Originally Published: 6/1/2015  

   Welcome to another edition of Divercast! On this episode we talk about Boss Battles, which boss fight do we consider memorable? What is there purpose in games? Are they a thing of the past, or are they still relevant? 

  We also talk about whether teaser trailers are pointless, the E3 demo vs the final release of a game controversy and what it means to design a "level" versus a "stage". 

So sit back, relax it is time for Divercast! 

  Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,Twine, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100
​

   Welcome to another edition of Divercast! We are now on Season 3! This is the twenty fifth episode of Divercast! Thanks for sticking with us or if you're new, thanks for joining us!

  On today's episode of Divercast the guys are joined by returning guest indie film/game designer Tony Hernandez. We talk about "Walking Simulators" and the perceived value of Indie games. Should indie games leaving the $60 price tag to the AAA developers? What is the price of a game where the story and atmosphere are 90% of the game?

   They guys also talk about the outcry behind the infamous Overwatch victory pose and the somewhat silent removal of the beloved hidden character Doughnut Drake from Uncharted 4. 

​So sit back, relax and get ready for another Divercast! 

​   Don't forget to check out our affiliate IndieBox.com! Indiebox is a subscription service that delivers collector edition indie games straight to your door step every month. Referral code: Divercast.    

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100​​
​

   Welcome to episode 2 of DLC. This is a special episode of DLC (and we're only on episode 2!) Dannylv100 and Greenjoker24 (Christian) talk bout their thoughts and impressions on the Gears of War 4 beta. They discuss what they love and what they hated about the beta. Gameplay, character designs and more!

So sit back and relax, Everybody loves DLC! 

Note:  A few things we forgot to mention

- The camera angle during executions needs to be fixed

- Gnasher (Shotgun) felt about right in terms of power

- We want new executions for older weapons

- Smoke Grenade stun time needs to be slightly reduced

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

​- Danny Q
@Dannylv100
​

  The Gears of War 4 beta is now upon us! And as an avid Gears of War fan I have been keeping up with all of the news. A screenshot from the Gears 4 caught my eye. In this screenshot we see one of the new enemies in the game holding a Hammerburst, the reliable Locust rifle from previous games. The strangest thing about this, it still bears the the Locust colors and even the Locust emblem!
​

Note: Hammerburst will be abbreviated as HB.

Lore: "At the end of the Locust/Lambent conflict, the COG found themselves severely crippled and low on supplies. COG forces struggled to rebuild their supply of Lancer rifles, however resourceful COG engineers now had a surplus of Hammerburst rifles. They began to re-engineer the crude Locust design and streamline it. The Hammerburst Mk. III began to fill the gap the Lancer had left behind. It was quickly adopted by COG soldiers for scouting missions and made an excellent companion weapon for COG snipers."

   The COG Hammerburst aka The Hammerburst Mark III, is a mid-long range battle rifle. It packs a powerful punch and kick to match. Equipped with a rugged optic scope, the Mark III makes a great weapon for dealing with distant targets with impeccable accuracy. It has a semi-auto and a three round burst fire mode that can quickly take down a man sized target.
​

   The 3 round burst of the Mark III is much more manageable than the 6 round burst of the original Hammerburst and offers more stopping power then the HB II. In semi-auto, the Mark III offers the same power and accuracy of the HB II but has more recoil due to the Mark III's lighter weight. 
​​
  Just like it's predecessor, The Mark III allows players to go into a first person mode where the player uses the rifle's optics in a first person view to take aim at enemies. However, the optic sight is made for durability, this means the optic's zoom leaves a bit to be desired as the magnification of the scope is minimal. 

   The weapon is designed to be visually similar to Longshot Sniper Rifle and Markza. This visually similarity with help players understand and read the rifle as a long range weapon. Instead of being the trademark locust red, it has a dark blue and gray color scheme that matches the current Lancer's colors.

  The red lights of the HB III have been replaced with the traditional COG blue. The Mark III has been stripped down and built back up, removing excess weight, making lighter. A synthetic stock has been added, however if fired rapidly the recoil can cause the weapon to kick, resulting in a loss of accuracy. 

   What do you think? Do you think that I designed a convincing COG Hammerburst? Do you think the COG wouldn't change the Hammerburst from it's Gears 3 Interpretation? Do you have a few notes or suggestions? Leave a comment here orsend me a tweet. 

​ Thanks for reading! 

  Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100​
​

Note: This was originally posted October 30th 2011. I decided to reblog it and update some aspects, including adding some ideas that didn't make the initial cut.

