Magic Mayhem (Log)

Description

Blast your friends away in this competitive party game where you and up to 3 other people fight your way to the top of the leaderboard, sling magic spells and laugh with your friends in this wacky magic world.

My game is a couch, party game that takes inspiration from Spellbreak, Boomerang Fu, and Fall Guys. In this game, 2-4 people will sit down and play on the same screen. You will each pick your starting character and then jump into the game. The game is separated into multiple rounds. A round ends once all but one player is dead. Then a new round starts. This continues till a player climbs to the top of the leaderboard and wins the game. Payers will be thrown into a confined map where they are tasked to kill the other players before getting killed themselves. Once you are hit by a spell, you are killed. You can climb your way up the leaderboard by killing the other players, the more players you kill, the more points you get. 

This is a fast-paced game, each round should be over in 3 minutes or less. These quick battles allow for players who have died, to have another chance at crushing their friends in battle. The goal of this game is to cause people to laugh, scream, and have a good time together. Trash-talking is encouraged.

Playtests

Internal Developer Playtest (Week 4)

Setup

Playtest Goal:  I am looking to see how players react/ interact with the spell combination system. (I want this to be a game where anyone can pick up and understand the basic controls without any instruction. Imagine you are at a friend's house and they ask you to play this new game with them. Your friend is just going to tell you to figure out the controls as you play. I want to see if someone can figure out my game's controls without any explanation)

Pre-playtest Instructions: 

• Intro to the game
  • Here is the intro I want to give, “Welcome, the game you are about to playtest is called Magic Mayhem. It is a local multiplayer game where you can cast spells. I encourage you to talk out loud about what you are thinking.” I don’t want the playtesters to know too much because I want to get their initial reactions and see what they make of the game. 
• Prior Information
  • No prior information is needed for this playtest. It is extremely important that the players for this playtest do not know anything going in, since that is the basis of this playtest.
• Details to ignore
  • The graphics are all placeholders
  • Music has not been implemented yet

Learnings

• What was the answer to your goal/question?
  •  This wasn't a playtest question but it is still worth mentioning, one of my playtesters mentioned that they felt like they were the character, which was a topic I was going to tackle later. It took them about 10+ minutes to figure out all the buttons, and even more time to combine the spells. Since the main point of the game is to combine spells, I think I should take their advice and slow down the spells and maybe also have a pop-up or some sort of visual aid that encourages combining spells. But it also seemed like players were more inclined to normally shoot at each other without combining, so maybe figuring out insntives to combine spells.
• What did your tester enjoy?
  •  They enjoyed the players changing stages. They enjoyed snappy movement and being able to see exactly where they could go. They also had fun trying to see the different combinations of spells. 
• What did your tester not enjoy?
  • The players did not enjoy that they could not distinguish the different players from each other. There was definitely confusion regarding the concept of the game, whether or not it was a competition game or if it was collaborative. They also wish there were different play modes and that there were interactive elements in the environment. Aiming could be improved, it was hard to aim towards other players/ magic. The players also thought that the magic was too fast and did not leave enough time for the other players to react.  
• Did anything surprise you?
  • The playtesters instantly found a bug I thought I fixed. Besides that, I found it interesting that the players collaborated and tried to see what the different spells did when they combined them. I thought this was surprising because they wanted to combine the spells just to see how they might combine and they were scared to touch any spell because they didn't know if it would or wouldn't kill them. I was surprised that the players were interested in other game modes like Capture the Flag. And with this game mode, they want multiple lives. Their reasoning was that it seemed like rounds were too fast. So staying in one level with multiple lives might be a solution to this issue.

External Developer Playtest (Week 7)

Setup

Playtest Goal:  I am looking to see how long it takes for players to get bored/ lose interest in the game. This will help me gauge how long play sessions should be or when I need to add more gimmicks to keep the players entertained.

