I have built my own games using game engines like NetLogo, Scratch and MIT App Inventor and found that even a simple game took a lot of time and efforts to complete. Like Scratch and MIT App Inventor, Stencyl claims that the game designer doesn't need coding and programming prior knowledge to build his/her own game. Designing games seems to be as easy as a piece of cake. However, my hands-on experience of building games in those engines taught me that figuring out the logics of the game and how to use the built-in commands in the engine requires a lot of brainwork and practice too. Anyway, in comparison with using NetLogo or Xcode, Stencyl, Scratch, and MIT App Inventor are indefinitely much easier to use for a newbie in game designs like me.
In a few weeks to come, I have to complete building a game on the Stencyl platform. After playing games in this platform, taking the functionality of the game engine into consideration, considering time constraints, and of course considering my green experience in game building field, I have decided that I would build a very very simple game.
Game idea and game goal
The game targets K2-K3 students to enhance their knowledge of multiplication. The game is built with different levels and in each level, the player will learn about multiples of a number. My daughter inspires me to build this game since she is learning about multiplication and I want to design a game which can help her remember multiples of numbers from 1-10 more easily. Plus, I built an Math app in App Inventor and now I want to build another Math app but in a different game engine and see the differences in each engine functionality when it comes to building Math apps.
Game activities
Bubbles with numbers inside will float freely in the screen. The player has to click the bubble and make sure that the bubble fall down its correct treasure box which are arranged in order from the lowest value to the highest one. There are ten multiples for each number at each level. The level only finishes until all the multiples are in their correct order.
Game characters
The idea for the characters of my game is borrowed from Shark Prime Number game. There is an ocean as the background, sharks which eat the bubble if the player clicks the wrong bubble, bubbles with numbers inside, some numbers are multiples of an assigned number and some are not, and treasure boxes to hold the correct bubble.
Basic interactions
During each level of the game, there will be 10 treasure boxes. Some are numbered and arranged in order. The player has to observe and decide which numbered bubble should be filled in each treasure box so that the treasure box contains bubbles with numbers with the lowest value to the highest. Some numbers in the bubble are multiples of a number and some are not. The level is only finished when the player arranges all the multiples are in their correct order.
Aspects of the game design which I am not sure about
I am not sure if the player should play the game agains the time. Normally, time constraints put the player under pressure and as a result, creates more thrilling feelings during the gameplay for the player. Secondly, my intention is at each level, the player has to deal with multiples of a number of a higher value than the previous level. However, I wonder if I can design levels of the game in other ways. Thirdly, the game sounds easy to make but frankly, now, I haven't managed to envision all the complexity of building this game. Designing and importing assets needed for the game may also take time too since I am not sure they are available in StencylForge.
Storyboard
In a few weeks to come, I have to complete building a game on the Stencyl platform. After playing games in this platform, taking the functionality of the game engine into consideration, considering time constraints, and of course considering my green experience in game building field, I have decided that I would build a very very simple game.
Game idea and game goal
The game targets K2-K3 students to enhance their knowledge of multiplication. The game is built with different levels and in each level, the player will learn about multiples of a number. My daughter inspires me to build this game since she is learning about multiplication and I want to design a game which can help her remember multiples of numbers from 1-10 more easily. Plus, I built an Math app in App Inventor and now I want to build another Math app but in a different game engine and see the differences in each engine functionality when it comes to building Math apps.
Game activities
Bubbles with numbers inside will float freely in the screen. The player has to click the bubble and make sure that the bubble fall down its correct treasure box which are arranged in order from the lowest value to the highest one. There are ten multiples for each number at each level. The level only finishes until all the multiples are in their correct order.
Game characters
The idea for the characters of my game is borrowed from Shark Prime Number game. There is an ocean as the background, sharks which eat the bubble if the player clicks the wrong bubble, bubbles with numbers inside, some numbers are multiples of an assigned number and some are not, and treasure boxes to hold the correct bubble.
Basic interactions
During each level of the game, there will be 10 treasure boxes. Some are numbered and arranged in order. The player has to observe and decide which numbered bubble should be filled in each treasure box so that the treasure box contains bubbles with numbers with the lowest value to the highest. Some numbers in the bubble are multiples of a number and some are not. The level is only finished when the player arranges all the multiples are in their correct order.
Aspects of the game design which I am not sure about
I am not sure if the player should play the game agains the time. Normally, time constraints put the player under pressure and as a result, creates more thrilling feelings during the gameplay for the player. Secondly, my intention is at each level, the player has to deal with multiples of a number of a higher value than the previous level. However, I wonder if I can design levels of the game in other ways. Thirdly, the game sounds easy to make but frankly, now, I haven't managed to envision all the complexity of building this game. Designing and importing assets needed for the game may also take time too since I am not sure they are available in StencylForge.
Storyboard