Section 1:
Concept & Research
The idea that I had for my final major project was to create a 2D arcade flight action game.
I am a massive fan of the Ace Combat series produced by Bandai Namco. This series consists of 3D arcade flight action games which shirk the realism of flight simulators such as DCS World in favour of snappy, simple gameplay and anime-inspired theatrics. I believe it would be an interesting challenge to try and capture the core of these games and implement them within a drastically different gameplay format.
Beyond my love for the aforementioned game series, I believe that a game such as this would be suitable for my final major project because it plays to my strengths within Construct 2. I am proficient in identifying the interactions, the interlocking nature of events and behaviours. Many of the behaviours that I had learnt over the course of my projects can also be applied to this type of game: Bullet acceleration and deceleration for jet movement; Line-of-Sight for a lock-on system; Turret rotation for missile guidance; and so on. Whereas my previous project, the interactive game Ijiraq, was an expansion of the Blue Wall pong game, this project takes the skills that I had learned and asks me to implement them in an entirely new way.
This isn't to say that this project does not present its fair share of concepts that I am unfamiliar with, either. In particular, the programming of enemy behaviour makes me nervous, as artificial intelligence is an area of game development that I have not yet tackled in Construct. In fact, implementation of information storage as a whole is an area that I am unfamiliar with, and what I believe to be an area that I must come to understand in order to finish development of this game.
The biggest problem with creating my game in Construct 2, an issue which I addressed in my project proposal, are event limitations. In lieu of running Construct 3, due to the Wi-Fi problems that TMP College is facing, we are running the free version of Construct 2. The free version of Construct 2 has a variety of limitations, but the greatest of these limitations is the fact that you are only allowed 100 events in a single project. This puts a hard limit on the amount of content I am able to add to my game; in worst case scenario, one which I narrowly avoided during my interactive game project, I will be unable to add vital game mechanics. As such, I will need to be economic with my implementation of events and seek to cut down on as much bloat as I can.
In my previous projects, I made the mistake of developing ideas before performing research. This put an undue level of stress on me, as this meant I was forcing myself to create unique gameplay ideas without the context of genre conventions. Approaching idea development in this way also caused my research to suffer, as it was merely performed to provide context for my game idea.
For my final major project, I will instead conduct my research into games of my desired genre first and weave a unique concept out of it later. By approaching development in this way, not only do I relieve myself of the undue stress that I placed on myself, but I also acquire valuable insight and inspiration which will greatly assist in producing a unique and solid game.
GAME 1: ACE COMBAT 7, SKIES UNKNOWN (2019)
ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN is a 2019 arcade flight-action game developed by Bandai Namco and is available for Xbox, PlayStation and PC. I have played this game on both PC and PlayStation.
The main game of ACE COMBAT 7 is a story-based campaign spanning a series of missions. Though the gameplay loop of locking on to targets, firing and evading stays the same, each mission introduces wildly different gameplay scenarios and gimmicks. This encourages the player to change their aircraft and approach to gameplay depending on the objectives, keeping each mission fresh.
ACE COMBAT 7 possesses a wide array of aircraft to choose from, both fictional and non-fictional, which are acquired by purchasing them from an upgrade tree. On top of aircraft boasting a variety of stats, each one comes with three special weapons, of which one can be brought into missions to use alongside standard missiles and guns. Finally, each aircraft can be fitted with a variety of parts to provide upgrades such enhanced mobility and weapons capabilities or auxiliary effects such as regenerating health. This adds a large level of player choice and customization to the game, as they are able to pick their favourite aircraft and fine-tune it via upgrades to either negate its weaknesses or further accentuate their strengths.
This upgrade tree is the latest in a long line of iterations on aircraft acquisition throughout the series, and what I believe to be one of the best. In the majority of games, aircraft are unlocked for purchase after completing certain missions throughout the game. ACE COMBAT 5 was the first game in the series in which an upgrade tree was seen, but implemented in a needlessly complicated way. On top of unlocking aircraft through missions, each aircraft had a tree of variants which were unlocked by acquiring a certain amount of kills with said aircraft. [2] Though good on paper, this unlock system forces the player to use disliked or sub-par aircraft and grind previous missions in order to unlock their better variants. Aircraft also only had one special weapon each in ACE COMBAT 5, drastically reducing the utility of some planes. This feature returned for none of the future games in the series.
