Agent//Operator: Development Progress. Agent // Operator is a Stealth/Hacking game for co-op players. With a focus on teamwork, one player plays as an Agent undergoing missions while the other player plays as the missions remote Operator. The gameplay focuses on the separation of physical and abstract/digital challenges that can only be surmounted through cooperation and communication. To further develop the concept a number considerations had to be taken on board. Gameplay, setting, theme, aesthetics, narrative scope were all addressed in broad strokes with the initial prototype and refined further through the concept art, mind mapping and mood board phases of early development. Through the following series of experiments i was forced to disregard a number of ideas and take a close look at many aspects of the project we had either taken for granted or simply failed to consider. Experiments:
From this phase a number surprising questions emerged, most notably the problems of defining our core interaction between players and the issue of setting. In hindsight much of what was learned through the past phase of development should have been clarified by a much earlier date.Through the use of surveys, analytics, playtesting and research we were forced to confront flaws in our intended designs and through considering these issues bring the concept into greater focus and context. Cultural Context: A//O is based around modern day intelligence gathering practices, with a focus on the bi-cameral divide between Asset and Analist, our Agent and Operator. Set in the near future we explore a world where current social surveillance and information gathering systems have progressed to their neo liberal conclusions. Privatisation of Intelligence Agencies, blanket CCtv coverage, corporations selling vast amounts of user data to third parties. This is explored through the subversion and control of information systems such as phones, tablets, personal online information- social media, bank statements through the networks that manage them. The cultural context can be defined under the following criteria:
Legal Context: The concept in its projected format will have the following legal considerations:
Ethical Context: Ethical considerations and context for ongoing development:
Agent // Operator is sci-fi based Stealth/Hacking game for co-op players. With a focus on teamwork, one player plays as an Agent undergoing missions while the other player plays as the mission Operator. The gameplay focuses on the separation of physical and abstract/digital challenges that can only be surmounted through cooperation and communication. Research for this project was broken down first into broad areas of interest to the project, focused on aspects of the project which would help define the concept further. These areas of investigation can be examined under the following criteria:
Throughout development we made constant use of the facilities available to the team with in the college environment, actively having our prototype tested by classmates, tutors as well as student in the year above and below us. This gave us feedback on the day of implimenting a new feature as well as having the use of play-testers who had seen each iteration of the development process. Though the skills and insights of our peers were of great use, they all so are more overly familiar with game systems than the average person, to meet the needs of new or casual gamers, and to ensure that our product was understandable and fun to the outside world we enlisted the use of family and friends outside of the college environment to assist in this process and provide an alternative point of view. Additionally the insight of professionals gained from taking our prototype to industry events such as Dub-Ludo and the Microsoft event in the Aviva help shape the development of the project. Though these insight we were able to identify a number of balancing and challenge related issues and at the same time have access to a wide variety of suggestions as to how we may go about improving upon what we had. What could and could not be achieved within the given time frame was always a concern, give the team size and scope of the project. This was an ongoing process, as a means to explore the areas the project may progress into, rather than have technical limitations curb potential ideas, ideas were to be explored in their own right before being vetoed for technical concerns. To This end several processes were explored and disregarded most notably being Unity’s Mechanim Animation system for the Agent, which proved to be problematic when synced over a network and Ngui which was originally ment to manage our gui proved to be unsuitable due to the volume of gui data we wanted to display on the Operators interface. To this end i personally believe that though this was an hugely benificial experience in terms of knowledge and skills gained that i personally do not yet have the skills to meet the brief as i would like. Though much has been learned from this project there are a number of ways in which this projects development might have been improved upon. The decision was made very early that we would not shy away from attempting something perhaps beyond our abilities. Given our place in the first half of the course it was felt that there was a leeway to make mistakes and upskill in preparation for final year, and that these were the primary experiences to be taken away from the project. Though multiple angles of the idea were explored through a variety options the process was still experimental. This process could have been far more productive and insightful in retrospect with more oversight and better notation of feedback from peers and players. Looking back over the initial prototype, Interface feed back is crucially lacking. And in contrast to each other, the Agents play is dynamic but without interface feed back, while the Operator has lots of feed back but no dynamism of gameplay. Addressing this from the ground up for the second build will pose vital questions regarding the direction and viability of the project.
To this end the first build serves more to point out short coming than successes, with this in mind the second build will be a approached buy tackling these weak points of interface/game play as a matter of priority. |
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