FBAUL-IST GAMING 2018
SHIPS AHOY!
Hello! We are group 11 and our members are: Amilcar Pereira (student of master’s degree in communication design and new media at Faculdade de Belas-Artes de Lisboa), Gonçalo Louro, Jorge Sacadura and Ricardo Tavares (students of master’s degree at Instituto Superior Técnico). We are developing for this project a top down 2D, sailing and adventure game.
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(from left to right: Jorge, Gonçalo, Amilcar (me) and Ricardo)
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Ships Ahoy! (the name for now) is a “Massive” Multiplayer Online game where the player can explore and combat through an open world. The game takes place in the Age of Discovery. It is divided in two factions (Portugal and Spain) and a pirate outpost. The factions are the homeland of each nation, they are peaceful and protected by watchtowers. The high seas are dangerous and populated by hostile pirates. Players can sail through high seas to explore, search for treasures, islands and ship wreckages and combat the enemies to earn gold and reputation. Gold is used to buy items and ship upgrades.
Reputation will take you to the lead, but can be lost by attacking allies. Bad reputation can turn you into a pirate (the way back can be bought). The territory is conquered and controlled by destroying/ building watchtowers and by defending the own faction. Pirates are enemies of both factions and are the kings of the seas. They are very risky to combat but high rewarding when defeated.
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Choose your side and join the adventure! Become a rich and feared captain across the world!
March 30th 2018
We started this month with a group meeting at IST, in Tagus Park. This way, we could meet each other in person, talk about the project and discuss some questions. A physical version of the game was done and brought to the meeting/class by the IST colleagues. It was a typical board game, in which each player has a turn to play, roll a dice for combat, upgrade the ship to explore the map faster, collect treasures, etc.
With that prototype we could have a better look on how the game works, the mechanics and how it will be displayed on screen. The concept and definition of the game was also further discussed after that, in order to have a better look on the main goal of the project and the gameplay experience we want to deliver to the players.
The prototype of the game is being developed in Unity by the IST colleagues. There is already a multiplayer environment with the core elements (the ships and the map). The ships already have movement, controls, collision and cannons (shooting and reloading). The map have some islands and dynamic wind direction (which affects the ship controls and movement, to have the effect of a storm that takes control of the ship trajectory). They are programming the game and in its initial state, is being developed with placeholder art.
The final design, graphics and artwork were also discussed, so I could start to sketch and develop. We had a look on some examples of existing games so I could get some ideas and inspiration. The first thing to be designed is the map (islands and factions). There are already some pen and paper sketches of the main islands and the elements that will be on them. Next step is to get my Wacom and start to draw it!
April 15th 2018
A lot of progress was made in the game development in the last weeks. There are more mechanics on it and a lot of assets and map elements already drawn. The programming of the game have some updates. In the core aspects of our map, there is already the dynamic water effect (with two layers of distortion - for shallow and deeper objects) and the water trails in the ships and cannon balls. There is also the treasure hunting, the initial version of the combat system (with ships and outposts) and the trading experience (with trading outposts and the own faction). The faction have three NPC’s on it (that will be represented in the map with three different buildings, with different assets) - the trading, shipyard and treasure hunting. The ships have the health points (HP) bar (by damage suffered in combat), inventory (for collected items and the player gold), and there is already the contextual menu (for interaction, looting and treasure hunting). Also, the players can sell treasures, buy ammo, loot islands and shipwrecks. There is a chat system being developed for the players to communicate during the game.
In terms of the game design, there is a lot of assets drawn. I started by designing them to use later when developing the main game elements. Starting by the map, there are already some islands and the Portuguese and Spanish faction. The islands have some assets to represent the items that can be collected by looting them (barrels, wooden boxes and treasures). There are some trees, rocks, plants and grass, as drawn in the pen and paper sketch in the previous post. I’ll draw multiple island shapes with the different elements placed around. Also, I’m going to add some shipwrecks on them (and also in the water). In the factions, there are the flags to represent each nation, the three main buildings (representing the trade, shipyard and treasure hunting - with the respective assets around them), the wood mounted cannons and some decorative elements. For the Portuguese faction we decided to draw the Belém Tower (from Lisbon) and for the Spanish one, the Tower of Gold (from Seville).
Portuguese Faction:
Spanish Faction:
The game still uses placeholder art on its development, but it will be changed soon. During the next weeks we will put the NPC's, the watchtowers, the in-game activities and some other design elements (boats, trading posts and pirate outpost).
If you want to follow more of our game development, you can read the posts on the IST colleagues blog: http://hardbag-projects.com/MDJ/ or on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/rjgtav
April 30th 2018
This is the last post before the MOJO event that will take place at IST (Tagus Park) in the 29th May. Our team is doing a great job at continuing to develop the game. The next two weeks we will push it and work a lot more so we can finish all the aspects of it for the event.