The upgrade tree of ACE COMBAT 7 allows the player to see everything in advance; every plane, every special weapon and every upgrade. This allows the player to plan-out and optimise their purchases in order to acquire the parts and aircraft that they want as early as they can. The upgrade tree is also convenient, as it allows the player to purchase every kind of item from one screen rather than having to navigate between various screens to buy aircraft and then buy weaponry for that aircraft separately.
The only problem with the upgrade tree is a problem that besets most progression systems in gaming: once you unlock high-tier aircraft, there is no reason to go back to aircraft unlocked earlier in the tree. This is mitigated by the weapons system, allowing even aircraft with low stats to shine through the use of unique weaponry, but the difference in stats is night-and-day and a multitude of high-tier aircraft tend to make use of these weapons anyway.
The core of ACE COMBAT 7's flight system is energy management. The 'High-G Turn' mechanic allows the player to make incredibly tight turns to get the drop on highly manoeuvrable foes at a big cost to speed; the more speed you have, the tighter and more numerous the manoeuvres you can perform. I am of two minds about this mechanic. On the one hand, not only is it adrenaline-pumping to kick your aircraft into overdrive like an 80's maverick action hero, but it also adds a level of complexity to the simple flight system by forcing the player to focus on their speed; overuse will result in your aircraft slowing to a crawl, potentially even stalling, making yourself an easy target for enemy attacks. However, your aircraft accelerates so quickly in ACE COMBAT 7 that running out of energy is never a pressing concern, and thus High-G Turns go from a risk-reward mechanic to just a 'reward' mechanic.
The biggest problem I have with ACE COMBAT 7 is its difficulty. I like to view the combat encounters in these games as puzzles; you have to learn the opponent's flight patterns, identify their behaviours, and take advantage of them in order to win. However, even towards the endgame and at higher difficulty levels, enemy aircraft fly in slow and predictable patterns. Combine this with the High-G Turn mechanic, and the extremely lenient acceleration of most aircraft, and the player is able to brute-force standard enemies by spamming High-G Turns. The boss fights suffer from the opposite issue, the game boosting their manoeuvrability to the point where hitting them is more about luck than skill. Both enemy and player missiles also have poor tracking. This simultaneously makes combat mindless and mind-numbingly frustrating; the enemy will just sit still and eat your missiles half of the time, and an enemy who is on the nose can cause your shot to completely miss with a slight turn every other time. It feels good to be outplayed by an enemy, but it feels terrible to be cheated out of victory by wonky weaponry.
References:
[1] 'Review: Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown - What a Comeback! - BunnyGaming.com'
https://bunnygaming.com/news/review-ace-combat-7-skies-unknown/
[2] 'Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War/Aircraft | Acepedia | Fandom'
https://acecombat.fandom.com/wiki/Ace_Combat_5:_The_Unsung_War/Aircraft
GAME 2: LUFTRAUSERS (2014)
LUFTRAUSERS, an expanded port of the free browser game LUFTRAUSER, is a 2014 indie arcade-style shoot-'em-up developed by Vlambeer. The original game can still be found on Newgrounds and played through the Newgrounds Player. This was the version that I had played for my research. However, LUFTRAUSER lacks many of the mechanics introduced in LUFTRAUSERS, such as aircraft customization and objectives. Therefore, the criticisms I have towards the gameplay may not apply to the final release.
In LUFTRAUSERS, your goal is to survive for as long as you can against an ever-intensifying wave of enemy reinforcements, both in the air and on the sea. The game also gives the player a list of objectives to complete in gameplay which unlock new parts for their aircraft when accomplished, providing bonuses such as altered stats, different weaponry and unique capabilities. This game makes no attempts to adhere to realism, which ultimately frees the game to come up with extremely imaginative and engaging mechanics, such as a chassis that allows your aircraft to survive underwater and an engine that propels itself through the use of bullets. [3]
One of LUFTRAUSERS' most striking aspects is the graphical design. LUFTRAUSERS' aesthetic was inspired by the Second World War, a period of time in which the fear of secret superweapons ran high. [4] As such, the game is presented in a sepia-tone colour palette, with flat muddy reds to represent entities in the game and creams to represent the environment. The drastic contrast between the reds and creams allows the entities in the foreground to greatly stand out compared to the background. I myself would like to add more detail to my sprites, so the silhouetted aesthetic is out of question, but I deeply admire it for its striking nature and effective visual communication.
