Edu-tainment - The game.

Final Characters

Witch

This is the final design of my female witch character - Marxene.
As can be seen from the initial planning ideas this is still in line with that idea, the changes are pretty minimal, the hair and the eyes are the the things that I changed most drastically. I wanted the hair to be longer and more feminine for the character and I wanted the eyes to be slightly more closed, so that the character does not look so scared.

As can be seen from this image, it is a female vampire. From the original concept there is not much that I have changed where it comes to this character, the only thing really is that they character is more slim and less child like. So the changes to this character are pretty non existent.

This is going to be the last character that I draw out fully. This is due to there being not enough time for me to draw out all the characters and then add them to the game. This would be kind of difficult to do, as well as get my game working.

Final Backgrounds

As can be seen from the designs below it shows that some of the ideas have been changed, this is because as I was going along, some of the house style no longer fit with the original concepts, so I had to change and manipulate those ideas so that they integrated more easily with the game.

The next thing that I worked on was getting the back grounds done.

This is going to be the main classroom, this is where the study partner will talk to you about what it is that you are going to be doing in the game.

This is where the characters speech will appear, there will be buttons in the bottom right corner of the box, so that the player can go back and fourth on the text, in case they miss anything.

This is the room where the potions will be mixed, this is to make the game a little more interactive for the person playing the game.

 This is the cauldron, this is where the ingredients will be placed and could also be dropped into.

This is the fire sprite, this is there the fire particles will look like they are coming from.

These are silhouettes for the characters, when they are blacked out, this means that they are still locked.

This is the background of the winners and losers page. The images below are the corresponding titles.

Winners Page

Losers Page

Event sheets

These are the main pages with the game, as you can see there is a fairly familiar style between the  layouts.

Warning Page Event Sheet

This is the page where I made a page so that the player can see the potential dangers, so this is going to be kind of mandatory to read, you can not pass this page until time is up and the button appears. This was done by making a sprite and then making it a button that then progresses onto the next screen. This button apprears when the text has finished its sesson.

Hazard Symbols Event Sheet

This is a series of buttons that I made so that I would be able to make it so that when you click on the hazard symblos, what they were would appear beside them.
Then when all of them appear the next bit is that a button will appear so that you can move onto the next layer.

Unlocked Characters Event Sheet

This is the but where you can pick the character for the game play, because this is only a demo, there is only one character that appears. Clicking on the character make it so that you go to the next layout.


This is for the event sheet below.

This is the class room, this made it able to make a text that would change at the click on the button, you can also go back on this button, in case the player clicked ahead too early. I wanted it so that I could explain what is happening within the game.

I also made the cursor a sprite which I made, this is so that it looked like a had was moving things.

Class Room Event Sheet

Cauldron Room Event Sheet

In this one you can see that I made a bar that destroys the different objects. This  is so that when you have used them, they look like they have gone into the cauldron.
There is also a list sprite, when that is clicked it takes you to the List Layout, and that is where you do the maths of the ingredients.

In the behavious section on the cauldron room, I have had it so that they have have the solid behaviour and also the physics behaviour, so that they will drop from a height.

List Event Sheet 1

List Event Sheet 2

 This is where I created arrays, this was so that I could make text and it would make it so that there was an ingredient in each text box. Then there was another one, so that it would make sure that I did not pick duplicate numbers for my list.

There are then ticks that are placed next to the text boxes, if the answer in the text boxes are correct.

Final Layout:

Warning Page

 This page is to warn players about the potential dangers of playing the game. This is because there could be a danger that some players might think it ok to go and play with liquids that they find within the house and this is not something that I would like to encourage. This is why there is a time delay on the continue button appearing. So that they cannot just skip this page straight away.

Hazard Symbols Page

 This is to teach players a bit about safty with chemicals and such. This shows what some more common hazard warnings mean, this is something that you have to do in the game, to progress onto the next level. All the hazard symbols are buttons that when clicked make it so that the text becomes visable. When these are all clicked a button will then appear so that they can continue onto the next level.

Character Layout

 This is the character layout, this is where it would show all of the unlcoked characters within the game. In this DEMO there are only two. The witch and the vampire females. When you click on either one of them it then moves you onto the corrosponding class room layout, so that you then have the character you just picked talk to you a little about the game.

