The Hippo Helper - Gaming Unit 4

Video Gaming Unit 4 - Planning and Creating

Space Invader
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpsutcliffe/2595806510/

1. Game Maker Intro:

We will be using Game Maker 7 to make our basic games. This is a free download from Yo Yo Games . (Remember always to ask permission first!).

The Yo Yo Games site has lots of resources that can help you make a good game, including some great tutorials which are also on our school Intranet so check there first.

Some of you may want to check out some alternatives to Game Maker - let me know if you have any luck and if you enjoy using them you could use them for your project.

Another alternative if you want to make a point-and-click adventure game (like the Crimson Room ) is Power Point. Yes I know that sounds silly but check out this example and see what you think. You can do a similar thing in Game Maker also but using Hot Spots in Power Point does work pretty well for this kind of game.

The tutorial 'What is a Good Game ' identifies several important features a good game will have to make it interesting and give it lots of replayability:

Reaching Goals	Goals can be short-term (eg. shooting down a plane) or long-term (eg. defeating an evil empire). They should be challenging to achieve and their achievment should be rewarded to give motivation to try for more.
Decisions	Interesting decisions makes an interesting game. A decision may have a positive or negative impact on achieving the goals. A poor decision may result in a penalty but the player should be able to learn from it.
Balance	This means striking a balance between easy and hard. Your weapons or powers shouldn't be so strong that your enemies stand no chance. Neither should your enemies or obstacles be too difficult to overcome - that's no fun! Not that we're making violent games here but the Resident Evil games achieve balance for example by giving you powerful weapons but very little ammunition that you have to use sparingly.
Rewards	Rewards are given when a player achieves a goal. They need to be satisfying - neither too big or too small - depending on how difficult the challenge was to achieve them. For instance, collecting individual coins might give a simple reward but solving a complex problem might reward you with a treasure chest of coins. Then if you have collected many, many coins you might be able to purchase a special reward (say, a magic spell) that can help you achieve other goals. And so on.
Flow	A game should have lots of challenges but to be fun the challenges need to be in balance with the player. If challenges are too easy the player gets bored, too hard and they may give up. There should be a gentle learning curve in achieving goals (ie. easy to begin with, gradually getting more challenging). Many games build up to a final 'Boss' level, where you have to outwit a particularly difficult opponent. This can be a satisfying end to a game and a good way of using the skills you have picked up along the way.
Immersion	Being immersed in the game means that you feel emotionally attached or involved - through a meaningful story, appealing characters, an interesting game world / setting, enticing music and effects. The best games don't rely on whizz-bang graphics and special effects - they make you feel that your actions and decisions really matter.

We will start out in class making a maze game which can branch off in different ways. But you will need to decide what kind of game you are planning - eg. arcade game, puzzle game, roleplaying game, adventure game. Of course there are many types of games but we need to keep it simple to begin with.

Have a look at some different kinds of games made in Game Maker by Year 6/7s.
Do a Plus / Minus / Interesting evaluation. Are they good games?

Johnny's Adventures Through Time

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