Japanese Interior Design

It’s nearly the end of the week, so my plan for today is to write up a first draft of my Game Design Document for this project. This will help get all my scatted ideas in one place!
Once that’s done, or probably if there’s nothing on TV at lunch time, I’m going to start reading my new book A Geek In Japan” which arrived in the post yesterday ^_^. The book is based on the content on Kirainet, a blog written by a Spanish guy living in Japan. It’s aimed at Otaku like me to give a really good insight into his new Japanese lifestyle with a slightly nerdy twist. His Blog is based around a lot of good quality photography, so I hope this is reflected in the book too!

I’m still unsettled on the graphical style I want to use for the game, but before I get comfortable with a definitive style I’ve carried on practising with tilesets inspired by Japanese interior design. Luckily for me, typical Japanese interior is very minimalist and easy to convert to square tiles!

I used the image as a basis for the tiles I wanted to create. It looks slightly pixelated because I actually scaled it down until the 16×16 pixel grid fit quite well. You can already see at this stage that all the objects in the photo are very angular, if not completely square atleast all the corners are rightangles! Basing tiles on this image also helped pick out colours with the colour picker. The colours I used would not have been my first choice if I had created this from scratch.

On a separate layer in Photoshop, I used the pencil tool to re-draw a part of the image to the grid.


By this point, you can already start to see some repetition of tiles in the cupboards, the vents and the frame of the cupboard. Obviously, the tiles were incredibly basic and boring, so I continued to use the pencil tool at a size of 1pixel to draw in some detail. For highlights and shadows I chose my own colours, based on the original colours that I had picked from the photo.

Using colours slightly lighter and slightly darker than the original, it was easy to add texture and depth. In addition to my tiles, I also picked out some misc objects which didn’t align to the grid, but which could be repeated and placed on shelves etc.

Once this was all done, it was time to put my tiles to the test. The point of a tileset is that each tile can be rearranged to create a completely new layout. A good tileset would have allowed me to do this seamlessly, but this experimental process helped me see where my tiles were slightly flawed. To rearrange my tiles, I cut out each unique tiles and placed it in the corner of my grid. This is what the “tileset” refers to- often when you see a tileset it is simply a group of squares which don’t correspond to each other until they are arranged by a designer. The squares are closely pushed together simply to make good use of space.

Example of a Mario game tileset

My Shelving Tileset:

Now, my traditional Japanese Shelving unit is transformed into a contemporary Swedish storage space:

Although, you can definitely see here where my tiles are less than perfect, especially in the corners and funny little places where I used half the tile for the cupboard frame etc. All in all, this new image was created without any editing to the original tiles, so most of the tiles here would be suitable to use for game backgrounds.
In addition to the shelf, I continued to recreate the room from the photo using tiles that aligned to my grid. The result is an image which represents just some distinct aspects of Japanese interior design which I would definitely like to use in my game!

With Grid

Without Grid

Early Art Development

Phil Fish’s devlog for the upcoming game Fez begins with a Photoshop mock-up of his game idea, made in the exact style that the game would be made in. With my cute character in mind, I started to get some ideas of how I wanted the game to look, and the kinds of colours I wanted to use, that sort of thing. So I thought I’d do the same thing. This would also act as my introduction to making tilesets for games, which is something I’ll be doing for the first time during the development of Hanami. I drew up the sketch above to get me thinking about what sort of objects would appear in the game a lot, and tried to assemble them into a small demonstration of the look of the game. It also led me to think about scale for the first time, as games are often way out of proportion. In a screenshot of Fez, a fan pointed this out for example:

However, the strange proportions are necessary based on the size of the tiles used. I worked out that Fez uses tiles which are 8×8 pixels in size, but these are expanded by about 5x when the game is played. This gives the game its very square feel, as there is little room for small details within each tile.

