Hook is the Hook

Hook is the Hook, is my university final project which I worked on with a fellow student. The player is a grappling gladiator. They defeat enemies in unique and stylish ways, using their grappling hook, traps and other objects around the level.

Developed: June 2018 - December 2018

My Role: Systems design, programming, UI

Type: University Project (team of 2)

DESIGN DECISIONS AND PROCESSES

This project went through quite a bit of iteration and pivoting throughout its development. From the start though when we latched onto this idea, we knew that the central mechanic and essence of the game was going to be the grappling hook.

Everything had to support and encourage that mechanic in the game as that was the player’s means of defeating enemies and in some cases transport. Creating a systematic world for the player to use this tool was the goal. Various different traps, world objects, layouts of levels, etc. All on their own done nothing. Yet when mixed with each other and interacted with by the player, opened up new and different possibilities of gameplay.

The tagline of the game is about killing enemies in unique and stylish ways. So finding new ways to do so in the game, is important for the player’s progression.

More to come…

Alien Burger Maker

You are a chef in an alien burger restaurant. Make odd and unique burgers for the hungry aliens before the destruction of their planet.

Developed: June 2018 - August 2018

My Role: Project Lead, Designer, Programmer

Type: University Project (team of 3)

DESIGN DECISIONS AND PROCESSES

Alien Burger Maker, was a game we made for Liminal VR. They make short experiences to create certain emotions. For this project, we were told to make an energising experience. Something that people can play to make them feel pumped and ready for their day.

This was done through a number of different ways.

Gameplay

• With the ingredients falling constantly, the player is always grabbing them and serving burgers to the aliens.
• The addition of needing to squirt sauce onto burgers and add the top bun, encourages movement of the arm.

Progression

• The game has more and more customers come to the window at once as the game continues on, increasing the speed and multitasking that the player has to do.
• Ingredients spawn and fall faster as the game progresses, emphasising the speed.
• At the end, the game finishes off with a grand finale. The restaurant launches into the air, drills through the planet and then watches it as it explodes.

Theme

• The game has a wacky/abstract/hyper-realistic theme to it. This takes the player out of the world they know and puts them into one with different rules and unknown expectations.
• It's a very colourful game. With the aliens, ingredients, environment, etc. This is a very saturated and fun game to look at.

Read Post Mortem

Nesting Instinct

During an ongoing storm, you (a flying squirrel) and your babies have taken shelter in the nest. Although as the storm continues, your babies grow hungry. In order to feed them you must go outside into the storm.

Developed: April 2018 - May 2018

My Role: Project Lead, Designer

Type: University Project (team of 9)

DESIGN DECISIONS AND PROCESSES

Nesting Instinct, was a university group project based around the idea of home. The game presents home as a place of safety, yet requiring the player to leave their comfort zone in order to feed their flying-squirrel babies.

There are 2 distinct areas in the game. The nest and the outside. The nest is calm and warm, while outside is dark, cold and daunting. There were various different ways these 2 feelings were accomplished.

Nest

• Soft, orange colours to emphasise that this is a warm place.
• No ambient storm noises, just calm guitar music.

Outside

• No music, just ambient wind, rain and thunder noises.
• A dark purple atmosphere, with stark lighting.
• Dark fog covering the ground, with red eyes fading in and out to give the player a sense of being watched.
• An ominous, red moon.
• Snakes hiding in some trees, which puts the player on their toes.

Gatho at 9:00

You're hosting a small party at 9:00pm. It's 8:49pm and you're not prepared. Quickly drive to pick up your friends who cannot drive, shop for necessities and calm your friends down when they message you. You don't have time to lose.

Developed: February 2018 - March 2018

My Role: Solo Development

Type: University Project

DESIGN DECISIONS AND PROCESS

Gatho at 9:00, was made for a university assignment where we had to create a game based of a real life experience. I chose the feeling of being unprepared and rushing to get stuff sorted for a party. Although not directly a reflection of the real life experience, the game emphasises the feelings you have in a short, exciting experience.

There are various different "tasks" or "scenes" in the game, which the player has to accomplish in order to move onto the next one. I wanted each of them to have a different mechanic, to create the sense of disorder and increase the pressure on the player. Each of these scenes encourages pressure and anxiety for the player in different ways.

• The Driving scene, has the player thinking fast, finding the right letter on the keyboard to finish as fast as possible.
• The Friends House scene, has the player spamming the space-bar, hopefully increasing their heartbeat slightly and encouraging motor-functions which can be seen in the real world equivalent as in-patience.
• The Messaging scene, has the player spamming any key on the keyboard to reply to their friend. This implies the sense of urgency and drills home the fact that failing to finish the game will disappoint the player's friends.
• Finally, the Shop scene, has the player hastily looking for produce in a small shop. This can encourage anxiety, in-turn; having the player perhaps making bad decisions or missing obvious items.

Other elements in the game which can encourage the intended experience are:

• Music. This was done by finding a fast paced track on Incompetech (Darkling) and then adding a ticking clock every 1 second. Not only does the music encourage fast behaviour, but the ticking implies that there's no time to lose.
• Popping Text. Each scene in the game has coloured text which pops in and out. They provide information and context to the scene, as well as encouraging the player on how to act.

Kings of the Arena

Kings of the Arena, is a 2D, top down hero shooter. You can choose from a variety of characters and battle out in multiplayer against others.

