Initial Dissertation Idea

I want to learn how to build and code games in unity. For my dissertation, I am going to build a game in unity for mobile devices. Because I want to be marked on my code more than the end product, I am not going to focus too much on the art work and the mechanics of the games.

Raw Concept of the Game Idea
The game that I am going to build will essentially be a collection of mini-games within one large game. Similar to games like Frobisher says and WarioWare Smooth Moves, the game will have the player complete small, short and simple mini-games. My idea will be aimed at less game savvy people, middle aged people and people who just want something to occupy 30 minutes – an hour of their time while they travel or are waiting for something. Because of this, the mini-games will not be overly challenging or have complex controls.

Additionally, I will have to experiment with art work to get the feeling I want. Not to flashy but enough to keep the players attention.  

Players will be scored on how many mini-games they can complete in a row. As the player continues to complete the games, they will become progressively harder with new ones or modified versions of the easier games.

This is the first idea of how I want the main menu to look and how players will interact with it. Using their thumb, they can scroll up and down the options. As they scroll, the option in the middle of the screen will become larger, giving the illusion that it is coming towards the screen. Taping on the option will choose them. ‘Play’ will start the game. ‘Stats’ will show the players largest score, times played, mini-games played etc. ‘Practice’ will allow the player to play a single level that they have played before but maybe could not complete. This option will be an additional feature depending on how hard or easy I find coding in unity. At the bottom of the screen I will have a random fact like ‘Broccoli and cauliflower are the only vegetables that are flowers’.

From the games that I have made in the past, one thing that people have commented on was that they were unable to pause the game once they had started. Therefore, at the start of each mini-game, I will have a screen that gives simple instructions on how the play and it will wait for the player to tap the screen to start. This will allow the player to have a break if they need to while playing the game.

The instructions will tell the player to tap, press and drag or swipe, with a vague hint for the game. Some games will be obvious to the player but some may require the player to experiment slightly in order to win. For example, ‘tap all the red squares’ but if the player taps blue squares or red circles they will fail.

Some games will require the player to solve a puzzle in a set time or have 3 lives for the game. When the player fails a puzzle, the game ends and they receive a score and a new high score respectively.

Basic structure for the game (From my experience with AS3).

When a game is played, it’s state is changed to used. Therefore, the player will not play the same game of the same difficulty in one play through.

Before I start working on the game, I am going to first have a go at a few Unity tutorials so I understand how to code with java and how the class system works in unity. In addiction, I will also have a look that studies into attention spans, keeping people’s attentions and how much to reward the player for completing a game.

Scoping
I am quite competent in coding in AS3 but unity is completely new to me. After having talks with my tutors about this idea, to avoid over-scoping and ending up with an unfinished game, I plan on only building a very basic game to start with. To begin with, the main menu will only have the ‘play’ and ‘stats’ options. I plan on making 3 different mini-games with easy, medium and hard difficulties. This will allow me to focus on the mini-games having the right feel to them and that they work correctly. As the year goes on, if I pick up coding in java and using unity, I can increase the number of mini-games and add the ‘practice’ option.