Welcome to Parent Panic! We created this one pager to provide you with a commentary of some our most interesting conversations. Check out the short videos to see how our game went from a kind of creepy game to an almost complete game. Our original plan was to have 3 levels plus a bonus level however, our lofty goals were crushed by a pandemic. With that being said we were a cohesive team who supported each other not only through game design but with pivoting to online teaching as well.
Below is a list of gaming platforms we discussed before settling on Dreams
- RPG Maker
- Storyline 3
- Google Game Builder
- Twine
- Unity
- Gamemaker Studio
- Unreal Engine
- Roblox
Check out the first edition of our game, it’s a little creepy or freaky! Below is some of our comments:
“That is hilarious!”
“I love it, the baby is is so funny”
“The baby cropped me out ~ Creeped”
“Lol, it’s like a cross between a baby and an old man”
This video shows the beginnings of level one and how we wanted to script it. It goes through the basic understandings of different game elements. Read the commentary on our first level:
“Made a very quick and very rough level test. Laundry baskets and washing machines.Managed to make a t shirt a pickup item. Literally took 3 hours to make it work.”
“I love it! I can’t wait to get in there to learn how to do this and help. Do we need to consider our scope again? It is too big and too much? Or do you think once Daniel and I are in and up to speed, it will be ok?”
“I’m having a really hard time getting the timer and leaderboard functionality to work. It has gotten pretty frustrating. I’ll see if I can make it happen. I think scope is fine. Much of the work has been in setting up the stuff I already have.Now it’s just building three fun levels.”
Wow! We have an intro screen! We are starting to see some success, it was a triumphant moment. Check out how excited we were:
“Starting to piece together level 1. Very rough but trying to combine elements I managed to make lego piles as obstacles and when each avatar hits them they respawn and make a groan sound.”
“Fantastic! I have completed the first tutorial in dreams. I really like it. There are some very intuitive elements, and it’s not too hard to figure out the controls”
At this point we received feedback on our Game Design doc ~ we’re not going to lie we had to do a bit of a redesign! Below is our commentary on that:
“Maybe “nightmare” is setting the expectation too high?”
“Yeah we can just sub out nightmare for dream. That way we can be more playful.”
“What about a dog wandering looking for the stuffy in the maze”
“sure, with the puddles, lol”
“Haha exactly!”
“sound effect… “what is?… ewwww!””
Moving along we acquired quite the skill set and were able to make some ants! We were thrilled as this was one our ideas in the Fullerton workshop (part 1). Our chat went crazy:
“I managed to make a backpack with ants crawling all around it.”
“Lol, nice I’m pretty sure I had that happen”
“You get sent back to the start if you step on one”
“I’ll adjust all sound effects to make a squish sound.Or an ewwww!!”
“That is great, so funny!”
Now we are starting to link the start screen and menu with the game! We are able to connect all the elements together. This video starts off with connecting the levels in the menu so that when you finish level 1 you go to level 2. Next we take you through the progression of the levels and then get to the bonus level.
This is our final run through of the game. It starts from the menu then it goes into the first level , you’ll play through the different elements of the game to collect the shirts and you’ll have to overcome obstacles and then finally get to the winners circle to progress onto level 2. In level 2 you will have to go through a maze and try to stay away from the moving dogs on the level along with the pee puddles and poop that is around the level. Finally in the last bonus level you get to relax on a beach and end in a peaceful and tranquil place.
To access our game, Parent Panic, you need a PS4 and the game Dreams. Once you start the game, select Dream Surfing and search for Parent Panic.
We had a lot of fun making this game, we’re going to leave you with a final snippet of our chats which we think are hilarious:
“I’ll take a look at the race level tutorial tonight.I can record my kid saying “I have to pee now” and we could each do a recording “hang on, I’m sure it’s just around the corner””
“Hahaha If we don’t need the puddles to send the player back to the start bc we have the dogs, then we just have the puddles as visual. Wait can we remix the poop? I know how to make a shiny flowing flat object.”
“If you can make a puddle I can try to make it an obstacle. Something about flat painting style pieces wouldn’t work. You don’t need to remix the poop. You can just add a microchip and then any logic you want.”
“Ok. I’m on puddle duty (doody) tonight”
“Does the poop work? What if we cloned it?”
“My kid’s voice is so creepu – Creepy – I’ll post a video later”
