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MS5401 –CW1B – Critical Reflection
The second part of the workshops set its focus on creating levels which involved more
complex gameplay, such as puzzles, several rooms, triggers, keys/doors, gameplay events
and gameplay that is properly balanced. The asset packs provided included more scrips and
opportunities for the designer to change and modify the gameplay, therefore allowing the
designer to be more creative, but also making it a bigger challenge to balance the gameplay.
One of the tasks involved creating a balanced gameplay, with 5 scenarios, between NPC_G
and NPC_R. This task involved changing the variables of the NPC to make sure that the
gameplay is not unfair. If a game provides too much of a challenge for the player due to
unfair distribution of abilities or power, the player can lose flow which can result in game
termination. Creating a challenge for the player is important, but not to the extent that the
NPC or obstacles have too many unfair advantages over the player. In one of the scenarios
obstacles was placed, with fewer NPCs, in which case the NPC_R had different variables
from NPC_G. In this scenario it was necessary to find a way to even it out so that the NPCs
with the biggest number didn’t have an unfair advantage over the NPCs with lesser number.
This included giving the NPCs with the lesser number either higher HP or faster cool-down,
so that even though they were outnumbered, there was still an equal chance of winning.
This is an interesting concept as it shows that a game can easily become an unbalanced
game if the variables are not set properly. Giving one team one extra health could make one
of the teams overpower the other. In another scenario three or four rows of NPCs on each
side was placed with the same variables to see if this would make the winning chances for
both team 50/50. In this scenario the result was that NPC_R won every time. There was the
same amount of NPC_R and NPC_G and they both had the same variables. Later the
problem was found to be the location of the NPCS. NPC_R and NPC_G was not placed in the
exact same position opposite of one another, which resulted in NPC_R having an advantage
due to the placement. After this was corrected the chances of the two teams winning was
equal.
In Gungan Rescue the designer or developer was to take the asset pack and create a
scenario by modifying and changing the already created layout. The goal is the save the
Gungans and beat the boss overcoming several obstacles. One to make several events that
the player would have to get through, including saving the hostages, defeating mini bosses,
getting keys and then defeat the boss by trapping him. When creating the events the goal
was to make it challenging, not just to defeat the enemies but also to figure out where to go
next. The player has to defeat enemies to get the keys to save the Gungans where it would
be another key to unlock a mini-boss to unlock another part of the map. Trying to make it
complex enough to be interesting, but not include too much as there are limited objects and
making too many different objects have the same appearance could easily confuse the
player. One of the problems that occurred was when the PC entered a room with enemies,
they would immediately attack even though the PC was far away. This defeated the purpose

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as the player was not supposed to kill all the enemies at once, but do it when the PC needed
to go to a certain location. As a solution a trigger was used on the enemies, so that when
the PC passed a certain spot the enemies would appear and attack.
Several of the task has not been executed in the most original ways or desired way, both
due to lack of knowledge and skill, but also due to limitations. Overall the workshops was
both challenging but enjoyable as it involved creating several levels with multiple events
that had to be done the right way to make it work. Many of the task involved the designer
or developer having to test of different methods and try multiple times to find the right or
best way to do it. This resulted in learning a lot more about how to use unity and also how
to modify the variables, but foremost how to create a balanced gameplay and how to map
out levels with different gameplay events.