Documentation + User Guide

Time to Duel! » Devlog
2 years ago by Toey
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Documentation + User Guide

This DevLog is to provide a summary on the development of my game for KIT109: Games Fundamentals and for referencing the assets that are currently in the game. 

Concept vs Implementation

To start, comparing how my game has come along compared to the original concept, I'm happy to say it matches the original concept pretty well! (Mainly because it is a super simple concept) Although, I have yet to be able to implement a very important feature that was planned which was the ability to turn and take paces at the start of a round, emulating how traditional duels were conducted. I put a lot of effort into trying to get it to work, but the way my player characters a built makes it pretty janky. I still have a lot of ideas on how to attempt it though, so if I continue to work on the game in the future I still would definitely want to implement it. Another important feature that's missing is AI which I've yet to attempt. The AI for my game would work very different from most, as the duellists aren't controlled by general movement but by moving specific limbs, so as such it's difficult to approach. I do however have a definite idea of how to attempt it, so that's definitely a feature I will be prioritising in future builds. 

Besides from those missing features, something I was surprised to find that made it into the game was ammo and reloading. Originally I was concerned that interrupting the frantic movement of the game with a reload animation would perhaps ruin the pacing and feel of the game, but as it is implemented at the moment I really like it. In regards to reloading and ammo in my original concept I said  "It’s up to you if you want to try to expend all your ammunition as quickly as possible to try to land a hit, or if you want to take your time to aim for just the right shot" which is exactly how the mechanic turned out. A common playstyle in my game is standing still and shooting and then moving while you reload, but it's also not disruptive to the point that moving and shooting at the same time constantly is a bad playstyle. I'm also surprised that the current visual style of the game matches the original concept art extremely well! Here's a comparison of both of them so you can see for yourself:


User Guide

The name of the game is Time to Duel!

This is the main menu. Click "Start Game" to begin or "Settings" for some options, including alternate movement, blood and dismemberment toggles, as well as volume sliders. 


This is what you'll see when you click start game. The blue gentleman on the left is player 1 and the red gentleman on the right is player 2. The goal of the game is to preserve your honour by shooting the opponent until they collapse into a pile of limbs. Keep in mind though that your gun has a limited amount of bullets (shown at the top) and you will have to wait a short amount of time for your gun to reload when you run out. Use the clumsy movement options to try to avoid your opponent's fire, or to position yourself for a better shot. 

Controls:

P1: Upper Legs: W/S, Lower Legs: A/D, Arm: E, Shoot: C

P2: Upper Legs: I/K, Lower Legs: J/L, Arm: U, Shoot: N

The Alternate Movement setting lets you have combined control over each part of the leg with independent control of each leg, where as default controls gives independent control of each part of the leg but combined control of both legs.

Testing Summary

I covered this more in-depth in another DevLog, however the feedback I did receive was both positive and very constructive. People enjoyed the pixel art aesthetics of the game, as well as the audio and the level of violence in the game, which I wanted to make sure I didn't go too over the top with. I was also happy to see that people had noticed some pretty sneaky features in the game like different sound effects when bullets hit different materials. I also got feedback that people were most interested in an online mode and more intricate levels which was not what I was expecting. I definitely plan on implementing a lot of the good ideas provided in the feedback I received when working on my game in the future.

Current Features

  • Menus and UI including a main menu, settings menu, pause menu and round end/win condition menus for restarting the game.
  • Music and sound effects including bullet impact sounds, reloading sounds and unique voices for each player. 
  • Dynamic camera that zooms and pans to follows both players.
  • Layered background with parallax effect.
  • Unique player movement based on individual limb control.
  • Gun shot wounds and blood particles.
  • Limb dismemberment.
  • Bullet capacity and reloading, including UI elements and animations to match.
  • Alternate movement setting.
  • Blood and dismemberment toggle settings.
  • Sliders for master volume, music volume and sfx volume.

Credits and Asset Referencing

Most of the assets including sound effects and player art were made by me by using Audacity and Piskel, however there are a lot of temporary assets in the game that I found online. Here is a list of references and general credits:

Thanks to everyone who helped make this game possible. It is my first unique game I've made before and I've already learnt so much during the development of it.

Time to Duel!

A chaotic floppy physics based duelling game.

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