Developed: August 2017 - November 2017 (development halted)

My Role: Solo Development

Type: Solo Project

Design Decisions and Process

The overall experience I intended for, was competitiveness. If you're more skilled than someone else, then you should win. The desired "easy to learn, hard to master" concept was intended. Learning the abilities and projectile types is fairly easy, as there aren't that many. Mastering the game though, involves knowing how to combine those abilities, both your own as well as other teammates'.

Each character is designed in a way to excel at a certain playstyle.

• Archer: Tank, heavy damage, high health.
• Mage: Defence, shield ability, stun ability.
• Cleric: Support, can heal allies, suck health from enemies.
• Druid: Support/damage, can create AOE effect of increased attack speed, heavy damage ability.
• Assassin: Offensive, low health, high damage abilities.

Since the game is designed with competition and skill in mind, choosing the right combination of characters for a team is vital to success. A more skilled team will hopefully be able to play one of each of the characters, using their desired roles effectively with each other to create a team dynamic that works well.

These sort of "easy to learn, hard to master" competitive games are very common. Overwatch has characters, each with specific roles in mind, allowing for very strategic, team based games. Even a game like CS:GO, with no built in roles, players design their teams around each others specific playstyles. There's the entry fragger, support and others. Choosing who does what, where they go and how they interact with the team is what defines a bad team from a great team.

Read dev blogs.

Promised Purjury

War is approaching and nearby Kingdoms are coming to you for assistance. Some of them truly want to be on your side, yet others are trying to deceive you. Pay careful attention to what they say and their Kingdom's statistics to determine whether or not they are telling the truth.

Developed: January 2018

My Role: Solo Development

Type: Make-A-Thing Game Jam

 

Design Decisions and Process

For this game jam, we were given 3 words that the game needed to involve. Kind, thwart and blip. The idea of being kind or thwarting someone made me think of Papers, Please. So I went with a medieval variation of that game.

The overall aim was to make the player feel pressured and on edge. This was done with the following design decisions:

• Having a timer. It's in the middle of the screen, so it's always in their view. Allowing the player to know how long they have left until failing, causes them to feel more pressured. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, has the players on edge and feeling pressured the entire time. With a ticking timer as well, this does indeed cause the players to hurry and feel more on edge as the game progresses.
• Adding in more sections that the player needs to check is another way to make them feel pressured. All of a sudden they need to review Kingdom relations and travel distances. Still within the 30 second time limit, their pace of reviewing information increases as more is introduced, increasing the pressure on the player. This can be seen in Papers, Please, where new requirements are added constantly.

Read dev diary.

Country Car

This is a remake of an old 1982 Atari game, Barnstorming, in the style of the famous American painter, Edward Hopper. You play as a car, driving out from the large city to your new country home. Avoid obstacles, while going through gas stations to get to your destination.

Developed: October 2017

My Role: Solo Development

Type: University Project

 

Design Decisions and Process

From early playtests, it was obvious that people did not know that they had to go through the gas stations to win the game. So to communicate this mechanic without directly telling them, a gas station was placed directly in-front of the player at the start of the game. This caused them to almost always go through it.

Re-creating Edward Hopper's realistic art style was something I struggled to figure out early on. Eventually though, I went with a low poly approach, theming it to the 1930's. This was done by making the textures less saturated and having an old-timely font. Overall, I believe that even though it doesn't feature realistic painted visuals, it still relates quite a bit to Edward Hopper.

The main correlations to the artist though, was done through the setting. All things Edward Hopper painted like trains, looking out of windows, countrysides, gas stations, etc, were implemented into the game. A main aspect of his paintings was looking out of windows, which the camera appears to do in-game. Lighting was another element Hopper fondly painted. In the game there are 3 levels, each with a different level of lighting and visual style. Dusk, Dawn and Midnight. This creates both a different visual style, as well as altering the game. At Dawn, there are more potholes and at Midnight, vision is limited. These small differences create distinguishable levels, for a project we only had a few weeks on.

Janky Jousting

Janky Jousting, is a local multiplayer game where you and another person joust to the death. The knight is hard to control and with the King watching, you must perform your best. This is a game that is fun to play with a friend or two.

Developed: May 2017

My Role: Solo Development

Type: Solo Project

Design Decisions and Process

When making Janky Jousting, I had in mind that I wanted to create a party game. Games like Gang Beasts and Mount Your Friends are special because the fun comes not from mastering the game, but from playing with your friends. I've played Gang Beasts with people both online and in-person, and in-person is by far the better experience. Being able to yell at and nudge the people beside you creates the sense of fellowship and excitement.

Here are the design decisions that influence the intended party-game experience.

• Each round is quick and goes to the next one almost instantly.
• There is a lack of precision in controlling the knight and defeating your enemy is not really based around skill. This allows for a more even playing field. Perfect for a group of friends/party environment, where quick play-throughs are common.
• When the lances hit each other, no one scores. This can create the sense of "I was so close to hitting you!" for each of the players, increasing the tension in the room.

There are many other games that inherit the same features to create the party-game experience. Going back to Gang Beasts, the characters are "floaty" and often hard to control. You end up most of the time spamming all the buttons to try and defeat your friends. The winner is not nessecarily the best player, as being the best player isn't what makes the game fun. The fact that anyone can pickup and play the game and have an almost equal fighting chance, is what makes it great for a party or group atmosphere. In Janky Jousting likewise, you just need to know the controls and you're off!