Class Room 1 Layout

 This is the vampire characters layout. This has heart particles appear from the jar by her head, this is to make the sceen look a little more alive, so that it does not look so static.
When playing the game there is text that the player can click though so that they can read at their own pace, there is also a back button if they feel like they missed anything in the previous section of text.
There is then a button the the right that takes you into the cauldron room.

Class Room 2 Layout

 This is the witches class room layout this is so that there is a little bit of diversity for the player, that they can make themselves. In this layer to make it a bit different from the other class room layer I made it so that the particles coming from the bottle were stars instead of hearts.
However, most of the other UI within the layout is the same as the other classroom layer.

Cauldron Room Layout

 This is the cauldron room, this is were most of the sprites within the game are places, this is also the most interactive area for the player. As you can see there are a lot of different elements so this

List Layout

 

Feed Back

Name: Arran Cooper

What did you think of the game as a whole?

I think that the game is very well done and has a great art style.

What about the game play did you like specifically?

I really liked the textures/ art style of the game. I also enjoyed the part where you drag and drop all of the listed objects into pot.

What about the game play did you not like specifically?

There were bits where I had trouble with. To continue in some parts I had to click on a random rectangle in the corner of the screen but that’s all really.

What did you think about the art style?

I really liked it. The character and her art style were good and felt like what was meant to be shown.

What do you think I should do to improve the game further?

Add in more characters and end game.

What age group do you think this is aimed at?

12

Name: John Smith

What did you think of the game as a whole?

It was great, it really felt finished and a lot of the features really worked in it’s favour.

What about the game play did you like specifically?

The style of the game, and how much I actually learnt while playing.

What about the game play did you not like specifically?

There wasn’t a way to lose the game.

What did you think about the art style?

Amazing, looked professional and finished.

What do you think I should do to improve the game further?

Make it so people can lose and understand way they failed the task.

  

Name: Josh Smith

What did you think of the game as a whole?

As a whole it was a nice idea the layout was good and the art style was nicely placed also the theme was friendly

What about the game play did you like specifically?

the drag and drop system was a nice touch

What about the game play did you not like specifically?

To many words not enough killing but nice for the youth

What did you think about the art style?

Nice stuff with things

What do you think I should do to improve the game further?

Add music harder math problems but all and all a nice game

Name:Karl

What did you think of the game as a whole?

Good I dea and layout with great punctuation as if the person is speaking to the player and that answering questions gives a tick if correct but a bit short

What about the game play did you like specifically?

The idea of mixing math with potions is very creative and innovative

What about the game play did you not like specifically?

The way I can win by pressing a random button plus the text was becoming boring for me which children will also find boring and skip ending up in not doing the level properly

What did you think about the art style?

Very good art but needs to focus on making the level longer as I liked the background and character design

  

Name: Robert Turner

What did you think of the game as a whole?

I thought it was a good point and click

What about the game play did you like specifically?

It destroyed stuff that I put in

What about the game play did you not like specifically?

Reading

What did you think about the art style?

I like the art style that you went with

What do you think I should do to improve the game further?

More adventure stuff, the point and click way

Name: Vincent

What did you think of the game as a whole?

I thought that the game was really well done as it had great animations, visuals and interactive.

What about the game play did you like specifically?

I liked that it worked well and found no problems with it.

What about the game play did you not like specifically?

The thing I  didn't like having to be told what to press.

What did you think about the art style?

I found the art style interesting and fun as it made the game more enjoyable.

What do you think I should do to improve the game further?

I think you should improve upon making the game easier to navigate the level.

Feed back review: this is where I am going to go though the feedback and say what I am going to do to improve the game and also mention some of the positives that people have mentioned.

Improvements:

There are a few things that were mention but nothing that was mentioned more than once that I can see, as to making improvements within the game, except for one thing, the text, a couple of people said that I should make it so that there is less text, because it was long and people did not enjoy reading it.

There is not a way that I can really change this without getting rid of the basic instructions. However something does have to be done, for the pure fact that people were just clicking though the text, trying to get to the end, and then getting stuck on the next level.