Games like The Archer and Cave Story use 16×16 tiles. While these don’t have to be more detailed, the opportunity is there, so for now I’m planning to create tiles which measure 16×16 pixels. By applying tiles to the sketch, I came up with this solution, which is by no means refined or finished:

I started by applying the 16×16 grid to the image, and draw a rough outline of the shapes as they would fit into that grid. Obviously, only background imagery really has to fit the grid perfectly. Objects and game items don’t have to consist of tiles, although in this case the tree seems to stand out a lot from the rest.

I mainly tried to concentrate on the tiles for the ground, as this was a single strip of tiles which were very easy to place and repeat. The difficulty was making enough that they weren’t too repetitive! I also tried to make sure they weren’t too overcomplicated at this point. Most of the tiles could be repeated and placed anywhere, but I made special end tiles with rounded corners which would only ever be placed on the ends!

As well as seamless tiles, I tried out creating single tiles. This closed type of tile is used in all three of the example games I’ve given in this post already, and make it even easier to repeat tiles into any form. In this case, each tile has an edge and stands out on its own, rather than fitting in to a bigger pattern.

I later added in a little more detail to the grass line, and made basic block-colour tiles for the background of this image. The tree is pretty much freehand at this point, and doesn’t adhere to grid or guide. I’m not sure if this is something I want to use much for background imagery, however it seemed to work well for the clouds in the very background. This image ended up looking very bright, and in my opinion a little too bright. The colours at this point are very inspired by Fez, but only for experimental purposes!

The placeholder character silhouette fits into a 32×32 square, which is a pretty standard character measurement in classic games. In terms of proportions, this means that tiles can sit at half the character’s height, representing accessibility. Tiles which create a vertical surface equal to or above the height of the character represent inaccessible areas, without having to take up too much room on screen.

Early Character Development

Getting the character right is one thing I want to get sorted before starting to work on the visual feel of everything else in the game. I think it’s really important that the character fits into the world, but that world is also in tune with the character. Working on the character first also means that I can start to make sprite animations for early prototypes with placeholder level design. It will help give an early impression of the game without having to work out loads of individual tiles for background imagery!

I began trying to design a character a while ago, but for the most part ended up sketching slight variations of the same thing, and it wasn’t working well or progressing. I mentioned already that I originally wanted to make the character a portrayal of a Japanese character, and found a site called 51 Japanese Characters which really helped. The site creates these “characters” based on Japanese personality stereotypes, for example your first thought of a Japanese woman may be a woman in a kimono and sandals.

Your first thought of a Japanese man might even be a ninja.

My original inspiration for the game character came from the Kawaii (cute) character. Thinking about David Perry’s explanation of Game Cliches, I thought the harmless, cute little girl in pink would make a good protagonist, as she looks as though she can do no wrong. Kawaii is almost completely unique to Japan, and therefore would have been good representation of a Japanese personality.

Before I really knew what the game was going to be about, my character designs reflected this personality in a very cute, happy way. I started to develop a chibi-esque cartoon style, which was very simple to draw and provided enough detail to get the character across. As the principles of the game started to develop, my realisations of the character also evolved to be a lot less smiley and cute.


I started to develop this idea further, but never really finished.
Developments in character design led me to realise however that the main character should be a foreigner, a representation of someone like me who dreams of going to Japan. For a fleeting moment, I though maybe I should base the character on myself. In a way, this would be ideal. I know myself very well, and probably be able to portray my personality quite accurately! The character would be a bit of a nerd, enjoying the geeky side of Japanese culture like anime and videogames, and definitely have a natural anti-social nature. While I’ll probably be using some of these ideas, the main character won’t be completely me, and here’s why:

Me= grumpy, dull, unmotivated, spiteful, boring. No one would want to play that game!
Before, I concentrated on tying together a personality from Japanese personality stereotypes. Instead my character will represent a Western, nerd, gamer grrl stereotype. It’s the type of person who would love to go to Japan, and I could probably still think up an accurate portrayal of her. As for a name, I’m currently rolling with Hannah or Hana, as it’s a fairly popular Western name, but also mean flower in Japanese (hence, HANA-mi).
As it would be cruel for the character to be completely alone, here I gave her a cat to keep her company. Perhaps I’ll add a twist that reveals the cat to be a super-villain.