Pre-playtest Instructions: 

• Intro to the game
  • Here is the intro I want to give, “Welcome, the game you are about to playtest is called Magic Mayhem. It is a local multiplayer game where you can cast spells. I encourage you to talk out loud about what you are thinking. You guys can ask me questions but I may not directly answer your questions. For the beginning of this playtest I am going to sit back and watch you guys to see what happens. When sharing your thoughts about the game, I want you to be honest. You won't hurt my feelings by saying anything negative. I am looking for feedback to make this a better game, so everything you say will be beneficial for the future of this game.” I don’t want the playtesters to know too much because I want to get their initial reactions and see what they make of the game. 
• Prior Information
  • I will tell the players how to move and that spells can combine to form new combinations. "I want to quickly explain the movement system to you. You will be using the left joystick to move. The left trigger will shoot an earth spell. The left number will shoot an ice spell. The right bumper will shoot a fire spell. Finally, pressing and holding the right trigger will cause your player to run when you move. A large part of this game is about combining spells. By casting different spells at each other and having them collide, you will notice various reactions happening." I don't want the players to get confused with the movement and I also want the players to know that the spells can interact with each other since that is supposed to be a major part of the game. 
• Details to ignore (same as last time)
  • The graphics are all placeholders, but I would love to know where you want the game's art direction to go
  • Music and additional sound effects have not been implemented yet
  • There will be a blocking feature/ dodge that has not been implemented yet
  • Ignore the character select screen, the colors are not working properly, so random colors will be assigned to you.

Learnings

• What was the answer to your goal/question?
  • I notice the playtesters getting bored in waves. Around 10 minutes in the players seemed to get into a flow of running and shooting. There was a spike in attention when players got close to each other. Additionally, there was a spike in interest when players found out new combinations. So, how can I use this? One addition that a developer said was adding power-ups. I can make the game start with people having only one power and then they gain a new powerup from pickup. This will decrease the time in which players can become stagnant and bored. So, I could have players stick with their basic power for 3 rounds, then give them access to a powerup, and then possibly give them the opportunity to gain powerups every round. This will increase the excitement of trying something new and will hopefully result in decreased experiences of boredom.  
• What did your tester enjoy?
  •  The playtesters enjoyed increasing their leaderboard number, they seemed to be attracted to having a larger number than their opponent.  Additionally, they were intrigued by trying to figure out the different spell combinations, although they were disappointed by the lackluster spell combinations.
• What did your tester not enjoy?
  • The playtesters did not enjoy the fact that you could not aim well, it was very difficult to determine which direction the character was facing in. One solution they proposed was adding a circle indicator to tell where the player is shooting. Another thing they thought was confusing was that they did not explicitly understand that it was a fighting game. That is a critique that I have been getting from various informal playtests, so I will need to develop a system that explains that the goal is to fight.  
• Did anything surprise you?
  • One thing they said that surprised me was the developers were saying that the spell reactions should create a bullet hell effect. I have been struggling to find more unique reactions and I think that this might be a way to create the chaos that I am missing. Additionally, they mentioned the different spells having personalities. I never really thought about how the different spells could react inside the world. Some spells could move slower, bounce off walls, or have other interactions to make them feel more unique.

Target Audience Playtest (Week 10)

Setup

Playtest Goal:  I want to see if this game is fun. After working on this game for 10 weeks, I hope that my players are able to have fun while playing the game. I want to see if they get into the game and start to trash-talk their opponents.

Pre-playtest Instructions: 

• Intro to the game
  • Here is the intro I want to give, “Welcome, the game you are about to playtest is called Magic Mayhem. It is a local multiplayer game where you can cast spells. I encourage you to talk out loud about what you are thinking. You guys can ask me questions but I may not directly answer your questions. For the beginning of this playtest I am going to sit back and watch you guys to see what happens. When sharing your thoughts about the game, I want you to be honest. You won't hurt my feelings by saying anything negative. I am looking for feedback to make this a better game, so everything you say will be beneficial for the future of this game.” I don’t want the playtesters to know too much because I want to get their initial reactions and see what they make of the game. 
• Prior Information
  • I do not want to tell the players any information. At this point, I want the game to be picked up by a friend group and have any important information on the screen. I think the interest in the game will be the discovery of the spell combination and the leaderboard. 
• Details to ignore 
  • There is no way to change the win condition yet
  • There are no factors limiting a character's choice of color. This will be implemented later
  • Also With 3 players, color does not work as intended, but you will still be able to distinguish your characters from each other.