I will either try to cut this down, or make it more visually interesting. So that people look at it and actually see what it is that they need to be doing.

Another thing that was mentioned, and does have to be changed is that there are some random colourful boxes within the game and that they were not too clear as to what they were. This was just to make it playable for the testing, these are going to be change in the future these are ever going to be text or symbols that show that you are going to be moving onto the next section. This will make it easier to also navigate the level, from one layout to the next.

One person mentioned as an improvement, that I should make the questions harder, I was also thinking something along those line, and that is what I am going to do. I am going to make them maths equations and then make them double it.

  

The people who tested my game wanted it so that there were more characters to choose from, due to it only being a demo, I may only add another character, I do not have the time to make four other characters and then implement them into the game.

Some people wanted the game to be longer, so I shall try to add more levels to the game if I have time after everything else is done.

Sound is something that should be added to the game, this would make it more entertaining, but with my time, I would not be able to make my own music, so I would have to get it somewhere else, and then put a disclaimer to the rights and that if this was not a demo and I also had more time, I would make my own music.

Lastly, someone asked if I could put a loser page in there, so that there was a sense that something could go wrong, instead of there just being a correct page. This can be done, if I have enough time.

The text is something that I have cut down on with the game, so that players might not just skip past it like they were. If they do however do this, in the next layer I have made it so that there is an arrow pointing towards the list, to show its importance to the game.

One major thing that I am doing is improving the game play of the cauldron room, so that it is not so redundant. I am making  it so that the ingredients on the list will be counted into the pot so that people can then move onto the winners screen, because if that is done wrong, you cannot yet move on. Also on the list there are ticks for if the question is right, but now there are crosses for if there is anything but the right answer in there, so there is a sense of consequence so that the player tries to preserver and win by getting the right answers.

Things that have changed within the game:

Sound has been added to the game, I have used the music 'Dance of the sugar plumb fairy' from the 'Nutcracker'. This is because I wanted something classical and nice. To create a friendly environment, not something that would make it seem dark and repressive.
This music is free to use as long as it is mentioned and said that it was created by Tchaikovsky. This means that no one really owns the royalties to it anymore, so there is no law infringement.

I have also gone with making the game a little longer. I have forgone the making of multiple levels, this would be too time consuming, with the amount of time that I have to work on this. So instead I have gone with making the questions a little more difficult and also making more of them, so instead of 4 there is now going to be 7 questions.

I have added one other character to the game, this is because I already had the witch character at hand to use, if I had to make them from scratch this probably would not have happen. So now there are two characters to pick from, the witch and the vampire, though I personally wish that I had made a male character initially to pick from, due to me now only having female characters to pick from, and I just think that the variety would of been more interesting.

I have changed the boxes so that they are more linked with the house style, but are also obvious what it is that it mean, like to go to the next section, so the buttons will point to the right of the layout as to say go to the next section of the game.

Positives:

Art: The people that tested my game mentioned that they liked the art style of the game, this was something that I spent a lot of time and focus on, so I am happy that they picked up on it. They liked that it flowed thoughout it it made the game look finished.

Drag and drop: The players liked that I had this system, this is because it was different compared to the other games that the people were playing. This made them more interested in the game. Also they liked the fact that you could desrtoy the ingredients within the game. So that it felt as though you were actually making a potion, within the game.

Smoothness: This was mentioned by one of the players, that the game play was smooth, and that when something was clicked, something else immediately happened, whether it was moving an object, or getting from layout to layout.

Evaluation:

This is game is something that I am proud to call my own. This is software that I had not used before and I found rather difficult getting my head around. But in the end I managed to accomplish a game that could be tested. There were some highs and lows at the testing stage, the look and the mechanics of the game were all there, however it was a bit short, and according to the testers there is too much writing within the game to read.

So these are things that needed to be smoothed out and sorted, to make the game more engaging, I have tried to, within the last couple of days that I had the Construct2 software, to make the game better, and make it flow easier.

Not everything on the list could be done for this game, because the time scale would not really allow for that and all the things that needed to be done were somewhat more difficult than just clicking a few buttons. So this was something that I regretted, that it would be too difficult to complete for me personally.