I find the controls fascinating, and moreover, fun. Your aircraft is weighty and maintains no momentum, dropping like a sack of bricks seconds after you release the afterburners, but its turning speed is lightning fast and does not affect the speed or direction of the aircraft when gliding. This allows the player to make tight turns and perform complex manoeuvres, such as cutting the engines and turning around to shoot down your pursuers Top Gun style. It is a simple flight system that is easy to learn, satisfying to master, and most of all, liberating in how much control the player is allowed over their aircraft.
Something to note is that the controls, for as unique as they may seem in comparison to, are not actually unique. The 1979 Atari game 'Asteroids', an arcade game in which you play a spaceship trying to shoot down asteroids, uses the exact same control scheme, albeit with slower rotation and no gravity. [5]
The biggest problem I had with LUFTRAUSER is its extremely simple gameplay loop and unbalanced difficulty.
There are two primary enemy types: 'Planes' that come in droves and relentlessly pursue you, and stationary 'Boats' which unload intense amounts of firepower at you. There are also 'Jets', which attempt to crash into you at high-speeds from offscreen, and 'Ships', destroyers with high health and fast, linear firing patterns. Unlike the final game, your plane is unable to submerge itself in LUFTRAUSER, meaning the player has to put themselves on a collission course (whilst being fired upon, mind you) in order to get a shot at waterborne targets.
Owing to the simple enemy design and flight system, there is little intricacy to be found in the combat of LUFTRAUSER. The aforementioned strategy of cutting the engines, turning and gunning down enemies is practically the only strategy to be found. The simplicity of the enemies isn't strictly the problem, rather the fact that these enemies do not push the player to make unique choices in the heat of gameplay.
In this video, DOOM Eternal game director Hugo Martin breaks down the design of the enemies in the game. He continually refers to them as 'chess pieces', focusing on their unique roles in combat and how they push the player to play in different ways, steering them to engage with the core mechanics of the game such as movement and enemy prioritisation.
"...and thinking is what we really want you to do in DOOM Eternal, more than anything else. Because when you're thinking, you're engaged; and when you're not thinking, you're bored, and you'll go play something else." [6]
This is an element of LUFTRAUSER that is sorely lacking. Though the enemies vary in behaviour, none of these behaviours synergise with each other in interesting ways. As the game goes on, more and more enemies begin to appear on-screen, which does force the player to change their behaviour. However, this is not a fun way to make the player adapt, as you are simply throwing endless amounts of enemies at the player until they are too swamped to even fight back. Owing to the simplicity of the controls, the player doesn't have interesting ways to deal with the increase in difficulty, either.
References:
[3] 'Nerd³ 101 – LUFTRAUSERS'; Nerd³. Apr 22nd, 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X0yxfQGABc
[4] 'Vlambeer responds to criticism over supposed Nazi imagery in Luftrausers: "The fact is that no interpretation of a game is "wrong".
https://www.pcgamesn.com/indie/vlambeer-responds-criticism-over-supposed-nazi-imagery-luftrausers-fact-no-interpretation-game-wrong
[5] 'Arcade Longplay [900] Asteroids'; World of Longplays. Feb 20th, 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TKiRvGfw3Q
[6] 'Designing DOOM Eternal's New & Classic Demons'; Noclip – Video Game Documentaries. Jan 26th, 2020.
MY THOUGHTS:
Something that I was surprised to discover was that, despite the popularity of 3D flight action games such as ACE COMBAT, DCS World and War Thunder, there is a startling sparsity of professionally produced 2D flight action games. This is a fact that is both exceptionally exciting and terrifying. On the one hand, this means that the market is untapped, and thus a well-made game of this genre could not only fill this niche but prove the genre's potential. On the other hand, the aforementioned sparsity of these games mean that I am flying blind, as it were. With a lack of games of this genre to draw from, I lack a reference to what is proven to work and what isn't; I am reliant on my own intuition and judgement to find the path ahead.
As stated prior to the beginning of the research section, idea generation is not my strong-suit. The actual process of programming the game is where I thrive. My goal with research was to investigate these games, deconstruct them and see what makes them tick, so that it would guide me in creating my game.