Learnings

• What was the answer to your goal/question?
  • The goal was to figure out if the game was fun. It would have been a big disappointment if my players had no fun playing the game after the many weeks I spent trying to make it entertaining to play. Luckily, the players were able to find the fun. I asked them at the end if they had fun, but I already knew what they were going to say, so I did not really need to ask this. During the game, there was screaming, and laughing. This is exactly how the game was supposed to be played, so I was extremely excited to see the players have so much fun playing the game. 
• What did your tester enjoy?
  • The playtesters enjoyed winning. I had an issue with recording, but during my playtest, the players all unanimously (and unprompted) agreed that beating up your friends and winning a game against them made this game super enjoyable. It created some tension between them. They were also interested in the visuals and how the spell combos looked. I was watching them play and they leaned in closer when they created a new combination. One player also mentioned that they liked the music, this was the first playtest with sound, so I was happy that that worked out. Another thing they enjoyed was that when holding a spell, you move slower, so there is a risk/ reward system for holding a spell and having it shoot faster. 
• What did your tester not enjoy?
  • The players did not enjoy that sometimes they would not spawn on the screen. This is a bug that has not come up in other playtests, so it was a surprise to see it, so I had to not panic and stayed calm when I noticed this. The players also thought it was unfair, which is accurate, it is unfair that they did not get to play in that round. Another thing they did not enjoy was no explanation of some of the game concepts. Like they thought there could be some explination before each level of the new mechanic. I had not explained these mechanics on purpose, but this might create more confusion than I intended. Maybe I could use more visual cues to explain the mechanics instead of directly telling them. Additionally, they thought that the bottom of the main start screen was empty and could use some buttons down there. Another thing is that they wanted the tutorial screen to not be on a timer and instead have players press a button to move on, this would allow them all a fair time to read it and would increase accessibility for people.
• Did anything surprise you?
  • The players did not really utilize the dodge function. This surprised me because I had originally implemented a sprint and the players constantly used it. The players used the dodge on occasion but not regularly. They said they kind of forgot about it but if it was not implemented, they would want it. Another thing that surprised me was that the players never really tried combining their own spells together to form a combo to get the other players out. When playtesting this before, I would combine my own spells to create combos, but I think with 3 people it created a faster-paced dynamic so players were not able to think about combining their own spells.

Process Journal

Week 2

What did I do this week?

During week 2, I wanted to write out my mechanics before I started the game. I did not want to work on any unnecessary things, so I thought I should draw things out and write out my ideas before getting into coding. A big part of my game is the “spell interaction” component. When players use spells, they will interact with each other in unique ways. I wanted to first figure out which base spells I wanted to implement and then figure out how they would react to each other. After figuring this out, I went into Unity. I decided to use Unity for this project because a lot of the games that inspired me were built on Unity (Boomerang Fu and Fall Guys). Additionally, I have only made games in Unity and JavaScript, so Unity was the smart choice to go with, even though I really wanted to learn Unreal. I can do that on my own time, it’s fine. In Unity, I used the new Input System to make my characters move. That is all I have done this week, I think it is a good foundation to start on.

How did that change my design?

My original idea for this was much simpler, I just wanted a fast-paced game where players threw objects at each other. This developed into the idea that I wanted to have a solid theme. At first, I thought I would have people throw office supplies at each other, like a work meeting gone wrong. Then I thought about having the players throw food at each other like a huge food fight. Then it hit me, I want players to shoot each other with magic. I love games with magic, so this will make me even more inspired to work on this. This new idea changed the whole design of the game, I had to think about how spells would interact with each other and how each one can feel unique. This will definitely be a challenge but I am really excited to see how far I can push this idea. 

What are my goals for next week?

My goals for next week are getting the player to school a projectile, and then having the projectile “kill” the player they touch. If I have time, I will add different physics to the projectiles to simulate different spells being cast.

Week 3

What did I do this week?

This week, I implemented shooting projectiles and projectile interaction. This means each spell has a designated interaction with the other spells. Additionally, I have started implementing local multiplayer with a character selection screen. This is not totally working yet, but I am working out the kinks. I haven't exactly figured out how I am going to handle the "player kill" functionality without deleting the player's information. I think that will do is that instead of deleting the player when it comes in contact with a spell, I will set the character to inactive so that the data stored in it is not deleted. 

How did that change my design?

When doodling in class, I came up with the idea to have all the characters be mushrooms. I thought that would be hilarious. They are magic-slinging mushrooms... magic mushrooms! I thought that was a great idea. Other than that, there have been different designs for the spell interactions that I have been playing with. As of now, the spell designs are all just representations of their hitboxes. But these are easy to change, so I can see myself changing them up often.

What are my goals for next week?

My goals for next week are to solidify the multiplayer system so that it is useful and if I have time, create a basic counter for keeping points. I don't really know how I am going to do this yet. I could base it on time, the longer you survive the more points you get. Or maybe points are also based on players killed? I will have to think about that over the next few days.  But I think that the multiplayer will take a while to get working, so I don't plan on getting to this part.