What went well?

I think that the thing that when the best on my game was the transitioning between the layouts. I think it is clear where you have to click to get to the next layout within the game, some are more subtle, like the the list, that takes you to the ingredients. However, if the instructions are read within the previous layout, the player would know to click on the list within the cauldron layout. Even tough I know that this is something relatively easy for someone to make, I just like that in the game, it is not always an obvious on where to click, if you are not reading the little points that I give out, which not everyone read while playing the game.

Another thing that I really liked was the art that I did for game. I thought that it flowed well though out, because the house style was similar in all the art, this was something that I thought would look a bit out of place, but I think it is very well fitting, even with the characters. This was one of the most time consuming things within the creation. This is because I wanted the images to look crisp when the game was in play, and the only way to not make it look blurred was to make the images high resolution, and this is something that is not too good to be doing when making games, because it is pretty inefficient. However, due to this being a DEMO, I thought to do this because I wanted this to look good as well as be educational.

Lastly one other thing that I liked id the way that the maths got added into the game. It is not a quiz that you have to do in a time manor, or if you do not get it you lose life. I wanted to make a leisurely educational game, that did not have a lot of consequences. There is a problem, where if there are too many consequences within an educational game, it could come to the point where the player would not like to play the game anymore, especially since my game is not as short and sweet as some other educational games.
The educational part of my game is short, sweet and rather simple. I think that if the instructions are read just above, then the player would know what to do and also the question, and it is clearly labeled where the answers have to go.

What did I find difficult?

I found using the event sheets to be the most difficult part of making the game as a whole. To me it is not one bit intuitive. I found it difficult to think of how I would go about creating an event and then adding an action to it. This was something that I had the most problems with, and I also had about 7. These were for the different layouts that I had, this is because they were basically different room and I wanted to make them different so that for each layout, I could then open the corresponding event sheet. Using the event sheet was hard.

Also thinking on what elements need certain things. Because when using new software I have the feeling to use all the applications within Construct two, so the behaviors and the event sheet are used a lot, but I personally do not think that it is all necessary for the game.

The most difficult thing I found was time. Using new software and thinking of making a good 2D educational game was hard. I wish I had given myself more time on the creation of the game, rather than just the research and the concept work. I know that, that is also important, but I feel as though personally I did not leave myself enough time to do anything big within it.

Did I encounter any problems?

There was a basic math problem, that the software did not want to solve for the game, It would of made the made the random numbers for the question sum up to what the answer is, however, this would just not work within the software.

Finding what I needed on the tutorials, this is mostly down to me not knowing what it would be that I would have to do, for something and then not knowing what to search. An example of this would be making an Array, before I made one of these, I had no idea what this was, so when I was told and searched it, I had more of an idea, but I still did not really understand what it was that the tutorial was telling me to do.

I think that my main problem was just trying to understand the software's functions and knowing what does what, and what event needs to happen for other things to happen.

How did I overcome them?

This was solved by having to brute forcing it, rather than trying to work it out with math, so now this is manual, rather than automatically done by the software itself. That would of been more efficient but it just seems as though that was not going to happen, so I had to do the next best thing and do it so that I had to do it manually.

This is something that I needed the tutor for, I told him the basics of what I wanted to accomplish, and he would give me suggestions on what it was that I could use to do it. This was something that really helped me along. Also I would try and do the tasks on my own and figure out how to work it, and then if i could not do it, I would ask a fellow classmate of they have any insight, and then if that did not work, I would again ask the tutor for help, after trying to follow the tutorials.

This is something I worked on my practicing the work on a different project, and if that worked I would then transfer it onto my actual game, this helped because I did not have to worry about messing up my game.

What would I change if I did the project again?

If I was going to do this again, I would probably think about choosing a different subject. Maths is easy to put into a game, but hard to make interesting. That is why I think I may have gone overboard with the design of the game, because that was the only way that I could think to make the game more entertaining.

I would probably make it less cramped, I would make it look more free, rather than in rooms. So that players might not feel too cramped. I would make to brighter and try to make it look more inviting.

Another thing that I would probably change is the age range. I would probably go for a younger audience, due to the fact that I would be able to teach the many more interesting things.