Hanami Idea Explosion!

I guess this is a little like brainstorming, only it’s more of an explosion of words. I can’t think of a better name for it, especially one that sounds as exciting!
I got this idea from Gabriel Verdon at the beginning of his Devlog for The Archer. He begins development with a quick introduction to the concepts behind the game, and his objectives for the finished result. As a quick introduction to the characters and settings for the game, he takes a simple statement and pulls apart separate words to explain further details. With the ideas I’ve got at the moment, I guess my opening statement would be:

A lone girl travels empty streets collecting cherry blossoms.

To make the statement a little more specific, I thought I would expand it to:

A long girl travels through the empty streets of Japan collecting Cherry Blossom after Hanami.

It’s still quite a vague overview, but I’ve left room for improvement ^_^.

Notes:

-Hanami- Gameplay is based around environmental obstacles. The player must find blossoms in hard-to-find or hard-to-reach locations, although I’m not sure yet whether this will be with the aid of special abilities or if the challenges will be fairly similar the whole way through. This will ultimately depend on what I manage to program.

-Feel of the game- There will be a conflicting sense of both loneliness and serenity throughout, achieved through lack of player communication and a peaceful setting.

-Symbols- Japanese written characters (Kanji) will appear throughout, as well as traditional Japanese symbolism such as the Sakura blossoms themselves, which are an ephemeral symbol of mortality.

-Music- I would like the music to sound like a typical “game soundtrack” (repetitive, electronic, catchy yet annoying.) But I also want to base it one traditional Japanese tunes, to help the game feel authentic. Throughout the project I will be listening to a lot of Gackt and Nobuo Uematsu for inspiration, but no changes there really!

-Movie Influences- Studio Ghibli’s so-called “Blue Sky, Green Grass” films- Laputa, Porco Rosso, Kiki’s Delivery Service… but also My Neighbours the Yamadas for a little insight into Japanese life, and anime like Angel’s Egg and Cat Soup for the sense of journeying through strange, lonely worlds (these second films also add a sense of darkness, which is something I’m currently toying with.)

-Game Influences- The Archer for its incredible use of Game Maker and beautiful concept and asset artwork, Ninja Senki for its Japanese themes and simple graphical style which create a great example of everything a platformer should be, and Nevermore 3 for its representations of isolation and loneliness in a beautiful world.

-One thing I really want to get across is problems with communication in a foreign place, and a lack of understanding of signs and symbols. I want there to be minimal dialogue throughout the game AT BEST, the player will have to rely on their own interpretation of symbols, imagery and gestures in order to get through the game. Some will be more complex than others!

-Verdon goes into a lot of details on his post about the inventory system, and how it acts as a means of providing higher-resolution details of items and characters which don’t appear very detailed in the actual game. This is definitely something I will consider! There will be items and pick-ups to help the character along, however I’m not sure what these will be yet.

Game Design: Where To Begin…

Again, I wish there was a solid answer here.

Back in Rules of Play, the book begins by defining the term game designer;

A game designer is a particular kind of designer, much like a graphic designer, industrial designer, or architect. A game designer is not necessarily a programmer, visual designer, or project manager, although sometimes he or she can also play these roles in the creation of a game.
The focus of the game designer is designing gameplay, conceiving and designer rules and structures that result in an experience for players.

Before a game is developed, it must to designed. The book emphasises iterative design, which is a design process. A game cannot be designed all at once, but is a drawn out process with a beginning and end.

Iterative design is a play-based design process. Emphasising playtesting and prototyping, iterative design is a method in which design decisions are made based on the experience of playing a game while it is in development. In an iterative methodology, a rough version of the game is rapidly prototyped as early in the design process as possible. This prototype has none of the aesthetic trappings of the final game, but begins to define its fundamental rules and core mechanics. This prototype is played, evaluated, adjusted, and played again, allowing the designer to base decisions om the successive iterations of the game. Iterative design is a cyclic process that alternates between prototyping, playtesting, evaluation and refinement.

