1. Technical Journal for Go Go Sniper
Created by Jonathan So

2. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PAST

3. Lessons from previous game 007 Legends Death Label
Problem: Users didn’t know if they were damaging the enemy
Lesson: Player feedback is essential
Let players know if they’re jumping, shooting, damaging the enemy, getting damaged, etc.
Use hitsparks, unique sound effects

4. Lessons from previous game 007 Legends Death Label
Problem: Most players couldn’t pass level 1
Game concept was too hard to grasp
Lesson: Teach the player how to play
Implicit and/or explicit tutorial
Simpler controls

5. Lessons from previous game 007 Legends Death Label
Problem: Death Label just wasn’t fun
Defeating enemies didn’t satisfy players
Lesson: Game’s fundamental elements must be enjoyable to use
“Game feel”
Player movement must be inherently rewarding
Use hitsparks, sound effects

6. How to progress from this…
to this?

7. CONCEPT AND DESIGN

8. Concept – A Simpler Game
Scale down from Death Label
Focus: don’t make the same mistakes
Fewer mechanics
Simpler gameplay
Make a game with rewarding game feel

9. Concept – Inspiration from the 1980’s
Inspired by single-screen arena games
Bubble Bobble, Mario Bros.
Defeat every enemy on screen to win
Focus on one core mechanic
Mechanic: shoot through multiple enemies for a combo
Figure: A core mechanic of the game is explained explicitly on the instruction panel.

10. Design Game will be a single-screen platformer
Objective: Defeat all enemies on screen
Secondary: Achieve the high score
Multiple levels, all which complement the core mechanic

11. IMPLEMENTATION
--GAME--

12. Implementation: Game Game contains two modes
Tour Mode – progress through multiple levels with increasing difficulty
Infinite Mode – survive as long as possible in one level which gradually becomes harder

13. How to achieve all of this?
Game: Tour Mode
21 levels total
5 groups (worlds) of 4 + Boss level
Levels must reasonably increase in difficulty
First levels must teach the player how to play with an implicit tutorial
How to achieve all of this?

14. Game: Tour Level Design
Levels were designed on graph paper
Introductory levels were designed last so that I had enough experience to teach players through level design
Originally, 39+ levels
Cut to 20 + Boss level

15. Game: Tour Balancing Levels were tested for multiple playstyles
Survivor – plays to complete game, see ending
Diamond – plays to achieve highest score
Levels ordered by difficulty for these two hypothetical playstyles
Arranged levels in a hierarchy
Easiest to hardest

16. Game: Infinite Mode First piece of the game developed
Minimum Viable Product
Objective: Survive long, score high
Challenge gradually increases over time
Intended for seasoned players
Does NOT teach game mechanics

17. IMPLEMENTATION
--GAME FEEL--

18. Implementation: Game Feel
Communicate to players that they are performing the action they intended
E.g. If the player jumps, show that they did
Achieved through unique animations and sound effects
An animation and sound pair may only be associated with one action

19. Game Feel: Audio Effects
Each action is paired with an exclusive sound effect (in table below)
Follow conventions built over past 30 years
E.g. The jumping sounds are inspired by those in 1980’s arcade games
Boss Damaged
Boss Jump
Boss KO
Coin
Combo 1
Combo 2
Combo 3
Combo 4
Combo 5
Combo 6
Combo 7
Combo 8+
Cursor
Land
Run
Extend
False Extend
Jump
Player Hit
Player KO
Punch
Punch Connect
Ready
Recover
Respawn
Scorpion Shot
Player Shot
Shot Stopper

20. Game Feel: Visual Effects
Visual effects show that the player has performed an action
Most player actions have unique effects
Heavy use of “dust” to denote movement
Two different hitsparks to differentiate between enemies being punched or shot
For example…

21. Visual Effect Demonstration
The animation on the right demonstrates two jumps
First with dust rising below player’s feet
Second without effects
The first animation clearly communicates that the player has jumped
Putting it all together…

22. Go Go Sniper in action

23. IMPLEMENTATION
--TEACHING--

24. Implementation: Teaching
Explicit and implicit teaching
Explicit: Instruction card displayed before the game
Teaches both basic and advanced mechanics
For implicit teaching, embed introduction of mechanics into gameplay
Figure: The instruction card shown before the game teaches the basic controls and complex scoring/combo system.

25. Teaching: What to Cover?
Question: What does the player need to know to fully enjoy the game?
Jumping
Move to higher platforms
Avoid enemies
Shooting
Defeats enemies
Only one bullet may be out at a time
Punching
Stuns enemies, but does not defeat them
Makes enemies faster (level up)
Scoring
Higher-level enemies are worth more points
Combos score higher points

26. Teaching: Level Design
Levels 1-4 of Tour Mode designed to teach 1 2 3 4

27. Teaching: Level 1 Spider enemies directed towards player
Forces player to jump (to avoid)
Player may discover to jump to other platforms (such as the middle one)
Shooting defeats enemies
Necessary for completing level

28. Teaching: Level 2 Two enemies are spawned in tandem
Flank player on both sides
Player tries shooting twice; only one shot may be active at a time, so they should punch
Punching stuns enemies
Does not defeat them
Punched enemies get more dangerous

29. Teaching: Level 3 Introduce the Bat, new enemy type
Easy to shoot both of them with the same bullet, introducing the combo system
Reinforced with two Spiders (top left)
Enemy spawning pattern encourages players to defeat both Spiders with one bullet

30. Teaching: Level 4 Introduce the Rock (bottom-middle)
Rocks cannot be destroyed; they destroy bullets instead
Cements the mechanics of previous levels
Combo System
Only one bullet may be active at a time
Punching stuns enemies

31. Teaching: What’s left?
Player should discover that the combo system and the enemy level system can be used in tandem for optimal scoring
Enemy type not seen in the first four levels

32. Teaching: The Title Screen
Even the title screen implicitly teaches basic and advanced mechanics!
Players may not have grasped concept of optimal scoring
In a short animation, convey almost all depth of the game

33. Title Screen: Animation

34. Title Screen: Outline Spider and Scorpion enemies walk onto the screen
Scorpion fires stinger as a projectile
Player jumps from side of screen
Player punches Spider, increasing its level
Player fires bullet, defeating both enemies
Points displayed on top of enemies
Player runs and jumps off screen

35. Title Screen: Breakdown
Highlights almost everything in the game
Player runs and jumps (reach higher ground)
Punching enemies knocks them back
Increases their level, changes color
Scorpion shoots projectiles
Shooting a row of enemies creates a combo
Higher level enemies award higher points
Enemy Value = Combo Position * Level Base Score
Example: was (1 * 100) + (2 * 150)
Title screen serves a purpose: teach.

36. Teaching: Conclusions
Almost all mechanics were covered through either the title screen or introductory levels of Tour Mode.
Some surprises still exist
Mistakes made the player cannot be attributed to lack of teaching
Players should never feel confused by the game; they should see fair challenges.

37. Conclusion
Flaws exposed in 007 Legends Death Label became points of improvement
Go Go Sniper contains effective game feel and level/mechanic design.
The game both implicitly and explicitly teaches players how to play
No one ends up feeling lost

38. Play the game