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As for now, the programming of the game had some previous features polished, after some feedback and bugs reported by user tests. The watchtower’s system was done: it defends the own faction by attacking the players from the opposite. They have a long fire range, but do not attack trading boats that are selling goods from one faction to another. The treasure hunting system (and the contextual menu) is also finished and polished. Players can explore islands by pressing the “F” key. There are three types of treasure chests (bronze, silver and gold) to collect, and they worth different values when sold. The more the treasure chest worth, the harder it is to find (for example, the golden chest takes a while to find and only exists on the islands far away from the factions) - It is the most valuable but it is risky to find. All the feedback messages when treasure hunting “Explore island”, “Exploring…”, “Treasure Found” and “Loot treasure chest" will be visible for all the players nearby. This could tempt other players to fight after collecting treasures and make the game more dynamic. All that because the shipwrecks can also be looted by other players, and if they contain some type of treasure, it can be collected.
There is still a lot of work to do in terms of programming and polishing the overall mechanics until MOJO, the most important thing being the map implementation with the assets drawn and the conversational UI. Let’s go!
The game design also had a lot of progress. The watchtowers for each faction are already drawn and I am still drawing some more island variants. I will try to draw the maximum number of islands until our team start to think about the world design. That way, we can have a more complex and dynamic map with all those different island shapes.
The ships are also drawn. After some discussion, we decided to have three types of ships (small, medium and large hull). They can be upgraded with more sails and cannons. So we decided the minimum and maximum upgrades. The small have a limit of 1 sail and 2 cannons, the medium 2 sails and 3 cannons and the large 3 sails and 4 cannons. All the parts of the ships were drawn in different layers, so they can be upgraded and move (the cannons move according to the cursor and the sails according to the dynamic wind direction).
The last thing drawn until now is the user interface of the game and the item's icons. The UI consists in a centered ship wheel and the inventory. The wheel moves according to the player (it has an arrow to indicate the center) and the inventory displays all the items that are in the boat (with the respective numbers), the player gold and the ship weight bar. The icons are the player gold, the 3 types of treasure chests (bronze, silver and gold), the 2 types of trading spices (cinnamon and saffron), the cannon balls and the wooden planks (bought on the shipyard and used to repair the ship when damaged).
The next step is to draw and implement the overall world design. For that, first of all, we have to think the positioning of the factions, islands and watchtowers. Then I’ll pick the color palette for the water and draw two separate layers (for the two levels of distortion - shallow and deep water). One for the island's shallow surroundings (underwater rocks and sand), and another for the deeper island’s surroundings and for the different water depths (brighter and darker blue).
After all the game design being complete, I’ll draw a poster for it and a printed map of the game, to help guiding the players navigating.
The final run to MOJO has began! Let’s work!
May 15th 2018
The calm after the storm. These last two weeks were exhausting but our team is very happy with out final result. Yesterday we displayed the game at our booth at MOJO. People were able to play and enjoy it and the overall comments on the game were very positive!
Talking about the work done in these last two weeks. The IST colleagues implemented an improved system of the inventory with the assets I drew, the player gold and the ship weight and all the calculations for both variables (when collecting, buying and selling items and the weight from carrying them). The more things you carry, the heavier the ship will be, affecting its speed. The conversational UI for the three NPC’s (shipyard, trading and treasure hunting) and the shop were complete. In the shop, players can sell treasures and spices to earn gold. Gold is used to upgrade the ship hull and to add sails (which improves the ship speed) and cannons (to have more fire power). It is also used to buy ammo and repair kits (wooden planks), to repair the ship automatically when anchored. The ships can also be damaged with collisions (with islands and other ships). The HP bar initially is white and turn red when below 50%. Some camera effects were added (camera shake in collisions and zoom in/ out according to speed) and also some particles and special effects. And for the last things, the various aspects of the game were balanced and polished and we added a small indicator to when the ship is outside the map.
The most exciting part (at least for me!) was the world design and the implementation of all the assets I was working over all these weeks. We discussed the position of the many island’s shapes that I finished to draw, the factions and the watchtowers. The two underwater layers were added and the game finally is looking good! Now all the graphics displayed in the game were done by me, which makes me very happy. To finish my work I did a poster with our logo for our booth at MOJO, and a map to the players.
All the feedback from both the team colleagues and the people who saw the game and played was very positive! And then, after all these weeks we could finally be able to see all these things working. It was a great project and I enjoyed to be part of it!
You can try our game at the link below:
http://shipsahoy.climberhotel.com:8080/
Ships Ahoy! at MOJO 2018!
(from left to right: Ricardo, Jorge, Gonçalo and Amilcar (me))
May 30th 2018
