Breakdown
Game Design and Development Process for
The Last Night of Khordaldrum
Step 1: Ideation
The original idea/concept
This is the notebook I used to track my original ideas, designs, and concepts. Many of these plans were carried over into the final game but many were also removed or modified during development.
Despite these changes, having a solid base to fall back on is important to keep a consistent disposition.
Step 2: Core Scripting
Unit Script Heirarchy
The game revolves around manuevering control of the AI Units and taking control. Establishing a solid core as well as an adaptive hierarchy system allows for adding more diverse units during development with little new coding necessary.
Step 3: Sprites
Illustration and Animation
The Last Night of Khordaldrum is a 2D sidescroller with a pixelated aesthetic. The characters in the game are illustrated in Photoshop with approximately a 32 pixel canvas with multiple frames of animations.
Sprite sheets were generated for ease of use in Unity when animating the sprites.
Step 4: Object Hierarchy
Gameobject Management
The Unity game engine is object based which means that for characters to navigate their world, they require a heirarchy of objects in order to detect, modify, and maneuver their environment.
Units in The Last Night of Khordaldrum have a uniform object heirarchy which allows them to move around and engage with other units.
Step 5: UI and Menus
Careful Navigation
UI is very important in video games. If the UI is too cluttered then the player has a hard time actually playing the game. If their is too little UI the player may be lacking critical information in order to play the game.
Choosing what UI elements to add and when to show them was key in making The Last Night of Khordaldrum feel fluid and easy to navigate.
Step 6: SFX
Sound Effects
Digital games are really an interactive video medium; without great sound a video game will feel flat and lifeless. I took care to use a special software to specially generate the different sound effects for each unit in The Last Night of Khordaldrum.
Step 7: Finish
Mindless Ramblings
Finishing a video game to a polished and functional state takes a lot of work as is very taxing. Finalizing every mechanic and getting stable builds public took far longer than expected but is well worth the effort.
I am very satisfied with the project as a whole and with the state of the game.
This is the breakdown of the process I took in order to complete The Last Night of Khordaldrum solo. These steps illustrate the core processess needed in order to keep production as smooth as possible while allowing more content to be continuously added and tweake