This project was done for my Design Foundations course at the University of Colorado Boulder. We were faced with the task of creating a 5-minute experience game in GB Studio from ideation, to prototyping, and then a final product.
The beginning of this project started with an Ideation process consisting of utilizing the Game Idea Roulette generator online. The result I got was this:
Okay, “space friends.” Simple enough.
I spent the next portion of time coming up with 15 different “wild” ideas. Anything that came to mind, I wrote down.
Here are some of the ideas I came up with:
- You must uncover which aliens are friendly and which are not, how? You’ll find out
- Find alien creatures and take care of them by bringing them things you find on the surface of the moon
- Travel to different planet rooms to bring as many aliens into one room as possible and force them to be friends
- In space, no one is your friend. Avoid everyone at all costs and move through the space station collecting as many starship pieces as possible to get back home
Here’s the final elevator pitch I came up with after many more ideas:
See no one told you life was gonna be this way. You're the new human on the spaceship, and it's your duty to make friends with the aliens before they banish you to the next galaxy. Explore the spaceship and find beverages to deliver to the alien party. Hope you have enough to go around. Oh, and don't settle for a seltzer or apple juice. They prefer the good stuff.
Then came the prototyping.
Somehow, I had a lot of visual ideas floating around in my head already. This was especially true when working with a space-themed video game. Of course, I needed aliens. Beers, though? That would be fun to draw in a small, pixeled sprite. I began with writing some of my inspiration, and drawing scene ideas. I asked my roommates for spaceship room ideas.
Let’s just say I should’ve been more specific. Or maybe asked some less ambitious friends. (As well as friends that would actually respond to me. That’s a 1/4 score for my roommates.)
I came up with some random room ideas, but once I had a few, things seemed to progress from there.
After drawing out some thoughts, I put my skills to the test. Turning a sketch into 8-bit art is more difficult than one may think. I started creating the backgrounds for my scenes, starting with the main “commons” room.
The restricting color theme is a bit difficult to work with too, but I think creativity can thrive in a restrictive environment.
Things felt like they were coming together. I kept changing scenes, adding and taking away what wasn’t working, while also keeping in mind what I knew from GB Studio and limiting objects in the background so that I didn’t add too much that would limit players from moving around.
That leads me to my next task, which was figuring out how to depict players and actors with even fewer pixels. The aliens seemed simple enough. An odd head shape and beady eyes would do the trick. (No offense, aliens).
I wanted to keep the player simple, and make the aliens completely animated, which meant more sprite frames. I knew GB Studio limits you on the amount of frames you can place in a single scene to be 25, so I wanted to make sure I would have enough for the final scene, which I planned to be the “party” in which the player would deliver the beers to the aliens.
Now it was time to show my roommates. I think initially, they were confused about what it was I was doing. I realized I never actually explained that this was a Gameboy-style game, so visuals were, well, what they are. Most of them had positive reactions, and I think they liked the idea overall. One of them said it seemed a bit boring, but I think right now that is okay. I asked for funny script/dialogue ideas, which seemed to benefit me. I have some entertaining roommates, to say the least.
I also learned that the idea I had to “collect” items would require some way to keep an inventory as well as keep track of which items are “allowed” to be picked up. Because I wanted to plant fakes, or “apple juice” and “seltzers,” I needed to figure out how to only allow true “beers” to be picked up and added to an inventory. Pixel Pete’s Youtube channel was incredibly helpful, and I learned (with some trial and error) how to add a menu and inventory scene that would add these items as they are found.
As I was working through all of the triggers and menus and inventory and everything that goes with it, I was running into a lot of issues I wouldn’t have expected that took a lot of finneagling and learning as I went. There were issues with stacking menu screens, player positions, etc. that I hadn’t anticipated.
After hours of working through bugs and unexpected turns, I managed to create a game world that allowed the player to move through and interact with items, store them in an inventory, and deliver to some alien friends. I think it came together nicely, and I’m proud of the game that I created.
Finally, I was done. My Itch page for the finished game can be found here.
I hope you enjoy Alien Beverage Pro.