My Space Invaders Game

Morten Holland

Games Design L3 Extended Diploma 

Teacher: Wayne Gallear

My Space Invaders Game

I chose to create a Space Invaders type game instead of a Blackjack game. I didn't feel comfortable writing lots of advanced scripts and AI. Also, I like Space Invaders a lot more than card games. You can also be a lot more creative with a Space Invaders game.

I called my game 'Space Invaders Remake' just so I wouldn't waste time making a good name, and because I couldn't think of a name.

The brief I was given said to "Create a space invaders clone. You can make it as close to the original OR make your own version. Create the game so it gets progressively harder and faster." 

Sprites

I started by making my sprites. I didn't actually make that many sprites surprisingly. The sprites are The player, the enemy, the shield square, the broken shield, the wall, and the bullet.

Background

I then found a space background to go with my game and its theme.

Objects

I then made all my sprites into objects and gave them Game Maker commands so my game would function like Space Invaders.

Player

I gave the player's object some movement controls and a shoot button which when pressed creates a bullet, and a collision with the wall to keep the player inside the map.

Enemy

I gave the enemy a move command with a create event which should make the enemies sometimes shoot, but this didn't work.

I also gave the enemy a collision event which makes them bounce of the walls and come slightly closer to the player. 

Shield

The shield has a collision command with the bullet so when shot, it changes into a broken shield, which then when shot should disappear, but strangely it doesn't.

The bullet only has two commands, which are to destroy the enemy when it collides with the bullet, and to make the shield turn into a broken shield.

Rooms

I only made 1 room and this is what it looks like.

Bugs

My game has two main bugs. One is that the player shoots a stream of bullets instead of one bullet, making the game very easy. The other bug is that the destructible sprites that are damaged by shots (the shields) do not disappear when they should. They change from normal shield to broken shield, but do not disappear.

My Maths Game

Morten Holland
Games Design L3 Extended Diploma
Teacher: Wayne Gallear

 My Maths Game:

Target Audience: 16+ Students
Theme: Maths
Game Type: Maze/Top-Down

I called my maths game 'The Greatest Maths Game There Has Ever Been or Ever Will Be'. I really didn't know what to call it so i just named it this so i could start working without wasting time.

The brief i was given said to "Create a maze game for the students to play that also helps develop their mathematics skills. Each level should show a different maths problem and the level of the maths problem should be GCSE grade C mathematics. You will be doing 5 levels all getting progressively harder."

Sprites

First, I made a few of my sprites. The player looking in each direction, the wall, a doorway, an enemy, a lever, and spikes.

This is the player's sprite. The direction you push on the keyboard is the direction the sprite will face.

This is the enemy's sprite. I later on made multiple versions so i could make them go up and down, and travel at different speeds.

This is the wall sprite which keeps the player in the game.

This is the doorway sprite, which when touched lets the player travel to the next level. I also made a door way which has been rotated 180 degrees.

This is the sprite for my lever. When touched by the player, it will either tell you that you got the wrong answer to a question, or it will unlock a new part of the level, which will conclude with a doorway to the next level.

I added a spike sprite so there was another way to die in the game to make it more entertaining.

Backgrounds

I then decided to make some backgrounds for my level, so it wouldn't look plain or empty. I used a different background for each level.

Objects

I started to create objects out of my sprites so i could put them into the game. I gave them the relevant tasks operate how i wanted. I didn't use any code for my objects, surprisingly. I made the following objects: the player, enemy, spike(each direction), wall, vanishing wall,and wall exit. Then, i started creating the questions to put in the game to make the game about maths. I made 7 questions, and 25 answers to pick from. This got very tedious. The extra objects you may see I talk about later in the 'Last Level' section.

Rooms

I started to create my rooms one by one, adding a higher difficulty to each map progressively. Here's what the finished products looked like. The blue dots will be the questions and the answers.