I found this horrible little graphic demonstrating the Iterative Design process on Gamasutra, it’s not much to look at but it gets the point across. It’s something I want to constantly refer to, as I’ve previously attempted to evade making changes to my designs.

Jesse Schell says: A Game Begins With An Idea

1. Think of an idea
2. Try it out
3. Keep changing it and testing it until it seems good enough

In Jesse Schell’s book The Art Of Game Design, he uses cards which he calls “lenses” to convince the designer to look at game designer from different perspectives. In terms of conceptualising a design through an idea, he turns to the lens of infinite inspiration.

To you use this lens, stop looking at your game, and stop looking at games like it. Instead, look everywhere else.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What is an experience I have had in my life that I would want to share with others?
● In what small way can I capture the essence of that experience and put it into my game?

I’ve identified my “experience” as a desire to have an experience which I have not had yet! So, now I’m asking the question “how can I capture the essence?” Schell goes on to explain that every game is a solution to a problem. The problem could be a broad question, similar to ones I’ve already been asking myself. Something like:
“how can I make an fun, contemporary side-scrolling platformer?”
or more specific, like
“how can I make a videogame which represents Hanami?”

For the specialist project, I relied pretty heavily on the The Computer Game Design Course. The previous two books talk alot about designer, but this last book makes the transition from design to development. It’s almost a step-by-step guide for someone completely new to the industry, providing advice and frameworks for the entire process from conception to release. Once the game proposal is in place, it suggests that the following items are swiftly taken care of:
1. Asset Artwork
2. Interface
3. Story
4. Level Design
5. Game Mechanics
6. Audio
The result of a realisation of these things makes up the basis of the Game Design Document, which “expresses vision for the game, describes its contents and presents a plan for implementation” (Gamasutra). These considerations should be made before the game goes into development, so for me the next step is to make a start on this, to make sure I know what the game is, how it works, what it’s going to look like and how it’s going to sound through a process of experimentation.

What Makes A Platformer?

From David Perry on Game Cliches:

The platform action game is one of the oldest game genres, and there have been multitudes of variants on the theme. Naturally, there have been some tried-and-true design decisions over the years, and many of them have become clichés of the genre.

Do Re Mi Fantasy for SNES

1. Millions of items to collect
Usually, the item being collected is does nothing on its own, but can grant the player something special if enough are collected.

Megaman 2 for NES

Special power-up and pick-up items
Some items instantly grant the player the ability to do something extra, or will restore previously lost stats like health, ammo or lives.

Super Mario Bros for NES

Plenty of low-level NPC enemies to fight
Enemies are usually defeated by simply jumping on them, throwing something at them or using a special character skill.

Prince of Persia for SNES

Your character is very acrobatic
The playable character of a platformer must be able to reach hard to get areas by running, climbing and jumping about and being very flexible!

Sonic The Hedgehog for Sega Megadrive

There are many animals as main characters
Here the protagonist is a speedy hedgehog. Interesting.

Tombi for Playstation

Oddball storylines
In Tombi! the world is taken over by evil Pigs who have stolen an ancient amulet, and must be captured in magical purses to restore order. It’s undoubtedly a good game setting.

Abe's Oddysee for Playstation

Jumping
Obviously, platformers consist of an arrangement of platforms which in many cases are reached by jumping.

Limbo for XBLA

Climbing
Although in traditional side-scrolling platformers to objective is to travel from left to right, in order to reach you destination the path will often take you up and down.

Rayman for Atari Jaguar

Moving platforms
In Platformer games, some platforms scroll left and right or up and down for no apparent reason other than to add an extra challenge to the player. Miscalculating a move on a moving platform can result in an unwanted casualty!

Super Meat Boy for PC

A game world in a Platformer consist of levels, usually increasing in difficulty. Each level differs slightly, although the game mechanics are usually very similar.

Earthworm Jim for Sega Megadrive

Bosses
A “Boss” in a platformer is a tougher enemy, which usually makes an appearance at the end of a level. Losing to a Boss will halt progress until the Boss is defeated. The final Boss is usually the game’s main villain.

