Soccer Ultimatum

The road ahead for Soccer Ultimatum will include a great deal of improvements. The plan to develop several new features into the game such as Player Vs. Computer where the player will face off against computer AI through the many levels offered in Soccer Ultimatum. New levels will be included, new art, new game mechanics, and new challenges such as timed matches. A scoreboard will be added so players can keep tabs on highscores. Big plans are in store for Soccer Ultimatum and its bright future.

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Score system

Timed match

Player V. Computer

New art

New mechanics

New audio

New challenges

New Levels

More to come…….

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During this semester I have learned a lot of things related to creating a game. First of all this is the second time I join forces with another classmate (Kyle Long) to work on a game. Therefore, I didn’t realize how hard it could be sometimes to work with other people due to a lack of communication, or different perspectives on what the game should be like. The main problem we had is that we both are more designers than programmers. We knew that one of us would have to focus on the design while the other would have to focus on the programming. Finally, we decided that I was going to be the designer while Kyle would be the programmer. 

At first, we wanted to create a soccer game that would include fighting (Mortal Kombat style) with combos and special movement. The main idea was to make it fun to play. The game was going to feature 6 different teams. In addition after defeating an opposing team the player would be able to upgrade his team to make it faster, stronger and more competitive. The idea behind the game was very ambitions however we did not realize at the time that it was too much for us to handle. I made several sprite sheets of the main character moving in different directions using Adobe Flash CS3. In addition, I created the logo of the game; I drew the soccer field as well as the goal and the stadium. I made some sketches of the players. I am in the process of making music for the entire game using garage band and Ableton live 8.

We had some issues with the programming, we realized that the game required a lot of programming skills that we did not possess and we had to ask some classmates to help us with it. After a few weeks we realized that the software we were using to make the game (Corona SDK) had some issues with the type of game we were trying to make. At this point, we realized that we might have to change the whole game and make something totally different!

We decided to make a platform game where the main character would control a ball that once the player touches it, the ball would elevate itself in midair and then the player would have to touch it again before the ball touches the floor again to make the ball move forward. Depending when the player decides to touch the ball, the ball would travel a certain distance at a certain speed. There would be obstacles that the player would have to avoid by touching the ball again and make it bounce. The game physics would have this gravity feel similar to games such as angry birds. The objective of the game would be to move from one size of the level to the other. At the end of each level there would be a goal and a goalkeeper preventing the player from putting the ball inside the net.

As of December 06, 2011 we are working on this new version of soccer ultimatum. We are planning to have the game ready by the beginning of May 2012.

As I started my Game Development I course, I had big plans to produce a game that would really raise the bar and standards on game development. I had wanted to create an incredible game so that I could apply something exciting in my resume that could help strengthen my portfolio being it’s always been my motivation to become involved with the video game industry. Due to some complications at the beginning the semester, I ended up having to split off from a group that consisted of programmers that knew how to program into corona SDK. Since my strength was art design and game concept, I had struggled developing code in lua language as a result. The lack of experienced programmers on the team made the game production for soccer ultimatum move at an extremely slow pace. This fall semester was one of my most difficult semesters since the demand for work in my elective courses. I tried to manage time in order to focus on the game development of the semester project but it has tasking since programming takes so much time and dedication from its trial and error process with game debugging. I found the issues with leading a game production. I got to the point where I needed outside help from the group for programming because I needed a second opinion from another person to troubleshoot the coding in lua language. I also requested feedback from the developers’ forum for Corona SDK but because the errors were so massive that the forum administrator directed to a paid service. I decided to scrap the original build of the game because the original design became too much of a hassle. Then it was suggested from the person outside of the group to rethink the game design of the game. Eventually we decided to take an alternate route in game design and decided to do a finger touch physics approach to the game. We worked on the coding and made the design by having the soccer ball pop in the air and when you clicked it again while in midair, the ball would progress left along the map with the effects of friction and gravity taking effect on the environment in the player. The method becomes quite an addiction feature and we plan to build from it. When we tested the game at the presentation, the audience really enjoyed our ideas and saw a potential future for the game’s success. I explained that we plan to include more content to make the game much more fast pace, exciting, and unique. There was going to plans to include more than one level with increasing obstacle challenges as you progress through the levels by scoring the end goal as part of the game objective. The idea to finalize an appropriate game concept was a difficult experience but in the end, I believe this game has so much potential for a successful iPhone game. I was able to hone my skills in programming to a higher level where I have a better understanding on how a game works and the barriers that are encountered. This semester allowed me to take a glimpse the other perspective I failed to knowledge, the programmer. I came to the understanding that the programmer has no choice but enforce constant change on the artwork making the job of the artist stressful.

Build 1

We also implemented a main menu screen before you started the gameplay.

Build 2 Finalized

Build 9 Final Build for Game Development I

As the semester comes to a close, we decided revamp the entire game as a result of the errors encountered trying to program code into the game. We took another approach to how to program a game for the iphone so we designed a side scrolling on touch game. The user was able to use their finger to kick the ball through the obstacles in the level. The purpose of the game now was to score into the goal at the end of the obstacle map. For game development II, we have all sorts of new plans to further develop this game into a really well-made game. Before, we underestimated the demand required to program a working game and producing a fully fledged soccer game for Corona SDK would unrealistic since the coding for corona program was limited in design for highly sophisticated game.

Build 7

Now that the joystick can control the movement of the player. T he soccer ball code was commented back in the code to function in the game. The player was able to collide with the ball and drag the ball, however, the character could not kick the ball but the ball could be dragged along the map while the camera angle was centered on the player.

Build 8

The game was changed to a landscape view to make the game more accessible visually to the player and it was easier to move.