Microgame
Recycling Micro-game Project:
The current project were working on is about making a micro-game to help aid in recycling.
The game should be 10-30s in length and have a goal.
Our game plan was to create a drag and drop game involving bins and the player must drag and drop the correct items into the correct bins within a time limit. The goal is to help show what items should be recycled and what items should be binned.
Research for the micro-game:
"Skrunkly Scraps" - This game is about controlling claw to pick up and drop off certain trash into 3 separated bins within a time limit. This game was produced by a fellow student and is similar to our idea of a micro-game.
Here is a link to a video produced to show off gameplay: https://youtu.be/fqWk7ICrDHs?si=cHsu9tkAPJE4xPVe
Here is the link to the download and video page: Interactive Junk Jungle Recycling Game - Twinkl Go! - Twinkl
"Clean and Green" - This game is about cleaning up a room and sorting trash into multiple recycling boxes all labelled with different things, the player must correctly drag each item into the correct box. This is produced to help kids in KS1 to see which items go where in the recycling pool.
Here is the link to the page to play: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/fun-games/games/clean-green
"Litter Critters" - This game is running a conveyor belt with multiple items to recycle, the goal is to drag the correct recycling items into the box. This is also created for kids and features 2 difficulties.
Here is the link to the game: Litter Critters - Learn to Sort and Recycle • ABCya!
Brief: Our game plan was to create a drag and drop game using unity involving 2 bins and the player must drag and drop the correct items into the correct bins within a time limit (probably 20 seconds). We are planning on adding extra features such as having items spawn in the wrong bin, which players must remove, but we first must finish the main gameplay feature, which is the drag and drop feature. The goal is to help show what items should be recycled and what items should be binned.
Moodboards:
Idea list:
Props and items
Recyclable:
- Two bins (One green, one blue)
- Cans (from different kinds of pop)
- Bottles (glass and plastic)
- Dead animal
- bones
- Pair of socks with hole
Non Recyclable:
- Old moldy bread
- Banana peel + bit of banana
- Single waffle
- Depressed piece of egg
- Dirty Pizza box
- bin bag
- a single ear phone
- mp3 playerBackgrounds
Screens:
- Start
- Victory
- Loss
- End
- Pause (although its a minigame, so not likely needed)Programming
Cursor:
- hand (glove)
- Recycling logo
Storyboard:
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08/09/2023 - Me and my team drafted, shared and gave feedback on ideas. We got our trello setup, and got lots of concept art done. We went through and researched even more from the list of items we could use to locations we could use.
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12/09/2023 - Me and Andreia started writing out the GDD. We started on the first page writing out a part each.
We mainly stuck to this only altering a few things such as level changing.
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13/09/2023 - Me and Andreia started working on sorting out the trello and art for the game.
I also started the programming, here is the code for the dragging feature:
This works by getting a collider (in this case, a circle one for the custom cursor we have) and using it so if its hovering over an item and then clicked, it will pick the item up and then drop if clicked again.
Here is the custom cursor and the original assets for the game made by Andreia and pearl.
Here is the custom cursor and the original assets for the game made by Andreia and pearl.
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20/09/2023 - I started to finalize the code for the dragging feature, and I designed a logo. My team made some extra assets for recyclable and no recyclable objects.
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21/09/2023 - I designed a background for our game and also made a few silhouettes to add as background props.
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26/09/2023 - I made a timer for our game, I did this by getting a text mesh and used them both as the seconds and updated it every tick to display a number +1 or -1. I also added another feature so the timer will flash if it hits zero and then will display either a win or lose screen.
26/09/2023 - I made a timer for our game, I did this by getting a text mesh and used them both as the seconds and updated it every tick to display a number +1 or -1. I also added another feature so the timer will flash if it hits zero and then will display either a win or lose screen.
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03/10/2023 - I made code for the point system. This gets the players points by using a text mesh and a trigger for if an item hit a bin and if that bin was correctly linked (using code to see if its either recyclable or nonrecoverable, if the players points equal to a certain amount, it will display the corresponding UI for the players points.
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04/10/2023 - I had made the main menu screen and pearl has added a few extra bits using the before mentioned silhouettes and then has animated it for the main menu.
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05/10/2023 - I made some extra screens for completing certain percentages of the game, the goal is to have a full globe at 100 points +.
10/10/2023 - Finalized the code for the main menu. The code will load a page where you can select your difficulty, change your options, view credits and quit. UI was done simpily by adding buttons and text meshes and then by making a simple script attached to the menu to tell the buttons what to do like quit, start, options etc.
The image on the right is used to load a scene depending on if it is in the same scene or not such as the options and credits (it will hide the sub-page its coming from, and display the page you want). The code on the left is used to load a new scene entirely.
I made a difficulty page so you can chose how hard you want your level to be.
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11/10/2023 - I have now added music to the game and will be adding sound effects for picking up and dropping items too. We found a royalty free site we could use:
https://www.playonloop.com/royalty-free-music/video-game-chiptune-music/page/2/ .
https://www.playonloop.com/royalty-free-music/video-game-chiptune-music/page/2/ .
Here is a snip of the main menu music.
Have now added the cursor to each new percentage win screen and have added a how to play section to the main menu.
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This is a video showing off all the SFX for the game.
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12/10/2023 - I have now added a leaderboard page for those who manage to beat my challenge (getting highest amount of points on hard game-mode.
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17/10/2023 - Scrum Sheets
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20/10/2023 - Post Mortem
What was my role within our group?
My role was: Programming, UI and artist
What could I have done better?
If we had handled our time more efficiently, we could have added sound effects, more point screens and will have had transitions between screens.
What do I think went well within the team?
We all got our work done on time and had all equally contributed to make an MVP early into the project. We communicated well, using discord, teams and trello to help make sure the project went well.
What do I think could have gone better in our presentation?
[Presentation yet to be done]
What could I have done better with my roles?
I personally believe I could've done better by polishing the game more and adding in the extra things we had planned such as more SFX and a better How To Play screen.
How can I improve within the group?
My role was: Programming, UI and artist
What could I have done better?
If we had handled our time more efficiently, we could have added sound effects, more point screens and will have had transitions between screens.
What do I think went well within the team?
We all got our work done on time and had all equally contributed to make an MVP early into the project. We communicated well, using discord, teams and trello to help make sure the project went well.
What do I think could have gone better in our presentation?
[Presentation yet to be done]
What could I have done better with my roles?
I personally believe I could've done better by polishing the game more and adding in the extra things we had planned such as more SFX and a better How To Play screen.
How can I improve within the group?
I feel I could've been less involved with the art and stuck to my role as a programmer.
Feedback:
Toby - change the levels around back to their original state so "easy" is back to "hard" (Keith had told me to make the easy mode the hard game) and make the How To Play explain the points and timer system. Overall a very good game and can see the style in the art form.
Keith - change the electronics so they do not go in general waste.
Unused Art made by me:
