Developmental Psychology Final Project: 20% Time By Howard Waldrop

Developmental Process Week 1 Development Goals Create Concept for Construct 2D Game Week 2 Development Goals Create Artwork for Game Demo Start researching tutorials for Construct Week 3 Development Goals Go through Tutorials for Construct Finish Artwork Start Construct project and add all artwork assets Week 4 Development Goals Use tutorials as guides to script my game demo Complete game demo Game demo should consist of title screen, at least one working level of the game, and all mechanics should be in place. Make a youtube video of game demo, or publish game demo online

Week 1 For my 20% time I decided that I wanted to finally teach myself to use “Construct” Construct is an open source game development software for 2D games. I have almost no programming experience and moderate digital artistic experience Goal: Have a working game demo of a 2D game by the end of the course.

Week 1 (Continued) I have been creating game ideas on paper for years, however I wanted to make one specifically for this course. The concept I came up with is simple. Take a classic shooting game, like Space Invaders, and put it in a medieval setting. This gave the inspiration for what I am calling “Defend the Gate”.

Week 2 Now that I have my idea for the 20% time, It’s time to work on the concepts and artwork for my demo of Defend the Gate. While I was working on my concepts I started to research Construct Tutorials so I would be able to actually build the game after I have the starting art work. Being Proactive during week 2 has allowed me to get almost all the artwork done. I was expecting to be doing artwork in week 3 as well, while I went over the tutorials for Construct. The reason I decided to start with the artwork instead of the tutorials is because I wanted to implement the 80/20 rule. The artwork is the most time consuming, and the most likely part of the process that I will want to procrastinate on. By doing this first, the rest of the project will be quick and relatively easy. Below is the artwork from one of the tutorials I found, and how I used it as a template to create the final look of Defend the Gate. Artwork from Planet Cute and mock screen shot Actual artwork for Defend the Gate and mock screen shot

Week 3 Continued to work on artwork, adding a power-up graphic, arrows for the shooter, HUD, and ladder for the enemies to climb to the top. I downloaded and watched many tutorials for Construct. I have a good grasp of scripting to put together my demo of Defend the Gate. I started to put together my demo for Defend the Gate.

Construct Scene/Layout Build Screen Week 3 (Continued) Construct Scene/Layout Build Screen

Construct Scripting Screen Week 3 (Continued) Construct Scripting Screen

Week 3 (Continued) Cognitive Dissonance Scripting this game demo did at time cause cognitive dissonance to show up. I know designing and creating video games is a lot of fun, however when I was actually doing it, I was experiencing a ton of frustration. I would get so mad when part of the script did not work right, or when I would accidently delete one of the games art pieces. Deleting an artwork piece means that you loose all scripting related to the deleted piece. This meant that you have to redo the scripting as well as re-adding the artwork to Construct. Ultimately I realized that I had “direct Control” of the problems, and since I am a “proactive” person, I was able to lower my cognitive dissonance.

Week 4 I still have a long way to go before I can release this as a game, however I was able to produce a working demo. I was even able to add one music file for the title screen and the Crossbow sound effect. The video demo can be seen Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL2rIt4jl1o ). This is still a work in progress as I am going to finish Defend the Gate after this class has ended.

Conclusion I have completely enjoyed this project. It has allowed me to not only to create a working game, but to also experience a paradigm shift in what I thought creating a game would be like. I went into this development goal with high “self-efficacy”, and considering that I got further than I thought I would, I have to say that the results hold true to the research. I also discovered along the way that there are a lot of elements in game creation that I did not think of up front. The biggest element I learned about was that the structure of the scripting really makes a difference. With my current job, I have to work about 50 hours a week normally, however this month has been tough. I am down an employee that got promoted, which means that I am stuck working between 60 and 75 hours each week until a replacement can be found. The reason I bring this us is because the tremendous overtime was causing the shadow archetype to manifest itself. When I get home at night I wanted to go to bed, but then I would force myself to work on the project a little more. As I worked on the project, it brought out my creative side and kept me going each night. The end result is something that I can truly be proud of. I have created my very first video game, at least a working demo of my first game, and I can not wait to continue working on it until completion. I think I can have a complete version ready in about 3 more months at the rate I am going, and considering the scope of the completed game I have created.