 1 and 2 and logically, cannot complete the puzzle. Changed this by when 1 and 2 are activated, there is a natural hazard meaning they cannot cross the rotating cog and therefore will not fail the challenge.

Anything else needed?

Final Presentation Dialogue Version 1

Introduction:

Introduce Team –

Duck Run is a level two game design project. The brief describes the game as a 2.5D (3D world but restricted to 2D movements) platform game for your browser; follow Drake, the daring, dashing and delightful duck as he escapes from a zombie apocalypse! The world is falling apart; can you keep a level head and help him get through alive?

Throughout the process we have listened to user testing as well as the designers in our team and have come up with a series of changes and updates. While some differ greatly, others have made no real change to the brief. 

Changes:

We have removed the ability for drake to fly, we found that while doing this; the player skipped a lot of the level.

Our character concept has changed dramatically. We decided to opt for a smoother 3D model rather than the original “8 bit retro”.

As our design began to take shape, we realised that co-op just wasn’t fitting. Thus, we decided to design the game solely for a single player experience.

We decided that it was much more fitting if the final phase of the game was based in a rubber duck factory instead of the initial office building.

We also decided that we wanted to keep a single uniform zombie class. 

Demonstration:

Here we have some short recorded demonstration which highlights all aspects and controls of our game.

Running – Here we see the running phase, this is the longest part of our game. We have three running phases in total, each with a unique look, layout and feel.

Puzzle – After each running phase, we have a small puzzle. All three puzzles have different challenges and different themes.

Animations – Here we can see the character and zombie up close. We are all really pleased with how these look and feel they really emphasise the mood and style of our game.

Future Developments:

While our game is already in a complete state: There is plenty we could see add.

New game modes such as multiplayer co-op and levels could really increase our demographic as well as adding new life to the game.

We also feel we could add more power-ups and difficulties as well as all this, we have designs ready for new zombie types. 

Assets:

Here is a quick look at some of our graphic assets. We’ve made sure that these fit both the art style and our target audience needs to ensure familiarity across all three levels and puzzles.

Title

Changed the name of the game... Literally. Hopefully today we'll get a fully functional game up and running, and get ready for our presentation.