Combined Kingdom Development
Combined Kingdom Download Link
May 15, 2022
Postmortem
The overall development of Combined Kingdom progressed at a very smooth and rapid pace. The team was able to get all the needed core game features into the game and finish the development on time. There are some features we were unable to add to the game with the limited timeline. But they were features we knew would be beyond the scope of our timeline and would need to be added later. From a level designer's perspective everything went very smoothly. The initial process of level design was to begin with concept art for what the level would look like and how they would operate. Our initial scope for the game was to have 12 levels the players could play with increasing difficulty as they progressed through the game. Concepts for the levels were completed by the third sprint of production. Once all the concepts were completed the next phase of development was to begin blocking in the levels using basic shapes as stand-ins until our models could create the assists. Blocking in levels was completed in sprint 5 without any issues. After blocking in levels was completed the next phase was to begin bringing in our assets, sculpting the terrain and adding vegetation.
Adding the terrain into the levels and sculpting them progressed very smoothly until going back to earlier completed levels. Unity would share terrain between duplicated levels. So as the terrain was being sculpted on subsequent levels it would overwrite the progress on previous levels. Due to terrain being overwritten it slowed down the development of the levels. Fixing the terrain issues required duplicated terrain to be deleted and new terrain to be added to the Unity scene. Our modelers were quick to create the various assets that were added to the game but the attack features of the towers would take a bit longer to implement. As features were developed for different towers it would cause levels to become unbalanced as new tower types were added to the game. We decided to forgo level balancing until all the towers and mechanics could be added to the game. But this caused level balance to be at the very end of the development process and left very little time for the game to be properly balanced. As sprints were finished and we began building the game we would have to pull all the various features we created into the game. This would take quite a bit of time because of all of the features we had in the scope of the game. Creating a working build would take a couple of days. At the end of development we discovered that three of the levels that were created had issues we didn’t have enough time to fix and were removed from the game. Some of the issues were because of multiple enemies colliding with each other as they moved along the navmesh. Enemies would become clogged on various paths of these levels and would prevent the player from being able to kill them and progress. To fix this issue an entire redesign of these three levels would have been required. Due to how late in production these issues were discovered time would not allow to be addressed.
The development of Combined Kingdom was a great learning experience on how to create a more efficient development process for future projects. Instead of implementing features right before creating a build it would be better to have the team members bring their work into Unity as they complete it. Implementing features as they are developed would allow programmers to add the new mechanics to assets right away. Level development will also increase because new mechanics can be play tested earlier and more often. Creating a build of the game will also go quicker because there will be more time to notice any issues that occur as mechanics are brought into the game individually. Instead of multiple features being added to the game all at once. Utilizing programming art earlier in development and adding the mechanics to stand-ins would have helped progress level balancing and playtesting sooner.
The development of Combined Kingdom progressed rapidly despite the minor issues we encountered. We completed all of the features we set out to have in the game and our players enjoyed what we created. As we developed the game we were able to gather valuable information from our players. Most of the time issues or feedback we received was inline with features and systems we had yet to implement in the game. The feedback we received gave us confidence that we were moving in the right direction for the fun of the game. Our team is very proud of the game we were able to create in such a limited time frame. I want to thank all of our playtesters for helping us sculpt our game. Combined Kingdom is available to play on the Google Play Store. Please enjoy the efforts our team worked diligently towards in Combined Kingdom. Thank you!
March 1, 2022
Sprint 6 Blog Post 4
With the terrain completed I began working on ways to give the environment foliage to give it more realism. While researching different ways of adding plants I decided to use Speedtree to create trees I would use on the levels. Speedtree took quite some time to learn all the different functionality but was incredibly useful for completing the effect I wanted. Each element of trees in Speedtree begins with creating a trunk in which branches and eventually leaves can be added to the model. Once the trunk was sculpted the way I wanted I began adding branches and sculpting them to fit the design of the tree I wanted to add to the game. Learning how to use each element of Speedtree proved to be fairly difficult. But once I created a tree I wanted to add to the game it was very easy to import into Unity. Speedtree has an export to game functionality in which you can choose the game engine the tree will be imported into.
While working on the levels I’ve been trying to implement creative ways in which the levels are increasingly more difficult and different in their playstyles. Levels 8 and 9 add a fifth path in which enemies can move towards the player’s castle. I increased the size of levels 10 through 12 by pulling the camera angle further out and making the paths more complex and longer. Adding more directions in which players have to defend has seemed to work as a way of increasing the difficulty of the levels.
