Blogs - BreakwaterGame

Last week was all about testing. Preparing the testing, scheduling it and actually executing it.

We set up goals for what we wanted to be in and then worked all week to get them in. There was quite a lot of stress involved but we pushed through and got done in time. The final fixes were actually made Friday morning, an hour before the first testers showed up.

There were 25 testers, mostly developers from other project groups, divided into groups of six and put on a schedule. Every group had time for two play sessions, each taking around ten minutes and then were given some coffee and a form to fill out. I think that at this point it was really important that we were three people handling the testing. Someone could always greet the testers, get them set up and started while someone would serve coffee and answer any questions from the exiting group.

So what did we learn?

We were mostly notified of some tweaks that needed to be made. It was far too easy to burst down other ships so the overall damage of certain abilities had to be lowered. The towers were a bit easy to kill. We want the game to be quicker than other MOBAs but that doesn’t mean that you should just be able to kill every tower on your own after a couple of minutes. We are currently fixing this by making the tower attacks a bit stronger.

Of course some bugs were found. The funniest one in my opinion was concerning sunken ships. During the week the graphical team had worked on and implemented a great animation for the sinking ships. There was a bug with the collisions tho so sometimes when a ship that was still alive went over a sinking ship they would interlock and make it appear like you were dragging you fallen enemies around on the battlefield

There were also some small bugs concerning the pathing of the smaller “creep” ships that is being worked on at the moment.

One thing that we want from the game is that it’s easy to learn and the tests showed just that. The first game of every test session was tentative and the players read every ability to check what it did. The second game was all out war, you could see the testers getting into it and really enjoying the experience!

All in all, everyone were happy and had a lot of fun which is exactly what we were aiming for.

Eleven days until the final presentation, hopefully everything keeps going as planned!

You find more about the game at:
facebook.com/breakwatergame
instagram.com/breakwatergame
twitter.com/breakwatergame

I've decided to go back to the interview format for this article. Mainly because it's always interesting to see if people have the same view of how the project is going right now.
The graphics work in this project has really impressed me and seems to have impressed the whole group. They get constant praise from everyone and I'm honestly curious if there has been any problems and if so which they have been and how they have arised.

I sat down with one of the 3D artists, Theo Broersma and this is what he said:
Q:So, it's been about seven weeks. How has the project felt so far? T: It feels good, the project is moving forward rapidly, people are hard at work. Especially the last few weeks have felt like they are full of progress because things are starting to come together.
Q: What do you think about the theme, ships fighting in the Caribbean?
T: I think it's fun. I've always preferred a hand painted style and found sci-fi a bit boring. I've played the game that our project is based on so boats felt natural to me.
Q: What has been the biggest problem so far?
T: Oh god. I'm always bad at remembering these things which makes writing reports a hassle. I think the meetings we have each Friday have solved a lot of our problems quickly. Around week 3-4 we had a bit of trouble with the planning, it felt like we were a bit out of sync but that resolved rather quickly. Morale was a bit bad for a while with people not showing up but that got better after it was brought up at one of the meetings. Personally I've haven't had that much work that was actually for me so I've got to search for stuff to help with.

Q: Three weeks left, feeling a bit stressed?
T: Not at all, just this week we've got a lot done. Towers, mercs and shrines have all come together. Our 2D artist Lova has really given me a lot of nice concepts to work with. I actually think all the models are done and we just need a few more textures and a bit of polish to be finished.
Q: Will we get done?
T: I think that we are technically done if you look at our project goals. You can join a game, shoot your cannon and move around. It's just finishing touches left there's no production left to be done.
Q: What is your favorite game ever?
T: Well let's go through my gaming history. I started with WC3 when I was little with all the mods like DoTA, life of a peasant e.t.c. Then I played a lot of WoW but lately it's been mostly MOBAs. If I have to pick one it's going to be DoTA2! Or maybe CIV but i just keep winning so let's say DoTA2.
Q: Would you rather be a turtle, a seagull or an iguana?
T: Why are my options so bad? How did you come up with these? Am I old and wise, a slow glutton or what does really an iguana represent? Let's just go with turtle, just swimming and chillin'

You find more about the game at:
facebook.com/breakwatergame
instagram.com/breakwatergame
twitter.com/breakwatergame

It’s an exciting and stressful time at the moment. We are closing in on a playable version and that means testing. We’re going to start with a lot of testing on our own to weed out early bugs and get an overall feel for the game. Of course it’s also very important that we don’t get beaten when we soon invite other people to test so we need to get better at it.

