[Game Design] Space Bar Game #1 - Phases of Development

Space Bar game (minimal viable product) is design by a group of student in the Centre for Digital Media in 2018. This article talks about the phases of the game development: concept, pre-prodcution, production and gold master.

Space Bar Game snapshot

Phase 1 - Concept

The first phase of development was to figure out what the team wanted to build in the game. The team intended to build a space action game where players could fight against unstable gravity and explore the environment at the same time. The narrative started when the bar in the space explodes and everything flies to the space due to the unstable gravity. The players need to click the objects and press the “spacebar” to pull themselves back to the planet. This is also how the name of this game come into being - “Space Bar”, a pun that signifies the location of the game story and its major way of controls.

The game environment looks like a fictional outer space with a planet full of hazards, including lava, water and darkness. There are obstacles (e.g., rocks and barrels) and collectables (e.g., wine bottles) floating in the space. The astronaut character needs to use grappling guns and grab obstacles (e.g., lava rocks) to pull himself back to the planet.

Considering the skillset of our team members, along with the ideal gameplay, this game would be a three-dimensional third-person perspective computer game.

Figure 1. Brainstorming.

Phase 2 - Pre-production

This pipeline and processes are figured out at this stage. The team started doing sketching, prototype on the whiteboard and in Unity, and document all the process.

Figure 2. Walk through the User Journey.

The prototype aimed to test the core loop of the Space Bar game, i.e., grappling, pulling and floating.

Figure 3. Prototype in Unity.

Phase 3 - Production

In the production phase, the team was focused on building the minimum viable product. intend to build one level of the game which consists of an astronaut, a lava environment and several floating rocks and wine bottles. Art designers, UI designer and programmers cooperate with each other in order to deliver a playable minimal viable product.

The team have gone three playtests to test the core mechanics, core loops and major features. The results and analysis of playtest will be provided at the end of this documentation.

Figure 4. Minimum Viable Product.

Phase 4 - Gold Master

At this phase, the team aimed to finalize the minimum viable product, fix bugs, lock the content and code.

For future development, the team intends to complete all four levels of this Space Bar game with an increasing difficulty level. The in-world environment will be broader and operation of grappling guns will be more intuitive so the players can explore by themselves. The team will also provide options for players to switch from different guns. Above all, the objective of each level and the final objective of the game will be clearer. Additionally, health is one of the major features of this game. The astronaut loses his health if he floats too far away from the grounds, and regains health by grappling collectable objects, such as wine bottles and barrels. A clear definition is needed to quantify “health” – which of the astronaut’s actions will impact health and how much will they consume or regain health.

© Wenyi Gong 2018