My core focus when it came to my analyses of ACE COMBAT 7 and LUFTRAUSERS was the gameplay-- in particular, the flight systems.
The simplistic gameplay of ACE COMBAT 7 and LUFTRAUSER come with their upsides and downsides. The upside to these simple flight systems is that it allows even players inexperienced with the genre to dive in and have a good time. However, the downside to these systems is exactly that: it's simple. Without external gameplay elements to encourage the player to make the most out of these systems, they can become boring extremely fast. This is why I put such an emphasis on difficulty, as a challenge is what ultimately encourages the player to engage with the mechanics of the game.
The gameplay of ACE COMBAT 7 and LUFTRAUSERS run counteractive to each other; the former offers a pseudo-realistic flight experience, and the latter completely disregards reality in favour of raw arcade thrills. Going into this project, as stated at the beginning of this workbook, I wanted to see if I could marry the hallmarks of ACE COMBAT 7, a 3D flight sim, into a 2D game. However, after playing LUFTRAUSER, I have to ask myself: would it be fun? Or, at least, would an emphasis on realistic mechanics be more fun than a pure arcade experience?
The second most important aspect that these games offer is player freedom and customisation. LUFTRAUSERS in particular is a shining example of this, allowing you to build your own aircraft with a variety of bizarre and powerful features. In ACE COMBAT 7, the pre-missions briefings and aircraft selection are practically games in of themselves, as it is up to the player to consider the objectives and foes that they may face in order to choose the aircraft that provides them with the best chance of success.
LUFTRAUSERS has also reinforced the idea that idea generation does not have to be extremely in-depth. They did not have to create a unique, well though-out concept and plot and how it would impact every aspect of game development; the gameplay came first and foremost, and the game's aesthetic was based off a generalised image of World War 2. This is a concept that I have to continuously remind myself of, as I have an issue of overthinking and complicating the design process instead of starting with a general idea and growing more specific from there.
TARGET AUDIENCE:
As an arcade flight-simulator, my game is targeted at both people interested in aviation and action games. Given that the game was built with challenging the player in a fun and fair way in mind, it is also suited for people who are looking for a enjoy overcoming tough obstacles when they play video games. The bold and vibrant graphics also communicate to the player that it is not a game that is grounded in reality- it will be cartoony and over-the-top.
In regards to age, my game will be targeted at people from ages 12+. There are two reasons behind this. The first reason that this will be targeted at the 12+ range is because of the content depicted in the game. Although the game is dwarfed by Ijiraq in terms of graphic violence, this game is still rife with cartoon violence which some may deem unsuitable for a younger demographic with its depictions of warfare.
The second reason that I am targeting my game at the 12+ demographic is due to the complexity of the game. By no means is my game an overly complex game; but between the myriad of enemies, the intricate handling of the player's aircraft and the sheer difficulty, it may prove too complicated and challenging for a younger demographic to enjoy.
PUBLIC OPINIONS:
Another important aspect to consider when developing my game, even though it is for a project and thus will never see release, is what the consumers of my targeted genre are interested in. It is no good considering what I alone want to do with the project if what I want fails to capture the interest of the public.
Therefore, in addition to my own research, I will also investigate reviews of the games I have covered, both from reputable websites and players on Steam and elsewhere.
PUBLIC OPINION ON ACE COMBAT 7:
Review sites:
Player reviews:
PUBLIC OPINION ON LUFTRAUSERS:
Review sites:
Player reviews:
(10/03/2023:
I am discontinuing this section of the workbook.
I sit here asking myself: what good will researching these reviews do me?
Seeking out audience feedback is important, and it is a positive step in character that I am now gaining the courage to consider other people. Unlike my previous two projects, once I have a working prototype of the game, I plan to get audience feedback by emailing the prototype to my classmates alongside a questionnaire in order to understand what they liked and disliked about the game.
However, researching what people liked and disliked about other games does little to advance the development of my own, not when I have already performed hands-on research of them. Though my reasoning for doing so is solid, it ultimately only wastes my time, as I could be refining my research section and moving onto the pre-production and planning instead of going on a wild goose chase, stressing over finding mind-blowing genre insights in a simple game review. )