Kirby Superstar for SNES

Keeping Score
By collecting items, defeating enemies or simply reaching a destination in a certain time, the player gains points which will either grant the player a bonus or get saved on a list of high scores, which the player can later try to beat.

Braid for XBLA

Minimal Story
An example of a classic Platformer story is a Mario scenario where a damsel in distress is kidnapped and must be rescued by the protagonist. The game represents the journey the hero must face in order to save his love. Interestingly, this reference in Braid does not fully represent this scenario, as Braid has a reputation for its especially convoluted back-story!

So yes, we do have game clichés. Like all entertainment media, games have developed some clichés — situations and actions that are recognizable or that lead to predictable results and other predictable stereotypes.
Although clichés are useful because they allow players to operate within a familiar environment and they allow game designers to assume certain elements of a game and predict some of the responses of the players, they can also be an opportunity to throw some surprises into the mix…

“What About Japan Inspires You?”

Be Bamboo My Friend
Japan is a great source of inspiration for creatives, geeks, gamers and dreamers (among others!). When I first got my Playstation, I could see that there was a difference between Japanese and Western games. The Western games I played, including Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, were all very fun and had me playing for hours. But it was games like Final Fantasy VII and Tekken 2 that I started to get really immersed into. I felt connected to the characters and in tune with their back-stories, and noticed how relevant narrative was in gaming. Graphically, Japanese games seemed to concentrate a lot more on small background details in order to define the setting of the game. The graphics in FFVII didn’t push the limits of the hardware by any means, but as a player you could tell that each background detail had been individually placed in order to tell a story about its location. And while the game-world was set in a fantasy location, to me it had a unique feel which set it apart from games based on Western fantasy.

The insight into Japanese gaming led to a little insight into Japanese culture. Which over the years has become an understanding of Japanese culture, and a real appreciation for how it has affected Japanese games, films and other media. One of my sincerest dreams is to visit there- I’ve already planned out a few of the locations I would visit including the Square Enix store which sells Final Fantasy merchandise, the Studio Ghibli museum and the island of Izu Oshima which is famous for its volcano suicides and played a huge role in the Japanese novel Ring. For me, I think creating a game set in a Japan-inspired location is a way of bringing the locations and culture a little closer. Games create a virtual reality which the player immerses themselves into by taking control of a character within that virtual world.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been scribbling down little character ideas as and when they come to me, but as I’m still not sure how the game will look or feel, I never settled for anything. Because my game setting was inspired by Japan, I looked to Japanese character design in games and manga for a design solution.

I tried to think what a Japanese character might look like, and chose a female protagonist based on the slightly feminine game concept. The Chibi style is simply a Japanese drawing technique which doesn’t involve placing a lot of detail, so for initial designs I thought it was very appropriate.
However, in a real lightbulb moment of inspiration, I realised that this was no appropriate at all. I would like to keep a female protagonist as the main playable character in my game- as a developer I would like to reach out to female players. It occurred to me that the main character should be an outsider, someone who is unfamiliar with the environment, the customs of the people and their lifestyle. This makes the character more relatable to the player, who is also immersing themselves into the unfamiliar setting. The thoughts and feelings of the character should reflect the feelings of a tourist, slightly confused and nervous, but willing to step into an unknown world. It’s also one step closer for anyone who has ever wanted to experience what it’s like to visit Japan ^_^

Be Like Bamboo (TEDxTokyo 2011 slides)

View more presentations from garr

At the beginning of his Lessons From Bamboo presentation, Garr Reynolds asks “What about Japan inspires you?” I discovered this slideshow on another blog, and immediately felt peaceful while scrolling through the amazing photography. This is just one side of Japan, in contrast to its big city lights, but its one which I hope to represent as well as I possibly can, down to the smallest detail.

You can watch the video of the presentation here, which makes explains a nice little metaphor about bamboo!

be flexible, tough, adaptable and able to recover with even more strength, like bamboo.