Usually when it comes to the final presentation which is around three weeks away, it’s a power-point presentation with a trailer and some points explaining what people produced. This year it’s been changed, we haven’t gotten the exact details on how it’s going to be but there is talk about an expo. Which I love but at the same time it means we need to have a presentable and playable game that doesn't bug and can impress a bit because people from the industry are invited. So it’s time to hurry up and start polishing.
The reason I like the expo idea is because it’s simply not as boring as the usual “here’s a power-point showing what we came up with and here’s some footage that might represent the game but you have no idea how it plays or if it bugs”. An expo forces the different development teams to actually be done on time, allows everyone that wants to get a feel for the game and chat a bit with the developers.

Instead of the classic final presentation we had a “milestone presentation” to let all the teams and more importantly the teachers see how far everyone had come right now. I feel that our presentation went great and in that presentation was a small gameplay trailer. Let me therefore present to you the first trailer for Breakwater.

After the presentation we had a small meeting and agreed that it’s time to feature freeze as soon as Friday. To feature freeze means that you stop coming up with new stuff for the game and just polish what’s already in. If there are no bananas to use as environmental props there will be no bananas in the game. This has really made the group hustle. No more sitting around drinking coffee and chatting about if the current hue of green on the grass is just right. Things need to be implemented and they need to be implemented now. At the same time as this brings a bit more stress to the group it feels good to see the pieces come together and I really think we will (fingers crossed) be done in time.

You find more about the game at:
facebook.com/breakwatergame
instagram.com/breakwatergame
twitter.com/breakwatergame

So last week, I covered some of the basic mechanics. This week this article is going to be about the theme. I even have some nice pictures for you.

The first discussion we had as a group was actually about the theme. We had two choices, do we make a MOBA at sea or in space? To begin with calling it a discussion is a bit much. It was more of a casual conversation because pretty much everyone agreed we should make it at sea.

Space would be very cool but there were too many questions and too few answers. Question like, how would we keep the player from going away from a set map? Would there be magical asteroids forming walls around said map? Shouldn't a space ship be able to fly in more than four directions?

So to sea we went.

Now there were more things to decide like time period, location and amount of fiction.
We settled on keeping the boats and environment somewhat real. Loosely based on the colonial era and the Caribbean where battles would have been fought at the time. But of course the boats can shoot fireballs and conjure walls of ice so there are plenty of fictional parts.

All this has been neatly tied together in the lore made by one of our writers Niclas Dristig. It describes a place much like our own 300-400 years ago. Where the world is getting discovered by countries hungry for riches and fame. In this world the age of discovery was aided not just by technology but by magic as well. For example sails might be enchanted to make the ship go faster or sea monsters might be charmed to help you on your journey.

Our game is set in a cove somewhere in the new lands that are being discovered. There are two factions that has decided that they want control of this place and it will be worked out through battle who has the right. But the cove is not empty, there are pirates and sea monsters lurking around the map. Of course there is treasure to be found and battled for to add some extra action.

You find more about the game at:
facebook.com/breakwatergame
instagram.com/breakwatergame
twitter.com/breakwatergame

In my previous articles Breakwater has simply been explained as a easy to learn MOBA. But lately I've felt that this statement falls a bit short when it comes to explaining the game. I'll start with explaining what a MOBA is, then move on to how our game differs. Of course I'll try to keep it short and only cover the basics, because that's what you need to know. MOBA, as you might know, stands for MultiplayerOnlineBattleArena. Multiplayer and Online are self-explanatory so we'll look at the "Arena" and the "Battle".

I've drawn the most generic looking MOBA "Arena" I can think off.
Red and blue dots are the different teams "towers" (buildings that injure enemies).
The dots with black rings around them are bases. Kill these and you win!
The green dots are places where you can collect resources which you can use to upgrade your character. Of course destroying towers or other players also give you resources. Something else that give you resources are "creeps". These are small units that move from one base to the other, getting destroyed by each other, players and/or "towers" on the way.
Grey areas can't be reached by players.

So what kind of "Battle" does this lead to?In the most common MOBAs it leads to moving around the outer towers and resource points for the early part of the game. Skirmishes happen but sometimes not for a substantial amount of time.How does our game change that?
I think that our designer said it best when I talked to him about this two weeks ago:
"We're trying to have the same concept as classic MOBAs so hardcore players feel at home but we're trying to simplify it as much as possible and make it quicker to play. We really don't want all the slow parts to be in, we want action all the time!"

But how do we simplify it?
We've made the map smaller. I know it doesn't look that way but if you would scale it our map would be around half the size of the "generic looking MOBA ‘ARENA'".
The spells are basic and can be used every time they are of cooldown, no mana needed. And how about more action?"
Again the smaller map is relevant. A smaller map means you're always closer to your opponent which means that you are always seconds away from trying to destroy him.
And there are more points of interest. Places that will help you become stronger and win faster. Places that will be sought after by the opposing team as well which leads to even more action!
This leads to an important difference: games in classic MOBAs take between 50-75 minutes. We're aiming for 10-20. So if your team loses it's no problem, it only took 15 minutes. You're not supposed to be forced to free up time to play our game. You play it when you have some time!

