Summary:

      "Debuggers!" is a multiplayer arcade-style game in which four players are frogs who must compete to see who can eat the most bugs. Power ups, point multipliers, and poisonous bugs add to the chaos of this top-view party game.

 

Development Time:

     1 week - Planning and Development

 

Team:

     Gabriel Burgess - Programmer

     Chong Hu - 2D Artist

     Cindy Liu - Sound Designer

     Anthony Scott - Programmer

     Haley Yang - 3D Artist

 

Technology:

     Jam-O-Drum - a round table which has a projector pointing down at it. Players interact with the device by turning their wheel shaped controllers and hitting the drum in the center of their respective wheels.

 

Challenges:

     1) Making it fun -

 

      A simple "who-can-collect-the-most?" game gets repetitive and boring rather quickly. Our challenge was to brainstorm and test various power ups, scoring systems, and bug spawn times. We ended up doing several playtests (10+) in an attempt to determine the right balance. There were three inital power up bugs: speed boost, tongue length increase, and sticky tongue (catch more bugs at once). The speed-increase didn't make the final cut, because many people didn't even notice it. There were also two down-grade bugs: poison (decrease points) and invisibility (makes player vanish). We ended up changing poison from a damage over time effect to an instant one in order to avoid confusion. We also attempted to change the limited-time invisibility effect from complete disappearance to a flashing effect, but ultimately cut it altogether because players thought it was a glitch. On that note, we also removed the feature that caused players to be stunned when hit by another frog as this was also viewed as a glitch by some and unfair by others.

 

    There was high demand for players to see their score as they were playing. So each player's respective score display was added to their corners. The scoring system was also changed by including a point multiplier for catching consecutive bugs. This was something that many players requested because it rewards player skill and also helps to increase the tension. It was also added due to the fact that it was very difficult for a player to catch up if they fell too far behind or accidentally ate a poison bug. The length of play was initially one minute, but was later increased to two minutes by request. That ended up being too long and was later decreased to 90 seconds. Bugs with power ups are set to begin spawning after certain threshold times are reached.The bugs also start to spawn more frequently as the game goes on to increase the "interest curve." Both of these choices allowed the players a chance to get used to the mechanics and also make a last-ditch effort to win the game.

 

    2) Making it clear which frogs the players controlled -

   

     The initial versions of the game didn't provide the players a means of determining which frog they were. This was fine for the first few seconds, but eventually became a problem in the ensuing chaos. Players often got lost which ultimately led to a break in the experience. As a result, we gave each frog a colored scarf and added a matching colored lotus flower in each player's respective corner. In addition, the points that float overhead when a bug is eaten where changed from the initial yellow to match the color code of the frog that ate it.