Written on 08/09/2022
Welcome! this is the second post for the game Foreign Body, so if you haven't already go check out the first one! This post will be covering the work that I have done in the past 2 weeks on this project and some of the major changes that were made for the game.
Elevator Pitch
Foreign Body is a single player isometric turn-based strategy game, where you play as a hostile bacteria invading a defensive immune system. As you move further into enemy territory, you must spawn bacteria, strategise and consume your way to victory!
Major Changes
You can see some of the major changes reflected in the GDD documents below but if you would prefer a summary here it is! Keep in mind this section of the blog is not explaining every single change, only the big ones as there were many many changes made in the last 2 weeks, that documenting them all would be madness. These decisions were reached through extensive playtesting of the paper prototype version of the game and discussions with both the team and teachers.
HUD Changes
Here is a previous image of what the HUD looked like:
And here is the most recent HUD concept:
This second image is not completely accurate to the current changes however it is the latest that we have. As you can see the commander now has a health bar that will deplete as he is hit in the game. The reason only he has a health bar is due to the fact that all other units have only 1 hit-point. Additionally some of the commands were changed on the right to reflect a new way in which commands will be used. This image is slightly out of date however as boosted metabolism now upgrades the preexisting metabolism that all units will start with. Move unit will be in the top right not next to the other commands and is another command that all units will start with. The addition of numbers to the left of the commands shows how many of that ability the unit has. For example, if they have 3 tentacles, they may use the tentacle command in 3 of their turns.
The command queue the top middle of the screen shows where these commands will be entered and will set what actions must be performed by the unit once the round has started. The start round button will be instead placed where the next action button is currently and once the round is started, the button will turn into a "next turn" button instead of next action as some terminology has been changed to reflect design changes and to make the game simpler to understand for players.
Another major change to do with the HUD is that now, once the round has begun players will be able to modify the actions they have previously assigned to their units in the planning stage (before the round began) in order to slightly change where the unit may be moving or attacking. This does not give them the ability to change the commands set in the planning stage however, only where they may move to or what tile to attack with tentacle as an action under that command. Think of the command as a guideline that the player unit has to follow and an action as the specific details of the movement based on those guidelines. A unit that has been told to move as a command for that turn must move somewhere but that somewhere can be changed on the individual turn. This is the largest and most important change to the game at this stage as it fundamentally affects how the game will be played and completely changes how we originally planned for the game to play.
This change however significantly improves the game by allowing players to have more reaction to enemy movements and attacks and will not feel as if their moves are wasted on superfluous strategy that may or may not yield any results. Previously the idea was to make the player command and action all units in the planning stage and have no control over how they moved once the round had begun however this change should also make the player now feel more in control of the situation while still forcing them into a situation where they must strategise to win.
Enemy AI
The changes made to how the turn system works also impacted the enemy AI. With this new system we decided that the range of the enemies vision as well as the players' must be extended from 5 to 8 to allow them to see further and plan accordingly.
Additionally the enemies will no longer be able to collect resources due to this causing the enemy to gain too much power early on in the game. Instead the enemy commander will now spawn in stronger enemy units periodically throughout the game. These units will already contain the abilities that they would have gained by consuming the resources present on the map.
To ensure that enemies still engaged with players near resources some enemies will be set to defend the resources instead of take them now.
Metabolism
This particular ability ended up being to overpowered and needed to be nerfed. Because of this, we decided that units that use this ability will die after using it 2 times. This will limit the use of the ability while also making players think about the best time to use it adding to the strategic nature of the game. Additionally a cooldown was placed on the ability so that the player could only use it once every 3 rounds. On top of this, when moving with metabolism active the unit must move in a straight line between 1-2 tiles away, this is to avoid a confusing mechanic where the unit would be able to move in 2different directions on the same turn.
Game Design Document
During the last 2 weeks most of my time was spent in meetings discussing mechanics and there was little time to update the GDD with these new decisions. Due to this I will instead link the meeting notes document where you can see some of the decisions we decided on in our meetings and some of our thoughts in a brief form. My next blog post should have an updated GDD to look at but it is currently under major reconstruction at the moment and so will not show much new info.
The dates to look for are from 29/08/2022 onwards.
Greyboxing!!!!! (Finally Working In Engine)
Due to pressing concerns that we need to make a playable build soon so that we can conduct proper playtesting sessions the GDD was put on hold while I instead worked on getting the decided upon things into a greybox and getting the board set up in Unity. Additionally I helped the artists to import their models from Maya into Unity with a correct scale and position. This greybox was not finished this week unfortunately however the walls and obstacles on the board were made based on the concept image below.
This is an updated concept image of the board that shows the slight changes in the size and placement of some of the walls, resources and enemy spawns. The sizing changes were primarily made to ensure the board was more symmetrical and that distances were the same on both sides to the edge of the board. And here is my unfinished greybox that should be finished and functional (to alpha standards) by my next blog post.
Keep in mind many of the enemies and resources have not yet been placed and fully programmed yet.
Asset Lists
Most of the first week was spent updating the asset list with everything described in the GDD and then adding those as tasks to the Trello board, assigning them to people, adding priorities, creating checklists for what needed to be completed for each task and making sure that everyone knew how to use the Trello board. For screenshots see the week 3 rush hour.
Rush Hour
Here are my rush hours for the past 2 weeks.
Final Thoughts
The last 2 weeks have been hectic, in addition to this project I've also had my uncle's wedding to prepare for so that has taken a lot of my free time meaning less time to dedicate to the project. Despite this however I am really happy with how things are going with the project and how well the team is working together. In addition to the things listed above I forgot to mention I also run all of the morning standups for the team each morning and that has been really helping with everyone having a good idea what others are working on.
I have been learning a lot about teamwork and how to effectively manage and act as a good team leader (as producer) and I believe that I have improved in that aspect and this has greatly helped me with communicating more effectively with the team and ensuring things are clear and understandable for everyone. It can be difficult at times dealing with many different people but one of the most important things I have learnt is to listen carefully to others, ask questions and clearly understand their point before adding my own input. Phrasing how you speak with others can have a profound impact on how they perceive you and the points you are trying to get across. With that I hope you have an amazing rest of your day and goodbye!
If you have any criticisms, suggestions, advice or wish to get in touch, please Contact Me. Also if you want to stay in the loop on future projects I'm involved in please watch this space. Thank you for reading!
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