Game Idea Research - 3D Sphere

During my research of potential game ideas, I felt like I got more information out of the 3D Sphere. My project doesn't need to be incredibly complicated and getting online help whether it's on Youtube or GitHub will increase my chances of making a successful game! I came across so many Sphere games that have been made with Unity3D such as "Crazy Roll 3D" and there's a tutorial on Unity itself called "roll a ball" which uses simple camera and player movements as well as creating collectables. Here is an extremely useful article on how Thomas Himblot made his own sphere game in unity and his overall process. He examines what he did right in terms of the game and all of the regrets he has. I'm probably going to come back to this article again and again as he describes what tutorials he found useful during his "learning path". He released the game "Being a ball" which you can download for free or you could donate which I'm definitely going to do. I'm going to play this game to see what mechanics he uses and I'm going to write down some notes for inspiration. 

Sphere Movements 

By making users invested in my game I feel like I shouldn't limit the movements to just arrow keys. Making the ball jump will give the player more of an opportunity to explore different options when it comes to obstacles in front of them. This means that I'm going to have to make the obstacles way more challenging. Here is the "roll a ball" tutorial that I mentioned previously which will help me with basic spherical movements. Here is a tutorial that I found on Youtube which uses scripts to make a 3d ball jump as well as double jump. I'm happy that there's so much help involved online when it comes to these things. 

Obstacles

There's an infinite number of 2D and 3D ball games that have been made so I know that my chances of making a unique game are very slim. Although when it comes to making obstacles I can be as creative as possible. In my previous blog I have mentioned obstacles such as water puddles that the player gets stuck in but with that in mind I can make the puddle be lava or a bog instead, either way the player won't be able to move and would have to restart the game. Frustrating games are the best in my opinion, It makes the user more determined to get to the finish line. I can also put in checkpoints if my level ends up being long! Moving obstacles are fun as well because they can push the player off the map if they make a wrong move. The player would have to perfectly time their movements every time in order to get to the finish line. Bouncing obstacles that don't move yet if you hit one you'd automatically get pushed off! There are endless possibilities when it comes to this project so I'm looking forward to doing more research. Here is a helpful tutorial I found on how to make certain objects move around randomly! I also mentioned a pathway that is unstable and collapses after you in my previous blog which you can read here. I based my whole game idea off of that one obstacle so I could give that a try. Here is a tutorial on how to make a curvy pathway using unity. I don't want a boring straight pathway that goes to nothing, I want to make it fun for the player!

Here  is an interesting article I read on challenges within games. This author gave examples of real life challenges that we face such as golfing, running etc..  "For example, a gamified fitness application would probably be designed to help users achieve their fitness goals such as weight loss using the most efficient means possible. Challenging the user to lose 5 kg while eating pizza every day may be a fun challenge, but it’s not what is expected from a gameful application." HCI Games Group (2016) 

picture taken from "Challenge Accepted! The role of challenge for gameful design."

Rewards & Collectibles

Applying a rewards system within my project will most likely increase player motivation. From my experience playing games like God of War, Crash Bandicoot, etc.. there's a sense of accomplishment whenever you get all of your collectibles. In Crash Bandicoot if you get all of the apples you get rewarded with a nice shiny diamond, if you finish the game you get another shiny diamond. I get really excited and motivated to go back and finish off the level once more so I could get that one extra apple that I have missed previously. 

In the "Roll a Ball" unity tutorial, the instructor inserted a collectibles system. The collectibles are floating squares that rotate around taunting the player. Here is another useful article made by the same author HCI Games Group. In this article it mentions that rewards should be a secondary focus because it can end up being repetitive if you get rewarded constantly. In God Of War and Spider-man there are collectibles which you can find that provide you with more information about the history and background of said collectible. I feel like I should mainly focus on the collectibles but make them interesting. The collectibles can be different colours and different shapes. Maybe card like collectibles which have different pictures on them or different coloured coins which make a noise every time the player picks one up? I know coins are really common within games but I mean if they're common then it surely motivates the player. 

really nice 2D collectibles I found on pinterest

-Anna Zurawska