Top-Down Action Puzzler
Escape containment as an parasitic alien organism. Take control of human hosts and use their unique abilities to escape the facility.
Project Summary
Final Project for University of Central Florida Production Course
March - May 2020 | Unity Engine 2019.3
Team of 8 students
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3 programmer/ producers
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5 artists
Responsibilities
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Player mechanics programming
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Level design & Revisions
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Camera and control systems
Concepting and Prototyping
Given minimal initial constraints beyond the need for a prototype that could display all the game's mechanics in a single room, and that utilized analog control sticks in some manner, our team initially settled on a twin-stick arena shooter, with the twist that the player was a tiny, defenseless being that could take control of enemies and survive by hiding behind them, based on similar mechanics in Streets of Rogue, Mario Odyssey, and others.
As one of the team's two initial programmers, and the one who proposed the idea, I was responsible for implementing the parasitism system, where every had both a customizable body, with distinct appearances and abilities, but a distinct AI brain with different select-able behaviors. The player's base form was given the ability to leap at weaker enemies, or stronger enemies that had been injured, and hijack their body, destroying the AI brain, and all controls changed to fit the new body, along with the new option to 'abandon ship' and leap out - potentially right into another new body, minimizing time spent vulnerable on the floor.
As the scope of the project expanded, enemies we had envisioned to provide combat variety were retooled into a series of escape room-esque and combat puzzles - rather than human hosts being disposable armor, certain ones were the keys to opening doors or bypassing deadly hazards. This necessitated careful flagging of critical enemies so that the player could not 'soft-lock' themselves without knowing, but allowed us to expand from a single arena to a winding linear level, and added real challenge to combat that could previously only be failed if the player was careless or unlucky, as the most common enemies could always be parasitized.
Creating gauntlets where the player had to 'escort' a certain body through a bunch of enemies that would attempt to destroy it, and making use of various hazards and hazard immunities - opening gas vents under foes or running safely through a fire vent as a flame trooper - gave combat the variety and stakes we wanted.
Getting Organized and Pushing the Limits
While the game's systems were being defined after our initial showcase, the lack of any team organization made the amount of progress - both in scale and polish - quickly seem to be difficult.
While some fun setpieces had been developed, enemy behavior and environments remained unimpressive after the first milestone, and the control scheme and UI needed major improvements that would occupy me fully. Needing someone to help split the load, I met with two members of the team and suggested we split up the remaining team and delegate work - something they agreed to when we proposed it.
Our lead artist received requests from myself, the design lead, and had their team create environment assets, animate characters, or create necessary promotional materials according to their strength. Our other initial programmer helped me be aware of issues with the first draft of the player and enemy controllers, and once another programmer joined the team, coordinated the bulk of the programming work with them and handed me anything they couldn't do, as I handled improvements to the player controller, the UI and camera, and coordinated with the other two leads.
Beyond refining existing systems, ensuring new art assets were being integrated properly, and expanding levels where possible, there was one more major content addition to the game that I took upon myself to handle in the last weeks before release - the final boss.
Beginning with nothing but the idea from the original pitch - that they'd be a multi-layer enemy that uses each of the game's elements - of which only two made it past the initial pitch, I designed a new dedicated enemy controller and scene controller just for the boss level, and made a more reactive experience for the player - hazards would activate and doors would open automatically after different phases of the boss were defeated, forcing them to leave into a side room and obtain an ability that would let them survive the now hazard-filled boss room.
Wanting the fight to be rewarding for players coming off our normal levels, I had the artists make shotgun variants of the hazard-immune enemies - seeing as the shotgun was consistently the favorite weapon among play-testers, when the got to use it. I also made unique hosts that would never expire until the player took control of them, so the player's route forward in each room was clear, and they couldn't fail in a safe environment. The end result was a genuinely satisfying battle amongst the flames that forced the player to keep moving, but was consistent to defeat if the player had mastered the game's mechanics