​Here is an idea I had for a game called Knights vs Ninjas! The game has a very simple premise, you pick your character (Knight or Ninja) and embark on a journey through Arthurian legends and medieval Japan to find a mysterious treasures and do battle with your rivals! The plot is just something that gets our characters fighting, no real story here, just something along the lines of "Ninjas/Knights are invading! Fight them!". 
 
   Visually the game is a mix of Castle Crashers and Super Smash Bros, it would be a very stylized 3D. The characters and background would be rendered in 3D but with cel shaded texture. The gameplay is also very similar. Players do battle in arenas that are set in Medieval England and Japan. The player who can defeat enough opponents by either depleting their hit points or knocking them out of bounds of the arena is the winner.

​   Most game modes would allow for anywhere between 4-8 players.  Game modes would be the standard affair such as Free For All to Team Versus, Keep Away and more. The game would feature a single player where players pick a faction and wage war against their rivals across all the stages in the game. 

  As of right now each faction has four character classes. Each character can either be male or female.  Players will be able to select their gender and customize their appearance (Different armor pieces, colors, emblems, weapons etc). All changes to the characters will be solely for aesthetic purposes and would not affect gameplay.

   Each class comes with their own weapons, strengths and weakness. Each class has their own unique weapon upgrade that they can unlock through the weapon upgrade power up that appears randomly during gameplay.

   Chivalrous knights that fight for honor and respect. They are adorned with armor and royal crests. Generally the knights are a bit slower but have higher defensive ratings compared to their Ninja counterparts.​
​

   The ninjas fight for the Unagi clan. They wear light clothing that allows for a greater level of agility. They can also strike much quicker then their knight counterparts.
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   The Heads up display is simple and easy to read. Information such as the player's health, the number of lives they have remaining are all in display. 

  These are items that can give the player temporary advantage in combat or restore their health. Each pickup is found inside a small treasure chest that spawns onto the stage at random intervals.

   Depending on the chest, it may take one strike to open or a few to open. The larger the chest the harder it will be to open. Larger chests have a better chance of holding a rare item, such as a weapon upgrade or Golden Chalice.
​​

   Defend - Players can defend themselves from any attack using the defense button. The amount of time and damage they can negate while defending is based off of their denseness rating. The player can only defend for so long before their defense is broken. ​

   If their defense is broken, they will be stunned for a few seconds, allowing an opponent to capitalize. Certain attacks and items are great at breaking defense. Charged attacks can shatter an opponent's defense in as little as one attack.

  The amount of damage a player can deal to an opponents defense is based on their attack stat. Higher attack means they can deal more damage and destroy their opponents defense quicker.

Dodge - Players can quickly dodge forward or back while on the ground or in the air. This is meant to be used as a way to quickly move around the map or to avoid incoming enemy attacks as well as cross level hazards. The speed and amount of times a player can dodge is not affected by any stats except for the speed boost power up.

Jump/Double Jump - Players can jump and while in the air jump again for a double jump. The height of the players jump and double jump is based off of their speed stat. 

​Melee Attacks - Every character in the game has melee based attacks. Certain classes specialize in melee fighting. Melee attacks can be utilized in combination of one another to unleash devastating combos. Melee attacks are the primary way players will deal damage to their opponents. 
 
  Different characters have different melee attack speeds. Some characters can attack quickly and in great succession where others have a longer wind up time but deliver more damage. This is based off of their speed stat and character class.

​Ranged Attacks - Every character has a ranged attack. Ranged attacks are attacks that can be done from a safe distance to attack an opponent. Certain character classes specialize in ranged attacks. ​

Charged Attacks - Every character can charge their attacks, whether they are ranged or melee attacks. Charged attacks do more damage, shatter defense quicker and knock opponents back.

 To charge an attack, the player must hold their attack button (or attack combination) until their weapon glows (this usually takes a few seconds. Charge up speed is not affected by any stats or power ups). Once the weapons is charged the player must release the button to unleash their attack.

   Charged attacks may be charged while standing or in the air (while the player drifts down after a double jump). Charge attacks can be interrupted if the player is struck while charging. Certain weapon pickups can also be charged up as well and can deal more damage or add an additional effect to the pick up.

  Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me. There is a bit more to Knights vs Ninjas, in fact so much more that I am going to have to cover the rest of it in a second blog post. Part 2 will go over terrain and a bunch of  stages I designed for the game. Including a stage that didn't make the initial blog post. 

 Part 2 will be up at a later date. Follow me on twitter to keep up to date with my blog, twitch, podcast and more. Thanks for reading!