Last Level

Just before making the last level, I had the idea to make the last room look like space invaders. Kind of. so I made a spaceship sprite, an explosion sprite, a bullet and a cannon. When the question is answered correctly, the spaceships turn into the explosion sprite. I couldn't figure out how to make the bullet shoot out the cannon and create the explosion. When they are destroyed, 2 walls will vanish, revealing the exit which when touched by the player will display a message saying "You completed the game!".

I used a pre-made explosion because I didn't like any of the ones I was making.

Sounds

I have only used 2 sounds. 1 being my background music, and the other an explosion sound for when the last correct switch is touched by the player. Both sounds were from royalty-free websites and i had the rights to use them.

Text

I used the same text throughout the whole game, for all my questions and answers. The font was'OCR A Std' at a size of 12 and a black color. 

Bugs

There aren't too many bugs in my game, surprisingly. The first one is that the explosion sprite keeps playing and i never found a way to stop it. The other bug is that the explosion sound keeps playing until the player stops touching the switch. The last one is that the background music keeps playing after each level which is normal, but after each level, it will play another song as well which means there will be 2 songs playing, then 3, etc. 

Understanding the use of music within games

Games Design L3
Teacher: Josh Rai
Morten Holland
Unit 73

Task 1 + 2 Understanding the use of music within games and the methodology of recording and production. 

Compare and contrast the following game soundtracks:

The Last of Us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97u-U0nvJM

Set in the post-apocalyptic United States, the game tells the story of survivors Joe and Ellie as they work together to survive their westward journey across what remains of the country to find a possible cure for the modern fungal plague that has nearly decimated the entire human race.

I would say that the main theme for 'The Last of Us' suits the game very well, due to the fact that very few instruments are used. This creates a very emotional and bare feeling to the soundtrack, which compliments the game very well because the game is set in an apocalyptic environment and many scenes are very emotional. The use of spanish guitar creates a hollow and depressed feeling, in my opinion. It sounds very similar to a spaghetti western piece of music which helps the game out a lot because the characters come across many western themed moments in the game. I also think that the song portrays the characters' feelings too, which may be depressed, desolated and lost. The song also uses Foley sounds such as someone walking on grass at 0:38. I think the creator of this song/piece of music tried very hard to create the post apocalyptic atmosphere that is in the song, and i think its the most emotional song I've ever heard. The creator really wanted us to have an experience playing this game and his soundtrack really helped it do so. I think this song used a few digital sounds to add greater depth.

"Less is more. Strip all that away. Then when a sound hits, it's really impactful."

 -http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/23/4457258/naughty-dog-discusses-sound-and-music-in-the-last-of-us

Halo 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCxv2daOwjQ

Fun Fact: The Halo 2 Mjolnir Mix was a playable song on Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock.

The beginning of the Halo 2 Mjolnir Mix gave me feelings of Skyrim, due to the choir singing at the start. At this point, the song is slow paced, calm and not so intense.  I would describe it as ancient and holy, but when the electric guitar and drums came into play, it gave the song a theme of war, in my opinion. This goes well with the game too because the game is about alien races in an ongoing war against humanity. The song then descends into a metal rock song, which is a huge change of pace and rhythm. The song's intensity also dramatically changes. This all happens when the electric guitar and the drums enter the song. The electric guitar in the song made me think of a 'Drangonforce' (a heavy metal band) song called "Through the Fire and the Flames". I think this song may have used some digital sounds to accompany the instruments.

I think that the 2 songs are wildly different. The Halo 2 song will have released on an older console so it will be more compressed so it can fit better on the console, whereas The Last Of Us released on a very recent console, which means it will be a lot more detailed and and won't be as compressed and will have a higher bit depth than the Halo 2 song. The Last of Us will also have been on a Blu-ray disk and i think it would be categorized as surround sound. It will also have took up a lot more RAM and a higher file size because of the amount of detail in the song, compared to the Halo 2 song. I think that The Last of Us's song will be a PCM file type due to its high quality, and the Halo 2 song will be a WAV file type due to it coming out on an outdated console.

Both songs or pieces will be copywritten or trade marked by Microsoft (Halo 2) and Sony (The Last of Us) and the music won't be legally usable on anything other than the game, unless the companies give permission to do so.