Blow The Piñata
Designing gameplay whilst learning Unreal Engine 4

Intent

Goal

Software

Improve: Game Design, Unreal Engine 4 proficiency.

A playable twin-stick prototype, play-tested & adapted multiple times.

Unreal Engine 4

Miro

Parsec

Skills improved

  • Unreal Engine 4
  • Using Blueprints (UE4)
  • Gameplay Design
  • Miro boards
  • Brainstorm techniques
  • Playtesting using Parsec
  • Providing playtest feedback
  • Gathering & filtering playtest feedback
  • Applying filtered playtest feedback

Improving game design & unreal engine 4 proficiency

This project was mainly aimed to improve my game design skills. Along with brushing up on game design theories, I'd also be bi-weekly joining playtesting sessions to improve the game's fun factor.
The course of the project was to follow a basic workflow cycle: Brainstorm-implement-playtest-adapt for each bi-weekly prototype iteration. The goal was to go from a given set of keywords to a fun twin-stick prototype over the course of a few weeks.

To put this project into context: This was a school project for a course with many students. The bi-weekly playtesting sessions were hosted every other week in classrooms where other students could test and give feedback of each other's gameplay.

Brainstorming for an idea

Given three at-random keywords: 'Art', 'Donkey' and 'Industry', I had to brainstorm in order to form an idea. I tried a few brainstorm techniques, but found myself to get more results using Mind Maps. To compliment these maps, I used Miro to create an online board, allowing easier adding & managing of the map.

With one Mind Map for each keyword, I went on to combine words to generate small ideas of potential game mechanics and themes. Whilst writing down those ideas, the basic idea I went with formed: Herding NPC's into shielded piñatas to collect candies to offer to the shrine.

*Note that the keywords did not have to be part of the game.

The first prototype

Before staring the UE4 build, I had to put some detail in the game features: The main goal, how to finish the game, win/loss conditions, what actions can the player perform, a list of game objects needed and what they do, ...
To accomplish this, I took a step back and defined the game's target audience using theories such as Bartle's taxonomy, Leblanc's taxonomy of Game Pleasures, and more.

After I had everything on paper, it was time to create a prototype in UE4. What started easy enough as simple blueprinting, turned spaghetti after only a few mechanics. I fixed it by making ample use of UE4's node routing tools. I won't be expanding on how I did things in EU4 any more than that, as it was an easy and straightforward engine to work with; and I only used placeholder objects and materials.

Playtest

I managed to create a neat prototype with a few basic options consisting of a character, a few herdable NPCs, and some functional piñatas with the candy spawns. Ready for the first playtest!

In the first playtest, I had a few fellow students play the game, and give me feedback to filter and adapt my game to, in return I playtested theirs, and gave them corresponding feedback.
We put focus on: Was it clear what to do, the feel of the game flow, what we liked, what we disliked, and reported bugs if we found any.

After the playtest, I filtered out the feedback I received into key issues and relative issues. Using the filtered result, I adapted my prototype with solutions to address the issues, making sure to not alter what was well-liked.

Covid-19

Sadly soon after the first playtest, covid shook the world. The world went into lockdown, and naturally the school as well.
That meant that this project needed alternatives. We could still continue our prototypes. Though, without playtesting it would void the purpose of it.

Insert Parsec! A great free to use program that allows you to connect to another's hosted session. Perfect for playtesting! However, it did have restrictions. Mainly time-wise: A classroom playtest was able to yield a ton of feedback, using parsec we could only do 1-2 playtests in that same timeframe.

The project continued, albeit with far less feedback per test. Though, it did teach us a lot of new ways to work from distance.

Extra keywords

Midway the project, two extra keywords 'Pierce' and 'Offer' were given to add another set of mechanics to the game. Once again using mind maps, these new mechanics were quickly transformed into phasing through walls and offering candies to regenerate time.

The iteration cycle

I'd repeat the iteration cycle: Brainstorming ideas for updating/adding new mechanics or objects → implementing the ideas → Having a playtest and receiving feedback → filtering feedback & adapting the prototype.
Repeated 4 times to end with a solid prototype to start a potential production with.