Oh, and you play as a boat in the caribbean!

You find more about the game at:
facebook.com/breakwatergame
instagram.com/breakwatergame
twitter.com/breakwatergame

It's week two of the project and things are starting to settle down a bit. People seem to have found a nice workflow and a way to follow the leaders of the group.
We're working with a very flat leadership structure but there needs to be someone that can keep an eye on what's been done and what needs to be done. Sometimes there also needs to be someone that has a final say in general stuff. Whose turn is it to buy coffee, who gets to have the nice chair and who's gonna tell the writer guy (yours truly) to stop being late every morning?
We had a quick vote the first week and decided to name one of the programmers group leader. So today I decided to have a little chat with him to see how he feels about the first two weeks and the future of the project.
Here's what group leader Adam Näslund said:
Q: So, Project leader. How does it feel?
A: "It feels great because the group is great!"
Q: How have the first two weeks felt?
A: "In general it's been good. Of course I feel a bit lost sometimes because I've never lead a project like this before. People expect me to have all the answers even when I have no idea what I'm doing."
Q: What's been the best and the worst so far?
A: Best: "How good everyone is at what they do and that things just happen without people needing to be nagged. Also, everyone is very involved and interested in the game we are doing. There's a willingness to discuss and everyone is intent on making this a great game."
Worst: "When I don't know what to do or make mistakes the whole group suffers. You really notice how every decision you make affects the whole group, for better or for worse."
Q: Will we get done?
A: "You're never done! We are going to be done for some definition of the word, but I think it's going to be a lot smaller than we want. I'm certain we'll have a list after the project of things that we really wanted to get in the game that there just wasn't time for. If you look at what we have already managed this far I'm convinced that we'll have a game."
Q: What is your favorite game ever?
A: "Planescape Torment"
Q: What is that?
A: "It's an isometric western RPG. It's a bit of a cliché when talking about RPGs as it is widely regarded as one of the best RPGs ever made. There's a couple of things that are bad like the combat system but the extremely well done design, writing and story overshines the flaws. There's a cohesion in the writing and design that's just great and a depth that encourages you to explore the world."
Q: Would you rather be a turtle, a seagull or an iguana?
A: "What's an iguana?"
I showed him a picture.
A: "Oh, okey. I'd want to be a turtle, they seem to chill. Like the one in finding Nemo, just surfing the current and retracting into your shell if you're in danger."

You find more about the game at:
facebook.com/breakwatergame
instagram.com/breakwatergame
twitter.com/breakwatergame

The first week is an interesting time in any game project. Even more interesting when it’s a school project like this. In “the real world” if you take to long in the first week or two there is a deadline that can be moved. Here when the time is up, you hand in what you’ve made, write a rapport and stop.
So people, some of them have never met, have to agree as soon as possible on leadership, workspace and a final version of the concept. This leads to tonnes of discussion, maybe some anger and a lot of getting to know each other.
But what did we decide to have as a final concept to work on?
I thought the best way to explain the game we’re making was to interview the designer of the concept so that’s what I did.
Of course I asked a couple of other questions as well, I always try to have a bit of fun and this isn’t an exception so please enjoy.
The designer of the concept went on to become the lead designer of the project so his actual title is Lead Designer Daniel Stervik.
So, in as few sentences as possible, try to describe the game!
”D: “Quick, competitive MOBA that focuses on player interaction and lots of action!”
How similar to other "MOBAS" is it?
D: “We’re trying to have the same concept as classic MOBAS so hardcore players feel at home but we’re trying to simplify it as much as possible and make it quicker to play. We really don’t want all the slow parts to be in, we want action all the time! This makes it much easier for new players to get into the game!”
Describe the gameworld?
D: The gameworld is designed to encourage players to be aggressive and partake in as much action as possible. The players should always be where things are happening.
By placing different objects of interest on the map we really try to get the player to break the pattern of classic MOBAS
But those are all mechanics, what about the theme?
D: “It’s a fictional world that mimics the time where countries in Europe were going to the new world, trying to get as many resources and as much prestige as possible. Oh and you play as boats!”
“Are there pirate boats?”
D: “Yeah they are treacherous traitors and thieves!
Are you happy with the group structure?
D: I’m happy about the way we’ve distributed the work and I really feel that this game is doable. The only problem I see is if we’ll get all the network functions in.”
What is your favorite game ever?
D: World of warcraft.“Isn’t that a bit of a boring answer?
”Well… Yea, write Dwarf fortress instead!"
Would you rather be a turtle, seagull or iguana?
"A seagull of course!"

You find more about the game at:
facebook.com/breakwatergame
instagram.com/breakwatergame
twitter.com/breakwatergame