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100
​

   Warzone is one of my favorite modes in Halo 5. It is the kind of game mode I always wanted. Taking on a large team of enemies and Ai combatants. When it all comes together, it is just awesome!

  Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck converting my friends to Warzone enthusiasts. Warzone can be a very frustrating and crushingly difficult mode for newcomers. The size of the map, the high player count, the Ai bosses that can kill you in an instant. The sheer chaos of the entire experience can be extremely overwhelming to a new player.

   As a veteran of over two hundred Warzone matches and after analyzing common complaints from my friends, I have come up with a few game design solutions that in my opinion would improve this game mode.

   Warzone is a huge game mode featuring a gigantic map and twenty four players and Ai enemies that attack either team. One issue I encountered with this set up is, well this mode can become chaotic very quickly. Players will oftentimes find themselves caught in the crossfire on a regular basis.

    How do we mitigate this issue? We add a kill cam. And to be very specific, we add one that functions identical to the one from the Battlefield series (pictured above). 

- Will show you where the shots came from and how much health/shield the enemy had remaining.
- What kind of weapon/vehicle, booster the enemy was using. 
- Will highlight a players position. If any player is using an exploit, they will be exposed.
- Help lower a player's frustration level and allow them to avoid making the same mistake twice.

  When playing with some of my friends, I had a hard time explaining the map layout to them, especially in the middle of the game. At the bottom left of the HUD is text that tells you where on the map you are located. This can help players identify their current location, but with no map to reference it is kind of pointless to a new player.

   The ideal Warzone map would display all of the main bases, the location of enemy bosses once they have spawned into the map, the health and status of each team's respective core and who controls each base.

   The map could also possibly display where your allies are on the map as well as enemies, well this would have to be tested out as displaying the position of enemies on the map might be a game breaker.Perhaps the map will temporarily display enemies that have been spotted by your allies or enemies that are currently engaging a boss.

   This is an issue I noticed while playing. Sometimes when I am killed and spawn back into the map I will miss the in game announcer declaring that an enemy boss has appeared on the map. With the map, the player would  would simply check the map during gameplay and the player would know when and where an enemy boss has spawned on the map. 

  I would also like to say that this is a bug that I have personally encountered on a numerous occasions, and it is most likely a obscure glitch. As mentioned before, adding a map with the whereabouts of enemy bosses would mitigate this issue entirely.

   One of the most crucial things in warzone is earning Victory Points (VP) by eliminating enemy bosses. Each boss is worth a hefty sum of points. Eliminating these bosses can help the player's team get a strong lead or close the gap. 
​

   I have experienced on a few occasions the enemy team stealing the boss points just get a huge lead in points, which at this point means we lost and there is no more coming back.

​   This is especially frustrating when the final boss has already spawned and been taken out. The only way to win at this point is to capture all three bases and destroy the enemy core. The chances of this happening is extremely low. I have never been on a team that has at this point captured all three bases and destroyed the enemy core to win.

   My suggestion to fix this issue is to change how points are distributed. This is what I suggest, if the Blue team lands majority damage, they would earn majority points. If a boss is worth 150 VP, and Blue team deals 75% of damage they would receive 112 points, where as the Red Team dealt only 25% of damage would only receive 38 points.

  If 100% of points is 150, then half of that is 75. If both teams did equal damage to the boss, they should receive equal points. As the system currently stands, it leaves a bit of room for chance. In my opinion we should reward teams and players that use team work to coordinate an assault on a boss, not reward players that sit back and take potshots. 

   These are my suggestion on how to make Warzone more accessible to new players and to the players that stick solely to the arena section of Halo 5's multiplayer.

   Warzone is one of my favorite game modes and I do feel that these suggestions would improve Warzone overall and make it more accessible to more players. If you are someone who is currently playing Halo 5 and has not tried Warzone, you should definitely give it a chance. I mean, what else are you going to do with all those Req cards?

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

 - Danny Q
@Dannylv100​
​

NOTE: I do not work at 343. I do not claim to work for this game studio, this blog post is just me talking about my thoughts on design and UI.

  After hours and hours of hard fought matches on the Warzone and in the Arena, I finally got my highly sought after DMR card. Now, if you are not a fan of Halo, the DMR or Designated Marksman Rifle is an excellent semi automatic rifle that hammers down covenant and online opponents like no other.
​

  I also want to mention the layout of the weapon requisition screen in warzone. I have a few suggestions that I think, in my opinion, might just make this system a bit more intuitive. 

  When you start up a game of Warzone you will find yourself at the requisitions window. From here you can select which weapons, vehicles, armor mods etc you would like to spawn with. All weapon, vehicle and power up cards are one time use, and go away if you are eliminated in battle, or when the game ends.