With the end of sprint 6 we playtested our new features and implementations. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive. People enjoyed all the new levels and towers we added to the game. Playtesters are very excited to see the final version of our game with all the features implemented. Now that all the levels have been added I will be working on balancing the levels so they seem challenging but beatable. Our team has worked diligently to create a game in a very short period of time. The scope of the game that we decided upon is quickly reaching the end. Please look forward to the final implementation of Combined Kingdom soon!
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April 3, 2022
Sprint 4 Blog Post 3
The primary focus of this sprint was to block in more levels and begin the process of building terrain into the levels. Creating terrain elevates the level from looking like a prototype to making the game scene look like a polished game. In order to create terrain in the level I began by learning the Unity Terrain builder. The Unity Terrain builder allowed me to sculpt a terrain plain into hills and mountains. Once the terrain was built into the Unity scene I began the process of texturing the scene.
I began working on levels by continuing to block in more levels. I continued the process I’d begun on the previous level and layered in more paths for enemies to begin moving their way towards the player's castle. In level five, instead of positioning the castle at one end of the game scene and positioning all the enemies to move in one direction, I positioned the player's castle in the middle of the scene. Positioning the castle in the middle of the game scene forces the player to make strategic choices on where they should be placing their defensive towers. I continued blocking in level 6 and 7 keeping the enemy pathways at four so as to not overwhelm players.
With more levels blocked in I went back to the earlier levels and began the process of building terrain. I want the levels to seem organic as if each level could be a place that exists beyond the game. Using Unity’s Terrain builder to accomplish this effect proved difficult. With the terrain builder I’m able to increase and decrease the terrain using brushes with different patterns. Initially I found that with only a few clicks the terrain would build far to quickly and look unnatural. After changing different values in the settings I found that by turning down the brush opacity and increasing the detail resolution I was able to gain more control over how quickly the terrain brushes would build terrain. During this process I ran into a couple of issues. The first issue I discovered was that increasing the terrain would cause the platforms that the towers are built onto to become covered. I tried moving the platforms up in the scene but they weren’t thick enough to prevent the terrain from clipping through them. To fix the issue required some editing to be done to the prefab. With the help of our programmer this issue was easily resolved.
Now that the scenes had terrain built into them they needed to be textured. This required me to create new textures that could be used in our game scenes. I used Substance Sampler to create all the textures that are being used in the game. To create the textures I imported images into a Sampler and began adding layers to get the effects that I wanted. I began by using a crop layer to make the images square. Then added a Delighter layer to give the texture an even lighting. Next I added a Make It Tile layer to remove the irregularity along the edges of the texture and make the texture tile seamlessly. Next it was a matter of adding appropriate touches where needed depending on the texture. For dirt textures I added more pebbles and rocks to them and for tree bark I added moss. Next the textures needed to be added into Unity. I created a new Terrain Layer then pugged in the base color and the normal map. Once the Terrain Layers were added into Unity I was able to paint the terrains on to the level.
Adding terrain to the game made a significant difference to the look of our game! Development of Combined Kingdom has moved into an Alpha Build and has had a very successful play test. Our team continues to work diligently to create a fun and challenging game. Please look forward to future updates of Combined Kingdom!
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March 13, 2022
Sprint 3 Blog Post 2
During the last two sprints my goal was to create levels that would be used in our game. I began by creating concept drawings of how the levels would work in the game. The first level was created with one path leading to the castle. Each subsequent level would increase in the amount of paths and locations in which players can place down the towers that will defend the castle. The difficulty in creating each level was trying to design the path so that defensive towers could be placed in ways that would allow players to defend their castle but wouldn’t make the game too easy. Another issue was creating the right number of incoming enemy hordes so that players are still able to defend their castle without becoming too overwhelmed too quickly.
In order to allow players to benefit from different types of towers I implemented bends in the path to the castle. Creating bends in the path would let me place the towers in a triangle formation with one tower in the crevasse of the bend and two towers on either side of the bend’s point. Both the path bends and triangular tower formations allow for players to benefit from the effects of different types of towers. If a player places down a tar tower the tar tower will slow the enemies and allow for the other two towers to attack the approaching enemies more. While creating bends in the path increases the overall length of the path in which the enemies have to traverse.
