STAR3SK

Computer Games Design

Final Major Project

By Konrad Kowalewski

Will You Survive this Endless Torture?

Game

Design

Project Description

In this project were supposed to use all skills learned in past two years to create playable game. With various specialisations people went with many different game ideas.

As my game idea I went with simple 2d endless runner where player needs to dodge upcoming obstacles. I have decided to create my game on a mobile devices so it could be a very good variation for a portfolio and be presentable anywhere.

Summary My game is endless runner type of game

where player needs to dodge upcoming obstacles in order to get higher and higher score. Game features inverted controls and change in phone orientation mechanic in order to make game harder.

Story

Your main character is a spaceship Capitan. You have been sent onto a suicidal mission to steal a green power crystal from an enemy base and comeback with it. On your way back your spaceship have been hit in a navigator’s room by a meteor and your space navigation does not work. You have failed into a meteor chain and you have to get out of it in order to repair your systems and deliver the crystal to a base.

Targeted platforms

Game is intended for mobile devices like android devices, iOS devices and Amazon kindle.

Gameplay

The idea of a gameplay is that player needs to adapt to a changing phone orientation and reversed controls in order to progress in the game. The goal is to get highest score as possible and unlock a secret skin which is colourful instead of grayscale. Player needs to predict where to position a spaceship in order to dodge meteors.

Mind-set

In this game player needs to get angry but for short amount of time to stay determined to play the game and achieve a High-Score.

Technical Design

Scenes My game is made of 4 scenes, one informing about screen locking, one main menu scene, one tutorial screen and one game scene. My game does not have pause menu because it is meant to be fast paced endless runner game followed with no options menu because it is small mobile game.

Controls

In order to play this game player needs to press on screen buttons to move spaceship right and left. Controls invert themselves time to time. When orientation is changing player needs to rotate phone manually and adapt to new conditions.

Mechanics

There are 3 core mechanics of this game:

1st is spawning meteors mechanic which spawns meteors with various sizes and speeds and time to time creates a “wall of death” that can be dodged only in one spot.

2nd is inverting controls mechanic which inverts function of a button

3rd is switching orientation mechanic which changes screen orientations between portrait, landscape, inverted portrait and inverted landscape.

Other than that there are some smaller mechanics like changing scenes, changing skins, scoring system and other smaller scripts.

Level Design

Influences

My main medium of inspiration was game called “Space invaders” and their creator “Tomohiro Nishikado”. It was a very simple game and I have decided to mess it up slightly with few different mechanics to make fast peace and difficult mobile game.

Visual Style Attributes

As a visual styling of the game I have decided to create 2 skins, one in a grayscale and one colourful which player needs to unlock by collecting randomly appearing collectable.

Game flow

1. First player starts the game and warning screen appears which informs the player about need to lock phone rotation.

2. Player sees a main menu where he can press a button to play the game.

3. After starting the game player sees a tutorial screen which introduces him about the game mechanics.

4. Main gameplay starts where the player needs to dodge upcoming obstacles and adapt to inverted controls and switching orientation.

5. When the players dies the next round starts in the next 3 seconds.

Asset

development

Assets In my game I needed some 2d art: Spaceship sprites, environment and UI, a lot of code to satisfy big amount of mechanics in the game and music. I haven’t used any 3d models or animations.

Schedule

Schedule