Documentation + User guide

Documentation: 

Game concept compared to finished game:

Ghost escape is a game where you play as a wizard that wakes up trapped inside a haunted castle. To escape you must explore the tower and collect all three keys. With all three keys collected the door at the entrance will open allowing you to escape.

Comparing the initial game concept to the current game, multiple changes have been made. One of the main changes to the game is the location. The original location was to be in a mansion. The location was changed as the mansion was going to take up too much time to make. Finding art for a tower was also much easier. Lava was also added as to include more variety in the game and added risk whilst going through the tower.  One of the enemies from the game was also removed, the ghost that was able to shoot. The ghost was added as the striker ghost (the ghost that follows the player) took up most of my time to create, the striker ghost was also difficult enough a third was not needed. The flashlight from the concept was removed and swapped out with the player being a wizard to shoot a light orb. This was changed as I was unable to figure out a way to get a torch to work. By making the player a wizard it also made more sense as the location was changed to a tower. I also increased the number of keys in the game as with only one key the game ended too quickly.

For the final design a how to play scene, and the pause/restart scene was added, this was not mentioned in the concept. The how to play screen was added to help people learn the controls as well as know the story behind the game. The pause screen was also added if people need a break or want to change game modes. 

Testing feedback:

The most feedback received was about how difficult the striker ghost type made the game. This was also observed whilst watching people play. The most feedback received about them was they are too hard to dodge and that they spawn to fast. To fix these issues

• I removed spawners where I had more than one.
• Decreased their spawn rate.
• Slow down their dash speed.
• Decreased the distance they could start to dash.

These changes were able to make the game easier to play. The feedback received also helped me decided on if I should keep all keys on one level.  The controls were also proved to be easy to use as well as having seen no errors in the game. In case the game is still too hard I have also added a game mode where the player doesn’t lose lives. 

Asset list:

Sprites 

Wizard: Made by (Disthron, 2015)

Basic ghost: Made by (JotaFaD, 2013)

Striker Ghost

Pixel Heart: Made by (Entertainment, 2017), under licenses CC-BY 4.0 (Creative Commons, n.d.) and CC-BY 3.0 (Creative Commons, n.d.)

Key icons: Made by (BizmasterStudios, 2017), under license CC-BY 4.0 (Creative Commons, n.d.)

light orb: Made by (Rallix, 2016) from light meter artwork.

 tile set: Made by (Ogrebane, 2010)

Text type : Made by (GGBotNet, 2022), under license SIL open font license, version 1.1 (SIL, n.d.)

Scripts:
Player:

PlayerMovement – Used to move player left, right and up depending on what ley is pressed. Also flips sprite to face the correct direction.

playerShooting – Allows the player to shoot a light orb when mouse is clicked.

PlayerHealth – Keeps track of player health, controls health loss due to lava and scene change when health is zero.

Healthdecrease – Controls the amount of damage done by enemies.  

BasicEnemy – Controls movement of the basic enemy as well as the direction they face.

EnemySpawner – Controls the spawn rate of the striker ghost when player is within spawn range.

FollowerEnemy – Controls the movement of the striker ghost as well as the dash trail effect.

PositionGizmo – Given to the start and stop prefab used to determine the basic ghosts path so they are visible.

SpawnerGizmo – Given to the spawner prefab so it is visible.

DestroyEnemy – Deletes enemy when collision with light orb.

DestroylightOrb – Deletes orb when collision with enemy.

ExitDoor – Given to “door” object to change scene when player leaves the tower.

Keycollect – Counts keys collected and displays message when all keys are collected.

KeyDestroy – Destroys key object when collision with player.

openDoor – Opens door when all keys are collected.

pauseMenu – When R is pressed freezes game and displays pause menu. Also changes scenes depending on what selection Is made in the pause menu.

SceneSwitcher – Changes to next scene depending on what main menu buttons are pressed.  

USER GUIDE

In ghost escape you are a wizard that has awoken in a haunted tower. To escape you must collect all three keys and get back to the entrance whilst also ensuring that you don’t lose all three of you lives. 

Controls:

A – Move left  
D -Move Right
Space – jump
Left click – Shoot light orb in direction of mouse
R – open pause menu in game

How to play:

You start on the main menu screen (Figure 8), in here you can pick 1 of three choices, play game, play game without taking damage or go to the how to play screen to see instructions (Figure 9). You can click on the buttons when the text turns red. 

From the How to play scene  (Figure 8) it shows the object of the game and controls, you then go back to the main menu.

When clicking play or play game you start at the bottom of the tower. You are to get to the top three peaks of the tower and collect each key. Ghosts will try and stop you on your objective, the white ghosts constantly follow the same path whilst the black ghosts (strikers) will constantly follow you unless destroyed. If the strikers get to close, they will charge at you trying to take away a life. Shoot the ghost with the light orbs to destroy them. Strikers will also constantly spawn if you stay in their area, so keep moving.  

Each peak of the tower has a different lay out for you to overcome. When all three keys are collected a message will display and the door at the entrance will open. When you leave this will take you to the “escaped scene” from here you can go back to the main menu. If you lose all your lives you will go to the “you died” scene (Figure 9), from here you can also go back to the main menu. 

If you need to pause the game press R, this will display the pause menu (figure 10) and freeze the game. You can either continue playing or go back to the main menu.  

References:

BizmasterStudios, 2017. OpenGameArt.Org. [Online] Available at: https://opengameart.org/content/key-icons [Accessed 2023].

Creative Commons, n.d. Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). [Online] Available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ [Accessed 2023].

Creative Commons, n.d. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). [Online] Available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ [Accessed 2023].

Disthron, 2015. OpenGameArt.Org. [Online] Available at: https://opengameart.org/content/mr-necromancer-man-animated [Accessed 2023].

Entertainment, F., 2017. OpenGameArt.Org. [Online] Available at: https://opengameart.org/content/heart-pixel-art [Accessed 2023].

GGBotNet, 2022. itch.io. [Online] Available at: https://ggbot.itch.io/helpme-font [Accessed 2023].

JotaFaD, 2013. OpenGameArt.Org. [Online] Available at: https://opengameart.org/content/ghost-like-rpg-character [Accessed 2023].

Ogrebane, 2010. OpenGameArt.com. [Online] Available at: https://opengameart.org/content/16x16-tiles [Accessed 2023].

Rallix, 2016. OpenGameArt.Org. [Online] Available at: https://opengameart.org/content/lightmeter [Accessed 2023].

SIL, n.d. SIL Open Font License (OFL). [Online] Available at: https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL [Accessed 2023].