Learning Agreement

For the Extended Major Project, I will be creating a 2D side-scrolling platform game inspired by the Japanese tradition of Hanami. Around the end of March every year year, it is customary for the Japanese to spend time outside enjoying Sakura or Cherry Blossoms, which bloom and fall within the space of one or two weeks. This period is a social time, where people gather to celebrate in parks and along streets where the cherry blossoms bloom. However, I was inspired by the return to normality which must occur at the end of these celebrations. Does the world feel calm again once the festivities end? Is there a sense of emptiness or loneliness when people return indoors, and the blossoms fall from the trees?

My game will be set in a Japanese themed world, just after a Hanami style celebration. The outside world will be vacant of people, but full of drifting blossoms. The object of the game will be to collect blossoms in order to progress through a series of levels. Levels will be unlocked when the player collects a certain amount of blossoms, and progression will be achieved by finding the pathway. Each level will have its own unique theme and colour-scheme, based around typical Japanese artefacts.

2D platform games prove ever popular with players of all ages. Recent releases such as Limbo, Super Meat Boy and Rayman Origins have all received critical acclaim while portraying the genre uniquely in each case. While each game adheres to the characteristics which result in this genre classification, differences in objectives, physics and visuals set each game apart. I also aim to produce a unique game in this way, with its own game rules and visual style.

The objective of this project is to provide a contemporary game based on more traditional methods of development. Backgrounds will be constructed from tile-sets, which were traditional used when technology was not advanced enough to handle large objects. 2D sprites will be used for characters and game objects, and frame-based animation will be used to make characters and objects move. I will be using a “pixel-art” graphical style for game elements and interfaces, inspired by traditional 8-bit styles. I will be looking to implement typical gameplay characteristics and functions specific to the “platformer” genre. The emphasis of this project will be on “play” and “player experience”, rather than in-depth narratives and complicated dialogue. While visuals are important in communicating the type of game being presented to the player, my main aim is to create an enjoyable game based on the way it is played.

I will produce all concept art for the game, which will mainly be based on hand-drawn sketches and digital paintings. The final game imagery will be created in pixel-art creation software Graphics Gale and Adobe Photoshop. My visual research will focus on found images of Japan, as well as common tile-sets and pixel-art techniques.

The game’s soundtrack and all sound effects will be provided by a separate individual or acquired from the internet. I will be using sites like freesound.org for royalty-free sound effects for the game.

All game elements will be brought together using Game Maker to create an executable for Windows. Within the software, I will be using Matt Thorson’s Grandma Engine, a physics template which has been designed for the development of 2D platformers. I will code all other aspects of the game using Game Maker’s GML (Game Maker Language).

Synopsis of Study- What I’m Doing And Why I’m Doing It

My learning agreement is nearly complete! The main bulk of the learning agreement consists of the Synopsis of Study, which briefly outlines what I’m doing in as much detail as you can fit into a brief statement. It’s helped me clarify some things which have either gone unmentioned or were simply missing- so here’s an informal breakdown.

Character Sprite concept & inspiration from Adventure Time with Finn & Jake: Memory of a Memory. It's nearly relevant.

What I’m doing
The plan is to create a contemporary 2D side-scrolling platform game. This is a very traditional genre, born from the limitations of early game design. My aim is to use the typical characteristics of this style of game to create something new and fun to old-school players who are familiar with the genre. The object of the game is to collect items and progress through levels, which is pretty much the objective of any 2D platformer if you think about it! Platformers usually follow a simple narrative which explains why the character is running from left to right picking up , and my plot is about revolves around the Japanese tradition of Hanami (for me details see the rest of the Blog).

Mario runs from left to right to collect coins and progresses through levels to find the Princess.