Week 4

What did I do this week?

This week, I solidified the multiplayer functionality to a playable state, the players move to the inputs that are given on their respective controllers, so that is a win in my books. Additionally, I created two new levels and a way to switch between levels once one player is left. At this point, the game is in a playable state and is ready for a playtest.

How did that change my design?

Doing multiplayer has led to me rethinking how I design the multiplayer aspects. I have thought about how people picking their playable character can create a deeper connection between the player and the game.  So designing the game in the future will revolve around how I can create this connection between the player and the game and make the overall experience more enjoyable for them.

What are my goals for next week?

I plan on actually implementing a scoring system next week. Now that the movement is in a working state, I can focus on scoring. Scoring will be based on how long you last in a round and extra points will be awarded to the last one standing in the end. I would love to have the score presented on a leaderboard in between levels and/ or at the end of the game when one player has won.

Week 5

What did I do this week?

Coming into this week fresh off my first playtest, I had a lot of new ideas about what I needed to work on. Firstly, I thought I patched a bug in the code but my playtesters immediately found it. So I had to totally rework the level-switching which took over half the week to debug but it is not completely functional. Additionally, I added a leaderboard mechanic so players can see how many points they have gained through the game. This took me about a day and a half to complete. So, that was my week.

How did that change my design?

Throughout the week I kept on thinking about how much I wanted to add different mechanics around how players release the spells. would pressing the button release a weak spell that doesn't travel fast? Will holding down the shoot button cause the player to charge up the spell to make it better?  These questions are currently changing how I think about the game's magic system. That would be the biggest design change that I see changing this week.

What are my goals for next week?

My main goal for next week is redesigning the magic system because there was a lot of confusion with it and it seemed hard for the players to use the interactions. A small goal that I will do if I have additional time, is adding more distinguished visuals to the game. In the playtest, the players were slightly confused about what they were seeing, and I feel like this caused a large disconnect. So adding more distinct visuals will allow the players to connect more with the game. 

Week 6

What did I do this week?

One of the most notable things I have done this week is redesign the levels. The levels' square footage is about 3-4x the size that they were previously. Additionally, I made the levels "more interesting." I did this by adding different themes to the levels and adding animations to them. This added more interest to the levels and made them feel more exciting. Additionally, I attempted to make a camera that can stretch/ shrink to fit players on the screen. I wanted to add this as a special addition, but I was unable to make that function properly. Besides that, I made each spell have greater visual differences, this will add to the player's understanding of the system. Finally, I changed how the magic input system functioned. I was able to differentiate between a button pressed and a button held. Oh yeah, I also added a sprint mechanic. So the players can move faster. 

How did that change my design?

Throughout the week, I was able to rethink how I wanted my game to function. I love changing the themes of the stages, I think that will be something I do when making more stages. Additionally,  I am having some trouble finding the fun. I am trying to see what makes my game special and interesting. So, I need to keep changing things till I can find something (I did have a big where the spells bounced off of the walls, but that was too much like Boomerang Fu, but It was INCREDIBLY funny, so I may have to lean into that).

What are my goals for next week?

The goal for next week is to import custom characters into Unity along with simple animations. I have never done this before and I think this will be difficult. Players had the issue of not knowing which character they were, so I am trying to solve that.

Week 6

What did I do this week?

One of the most notable things I have done this week is redesign the levels. The levels' square footage is about 3-4x the size that they were previously. Additionally, I made the levels "more interesting." I did this by adding different themes to the levels and adding animations to them. This added more interest to the levels and made them feel more exciting. Additionally, I attempted to make a camera that can stretch/ shrink to fit players on the screen. I wanted to add this as a special addition, but I was unable to make that function properly. Besides that, I made each spell have greater visual differences, this will add to the player's understanding of the system. Finally, I changed how the magic input system functioned. I was able to differentiate between a button pressed and a button held. Oh yeah, I also added a sprint mechanic. So the players can move faster. 

How did that change my design?

Throughout the week, I was able to rethink how I wanted my game to function. I love changing the themes of the stages, I think that will be something I do when making more stages. Additionally,  I am having some trouble finding the fun. I am trying to see what makes my game special and interesting. So, I need to keep changing things till I can find something (I did have a big where the spells bounced off of the walls, but that was too much like Boomerang Fu, but It was INCREDIBLY funny, so I may have to lean into that).

What are my goals for next week?