I began the first few levels with one path leading from where the enemies spawn to the castle. The first two levels were designed with one path to allow the players time to become accustomed to how the mechanics of the game work, without being overwhelmed with enemies attacking from multiple directions. Every couple of levels I created another path in which approaching enemies could move towards the castle that is being defended. Each new path gives players an increase in difficulty and gives them more locations to place towers as new towers are introduced in later levels.
Once all the levels were planned out I began blocking them into unity. I tried to keep the blocking as close to my original designs as possible. But while the paths remained the same I did change the tower locations to help balance each level from the initial designs. During the blocking process I playtested the levels many times to see what timings would work best for the enemy horde spawns. If the level had multiple paths I had to ensure that players had enough time and resources to defeat one enemy horde before the next enemy horde would enter the game scene.
At first playtesting was a very long process as I had to wait for each level to play out before I could start making changes. If I wanted to test enemies in the later portion of the level, I would have to play the game and wait for the portion I wanted to test to come up. After playtesting the first level repeatedly I felt it would be best to have a means to increase the play speed of the level. The increase in play speed needed to make the entire scene quicker but not change the overall gameplay. I discussed this with our programmer and they were able to implement a speed modifier that would allow me to playtest the levels in less time. Once this feature was implemented we also felt it would be a good feature to allow players to use so they could play levels at different speeds.
The development of the Combined Kingdom has been moving at a very quick pace. Our team has worked very hard to create a game we feel will be fun to play. As development progresses please look forward to further developments!
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February 20, 2022
Sprint 1 Blog Post 1
As the producer I have been responsible for managing the development of the game Combined Kingdom. During this initial sprint I’ve been working closely with the vision holder to flush out the concept, design and core mechanics of the game. Combined Kingdom is a tower defense game in which players can combine towers to either level them up or create new towers.
Once the design and concept were decided I began working on the treatment for our game. I began looking at our major deliverables for the game and created a design treatment that would be easy to understand for our entire team. Our game is at its core a tower defense with added merging mechanics. To accomplish the feat of making a tower defense I researched various tower defense games and tried to look at what mechanics make tower defense games successful and how they are constructed while keeping our game vision in mind. Our game needs to have; a castle with health players will defend, enemies that will attack the tower, defense towers that can be placed on the map and unique merged towers from combining towers of different types. With these core concepts in mind I began breaking down how our team will create the game.
I gave each team member a role they will be working on for the duration of the production. We have a programmer, 3D modeler, character modeler/UI and a level designer. I then began writing cards for each aspect of the game on Trello and created a road map for the production cycle of our game. I discussed with the team which elements I thought would be important for creating the base of our game and asked the team which tasks they would like to have for the sprint.
Once the Trello board was completed I began working on the paper prototype we would be using for feedback of our design concepts. The objective of our paper prototype was to create a game that would convey our game idea, be easy to understand and be playable in less than 15 minutes. Our paper prototype was able to incorporate all of these objectives and was very successful during our playtest. We had overwhelmingly positive feedback. Playtesters were able to pick up the game quickly and understand the mechanics. Many playtesters were able to upgrade towers as they were playing and even use the merge mechanic. From the feedback we received, playtesters felt the game was neither too difficult nor too easy.
After our paper prototype playtest our team had our first sprint review. Our first sprint was very successful. Our team completed 31 user stories and worked very hard to create the foundation for the game. Both modelers on our team have been able to create very detailed models. The 3D modeler began working on the castle town that will be attacked in each level. The castle is designed modularly so each castle town will be different from level to level. Our character modeler was able to create fantastic character designs that will be used in the game. While the programmer worked through much of the basic mechanics to make our game work. Towers can be placed around the map and enemies move towards the castle.
As cards were moved to verify I would give feedback on different elements I thought could be improved and would help our game going forward. Our 3D modeler designed a tower with a cross at the top of it and I felt it would be better to use a flag with the tower type on it. This way our players would have an easy time understanding what kind of tower it is from the design and the flags on it. With the feedback the 3D modeler was able to make updates and the card was completed for the sprint.
Overall the development of our game during our first sprint has been moving at a very quick pace. I’m very proud of the work our team has been able to accomplish. Please look forward to the future development of Combined Kingdom!
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