Why I’m doing it
The popularity of 2D platformers has wavered throughout the past couple of decades, but with the strong emergence of Indie game developers since about 2008 they’ve risen to popularity again. From a design perspective, it’s an incredibly easy genre to develop, which is probably why small teams of Indie devs picked it up again. There is now potential to incorporate stunning high-resolution graphics into these games, however the retro “pixel-art” style remains ever popular amongst developers and players. I too intend to use implement a retro graphical style into my game, because it’s such an important factor in the history of computer technologies. If you were to ask what made Super Mario Bros so good?” part of the reason would be that its low-res 2D graphics had a sort of “mysterious digital-world magic” to them. 2D platform games and pixel art are almost synonymous with retro. Mario’s original silhouette is still universally recognised by gamers.

You know who it is.

How I’m doing it
I’m going to draw all game assets myself, using a combination of Photoshop and pixel-art drawing program Graphics Gale. The game will be made in Yoyo Game’s Game Maker 8.1, which is almost the perfect tool for creating 2D games of any genre.
John Sandoval:

Game Maker can do anything.
It’s magic.

(from somewhere on The Archer Devlog!)

For a better insight into the game-making possibilities of Game Maker, see this post from a previous Blog. I initially chose to use Game Maker because it was free and very easy to pick-up. In the creation of games, I’m an asset artist before a coder, so it was important for me to use an engine which didn’t require years of programming knowledge to be able to use well. Since I wrote the post on my old Blog, I’ve bought the standard version of Game Maker, which has opened up even more possibilities.
During this project, to help me focus on asset creation rather than using up valuable time on coding, I’m going to use Matt Thorson’s Grandma Engine, which runs in GM and acts as an easily adaptable platformer basis.

To clarify, I’ve prepared a list of things the Grandma Engine does not have in common with the stereotypical grandma:
Old
Slow

To highlight the positive features of the engine, I also found it necessary to provide a list of the things the Grandma Engine does have in common with the stereotypical grandma:
Gives you candy

Other features of the Grandma Engine include a custom movement system (meaning it does not use the built-in Game Maker movement system), slopes, jump-through platforms, and an An Untitled Story-style room system.

The image shows the building blocks of the engine, which make up the solid platforms in a platform game! When the game is complete, these black blocks will be invisible to the player, replaced by more aesthetic visuals.
As for sounds, I will be looking to sites like freesound.org for sound effects. For background music, I’m going to keep an eye open for any willing composers, if not I will probably use a few royalty-free tracks.

And What Makes A Game “Good”?

Ultimately: It’s a matter of opinion.
I don’t think there’s any arguing this point. It’s also important to point out that a good game isn’t necessarily a successful game, and vice versa.

However, German board Game designer Wolfgang Kramer points out these criteria which must be considered when designing a game:

Originality

A new must be new, although this can simply be a new arrangement of old characteristics.

Freshness and replayability

“The more a game makes its players want to play again, the better the game.” The same game played twice should never be the same.

Surprise

Repetition in gaming results in a bored player.

Equal Opportunity

There should be an equal chance of winning or losing, and in the case of multiplayer games, each player should have equal chances.

No “Kingmaker” Effect

There should be no way for any player to determine the winner before the end of the game! (Obviously, this article was originally written in relation to board games, but can be applied to electronic gaming. This seems far less likely in single player digital games, but still applies.)

No early elimination

Every player should be involved in the game until it is nearly over.

Reasonable Waiting Times

“Nothing kills players’ interest as easily as long periods of inactivity while they wait”.

Creative Control

The player must have a certain amount of control over the progression of the game. This is related to the choices the play makes.

Uniformity

“The title, theme, format, and graphics of a game must give a unified impression.” This is think is vital.

Quality of Components

The value of a game is judged on its visual and functional quality.

Target Groups and the Consistency of Rules
Certain types of players expect certain things from the games they play, so if a goal is supposed to be reached through strategy, the player cannot arrive at that goal by luck.

Tension

The amount of tension should vary.

Learning and Mastering A Game

“It is an advantage for a game to start quickly and be easy to learn, and the clearer and simpler the rules, the better.”

Complexity and Influence

A short game should be simple and employ a short list of rules, whereas larger games are allowed to be more complex.

A good game will stay with us all our lives.
A good game makes us long to play it again.

From What Makes A Game Good? on thegamesjournal.com