Pitch :
Seiki, a kitsune (fox-like yokai), needs to climb to the top of a randomly generated giant tower to free his world from androids. Thanks to his unique capabilities, he can draw himself upwards and slow the time around him to easily fight his enemies.
Unity - SourceTree/GitKraken
Context
It was my first video game project done with a team. It was made in 4 months in a team of 8 members. As the first project of the second year in Game Design, the goal was to make a 2D rogue-like.
Development
We decided to make a platformer with verticality at the core of the game in a futuristic /mystical neon japan city. The character would be a survivor of yokai people attacked by drones.
The idea of a grappling hook as the main way of moving was found really early. So, we worked from the start on the grappling hook of our character, which became my main focus on the project.
To emphasize the aspect of verticality and height, we decided to do the level design in a giant tower in which the character would have to reach the top. The tower was generated procedurally with premade rooms with various shapes and challenges.
The idea of fast confrontations was also quickly decided. As a rogue-like game, we wanted combat to be different from other games and we wanted to make it fit naturally with the movement system. So it came out that the attack would be performed in conjunction with the grappling hook: the player would draw himself toward an enemy with the grappling hook and when he is close enough he can perform an attack in front of him. With the right timing, the enemy is destroyed and the time slows down to let the player easily target a new enemy nearby.
After a few tests of the firsts iterations of the controller, we realised that remaining in the air was thrilling and it was the way for the player to show that he was mastering the grappling hook. So, even though we wanted to create grounded enemies at the start, we decided to only add only flying enemies. This encourages the players to move in the air.
And finally, we added unique capacities which the player can obtain during a run in the tower. These were designed to complement the basic moves and the attack. Each capacity was encouraging movement and added challenges to be used efficiently.
My work
I’ve done many things on this project because I wanted to try as many fields as possible. So I participated a lot in the design of the 3Cs and I helped with the level design. I also participated in the enemies' design.
I had a bit of experience in programming and Unity which was more than anyone else in the group so I was also in charge of most of the programming.
It was really important for me to have satisfying and challenging movements for our character since it was going to be at the core of our game. So, I created prototypes from the start of the project. I learn a lot about the iterative process thanks to this. I had to make controllers with many options and features that were proposed by other members.
We tried many different controllers in order to find the best one and we took the time to find it.
One of the main challenges we faced was the Inputs the player would use to aim with the grappling hook. So we switch back and forth several times between mouse and controller.
The challenges needed in each were different, even though it was challenging on the design side I learned a lot about haptics challenges for the player. For example, I learned the mental charge needed for each new input the player needs to memorize and the control habits of a player. I learn one more important thing, the biased point of view regarding the input challenge when you’re accustomed to it.
I tried my best to make the feeling of the attack mechanic satisfying. I worked with the game artists to find appropriate feedback for the controller and the attack. We used various feedbacks like sound effects, image distortions, and visual effects.
The camera had also a big impact on the gameplay since the character was moving a lot and fast. So I worked with another designer to find the appropriate camera movement. The challenge was to show the part of the level the player needed to see so he knows where is heading. I learned a lot about camera movement with this.
Conclusion
For me, it is one of the most instructive projects to work on 3Cs design. It certainly helped me on my next projects. The team was really proud of the game we delivered. So we decided to continue developing it in our free time for a more complete version of the game with improved mechanics.