   The issue I have with this, is when you go to one of these tabs, all the weapons are lumped together. They do become highlighted once the required requisition level is achieved, but in my opinion, it would be better if we had the weapons catergorized in rows based off of their level. 

  Majority of weapon cards you unlock in these booster packs are "power weapons", weapons that can not be equipped as your default loadout. Weapons such as the rocket launcher can be equipped once you achieve the appropriate level and if you are willing to spend a rocket launcher card. You can not spawn with the rocket launcher if you do not have any cards to spend.

​    Weapons such as the Assault Rifle, Magnum, Battle Rifle, SMG and DMR are loadout weapons. The player just need to unlock the card to make them available as part of their loadout, however some of these cards still need to be unlocked by reaching he appropriate level. The default SMG is a level 4, after that level is achieved the player can spawn into the game with the SMG equipped at no loss of cards or points. 

   Now, I know some might say that adding the "Warzone" text at the bottom of the card might be pointless, but while playing in the arena, I occasionally overheard people opening up booster packs and some of these people have said things such as "What do I do with this weapon/vehicle?" and "What are half of these cards for?".

    It made me realize that some players that predominately play Arena have possibly never played Warzone as they had no idea what some of these cards were intended for. And I am honestly not surprised, as players that only player in the Arena, only a few cards would be used by them (Assassination animations, Armor/Helmets, Weapon Skins, Req Points, XP/RP boosters). I was still honestly surprised, Warzone was a mode that I had been anticipating for quite some time. 

  Just like the weapon card, vehicle cards suffer from the same issues. To the left you see the card as it currently is in game. The only information give to you is that is is an uncommon card and it is called "Wraith". The card currently in the game doesn't do much in terms of conveying information to the player and that is where the current design falters in my opinion. 

   With my update we once again see that this card requires the player to reach level 5, it is a single use card and it is for the Warzone game mode.

   To summarize my thoughts, I would just like these cards to convey more information (level, use, type, game mode). I also believe the benefit of letting players know what game mode these cards are intended for might get more players to try Warzone, which is one of my favorite game types in recent memory.

   To hear more about my thoughts on Halo 5, check out Divercast Ep. 20 (coming soon) and be sure to follow me on twitter, as I plan on streaming the creation of a custom map once Forge mode is made available. Thanks so much for your support and I hope you enjoyed this article.

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100

  Welcome to a special edition of Divercast! In this episode we answer questions that have been submitted to us via email and tumblr page. 

  The team at Deep Digital Design answers questions such as: What is your opinion on early access games? Does it seem like game dev engines are moving away from raw programming development and going into a more GUI based format? What is your game design process?

   So sit back, relax it is time for Divercast!

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud, clowdy and Youtube

   Don't forget to check out our affiliate IndieBox.com! Indiebox is a subscription service that delivers collector edition indie games straight to your door step every month. Referral code: Divercast.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100
​

   Welcome to the third installment of  Freeze-E Frosty's - Developer Commentary. In this video series I will go behind the scenes of the third level of Freeze-E Frosty and share with you my design process.

- This level was the most test played section in the entire game.
- This section features over 815 kismet sequences.
- Sections from the main menu area can be seen in the background of the first phase of the boss fight.
- The boss fight was all scripted inside of kismet through matinees.
- The hit points for the boss had to be tweaked constantly. Some play testers could not even freeze him once before dying.
- Originally, when you died during the boss fight you would have to start over from the start of the level. We decided to make it easier by allowing you to start off from when you died.
- Originally, when defeated the T-rex would explode.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100​  ​

   Welcome to the second installment of  Freeze-E Frosty's - Developer Commentary. In this video series I will go behind the scenes of the second level of Freeze-E Frosty and share with you my design process and about the original soundtrack.

- You can listen to the games original soundtrack on our indieDb page.
- The idea for the health vent was pitched by one of our environment artist.
- The "Running Man" appears 3 times in this level in the background.
- Traveling through the vents was supposed to be much shorter, but was lengthened after positive feedback from playtests.
- There was supposed to be another section before you exit the vents, but it was cut due to time.
- The Ice Cream T-Rex appears in the background twice in this level.
- This level went through many iterations of environment art layout. The look of the level wasn't finalized till near launch of the game.
- My original intent of this level was to show the dark underbelly of the factory.
- Areas featured in this level are: a warehouse, Cookie Crumbler (where toppings are made) and the soda filtration system.
- In terms of design, this level was redesigned the least.

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100​  ​