The goal for next week is to import custom characters into Unity along with simple animations. I have never done this before and I think this will be difficult. Players had the issue of not knowing which character they were, so I am trying to solve that. 

Week 7

What did I do this week?

This week I made new, original characters for the game, created simple animations, and tried to improve the character select screen. Importing the characters went smoothly and I learned a new skill. I made a custom rig for my character so I learned how to do that. I ran into many bugs trying to allow players to give themselves their desired colors, that is a question I need someone more knowledgeable to help me with.

How did that change my design?

Game aesthetics changed a little bit with the addition of the mushroom character, but overall, not much has changed design-wise. I am just trying to find new ways to allow players to change their character's color, so designing different ways to do that (and now succeeding) has made me rethink how I should design that system. 

What are my goals for next week?

Next week, I want to work on improving movement and then adding ways to spice up gameplay, this could be additional environmental hazards or spell modifiers. I know this game will get boring quickly and I don't want that. I want to be able to keep the chaos going. 

Week 8

What did I do this week?

This week I totally revamped the combination system because the game developers were curious about what would happen if I went harder into the wackiness of the spell combinations. I also changed the spell shooting buttons so they are the buttons on the right side of the controller instead of the triggers. Additionally, I spiced up the gameplay and movement by adding a dodge roll. I also created some environmental hazards that explode when interacted with. 

How did that change my design?

This week changed of I designed my spells, I think I want to go a lot further into the campy nature of the spells. I think camp is what I need to dive into overall with the aesthetics of the game.

What are my goals for next week?

I want to create a few more dynamic levels and create an endpoint. I think adding an end point/ goal will make players realize that this is a competitive game. Right now people don't understand that it is a competitive game, I hope I will be able to make the goal of the game more noticeable.

Week 9

What did I do this week?

This week I focused a lot on level design and adding new features to entice players. I added things like portals and traps that shoot spells at players. This will hopefully make players strategize more and add to the chaos. I also reworked the way people win the game, I made it have an end-point. Additionally, I changed up the wording in some areas on the start screen to say "Fight" instead of "Play" which will hopefully tell payers that this is a competition.

How did that change my design?

This changed how players view the world. I want players to think this is taking place in a magical world, and I think the addition of the new levels helps solidify that. Additionally, I think using more aggressive words on the start screen, that will make the game feel more aggressive and like a fighting game. I want this game to be competitive so I need to design my words so they reflect that. 

What are my goals for next week?

My goal for next week is to get an aim/ lock-on system in place. This is the last thing that I want to function properly before finishing up this game. That has been a complaint from the start and I want to be able to get that working. I have struggled to get it to work in the past, so I hope I can finally get things working. 

Week 10

What did I do this week?

I had a very successful week. I was tinkering around with a lock-on system but I realized that this was not the direction I wanted the game going in. I ended up allowing the spells to bounce off walls (this was a bug before but players seemed to enjoy it because it led to easier spell combinations) and I also added an arrow that should help direct players to the direction they are facing. Additionally, I got rid of sprinting so players could just focus on dodging and shooting. Sprinting ruined parts of the game. I also added a tutorial screen, which I think will be appreciated. The magic is controlled by pressing/ holding the face buttons (the longer you press, the faster your magic will be). I also juiced up the game. I learned how to create a lightning effect and went all in. I added the lighting particles to a lot of the spells. I think it adds visual intrigue. I also added music and sound effects as well. There were lots of additions this week (oh yeah, I also officially fixed the bug where players could not properly pick their colors). There were lots of new additions this week, but I think I covered them all.

How did that change my design?

Originally, I did not want to give the players a tutorial screen, I thought that this would be too hand-holdy. I think I was being silly, the tutorial makes the game both look and feel better to play. I think I was leaning into the "less is more" approach when I should be under the "more is better" mentality, especially since I want this game to have an extremely chaotic feeling. 

What are my goals for next quarter?

Well, I am done with my time here in college after this quarter, so I don't know where life will take me, but I hope to make this game extra juicy. The goal is to fix any final bugs and to juice up the game with my time left. If I were to take this game further, I would add spell modifications and make the combos more visually appealing. I think a countdown timer at the start of each level would be cool too. I did not have enough time to implement that. Oh, I would also like to have death animations for the characters, I think that would be cute and make the other players feel more accomplished. One final note, I would add another game mode, a capture the flag/ king of the hill-inspired mode. That was a recommendation early on, but two game modes were beyond the scope of my skills within the quarter.