2D GAME DEVELOPMENT
LOST ISLE
PROJECT AMBITION
In this project, I was tasked to work in a group to design a 2D game aimed towards the casual gaming market. The game needed to be made in unity and the group needed to appoint individuals for specific roles. The final product should be working demo with individual settings, story, and mechanics. In this project I was in charge of idea generation for the decided concept, level design, and later sound/music design for the game and video covering the project.
We as a group quickly realised we all shared a similar idea of a 2D platformer sidescroller as a game genre, this kind of genre is commonly known as a Metroidvania Adventure Game. This came as two variations the top down version or the side view scrolling version. As a group, we threw together ideas on what the game should be based around but I personally felt that an adventure game through a strange environment was the right direction to go in with multiple paths to explore and secrets to find. I quickly began to research existing examples of games like this to present to my group mates as compelling examples. I found myself returning to two games as examples, in particular, that being the widely popular, "Hollow Knight" & "Legend of Zelda".
THE IDEA
As a group, we quickly set to work on idea generation, discussing what we wanted from this game, how it was going to look and what it was going to be about. We settled on the idea of an island, Bermuda triangle theme. Each island representing a level and each being thematically different from the next. We agreed on the main focus of the game which was to play a character which travels from island to island discovering secrets, exploring strange environments and fighting off enemies in classic Metroidvania fashion. Each different island (in theory at least) would come with its own end objective of uncovering some type of treasure, completing goals, or in some instances, fighting an imposing boss.
MY ROLL: WORLD DESIGN
Because the game was so focused on the exploration and traveling through a vast area of different twists and turns and small secrets the level itself would have been designed as such. With multiple pathways and areas to explore by running and jumping. Also providing the player with shortcuts to find and shorten the distance between certain areas.
We chose to focus on a demo version of the first Island which would consist of a sandy beachhead as a starting zone and a large cave complex beneath that the player would have to navigate under before going back to the surface. Unlocking a shortcut when on the other side of the beach and shortening exploration to and from the beginning and the next big zone. I set to work on designing the level layout and soon the backgrounds for the environments.
CHARACTER AND DESIGN ELEMENTS
Taking damage was always intended to be part of the game so the character would need a health bar in order to gauge damage taken, the health bar was designed to mimic the player character. The more damage the player character takes the shorter his cape becomes, naturally when health reaches 0 the player dies and respawns at the beginning.
One method of taking damage would be from enemies. Two versions of this tribal designs were made to act as obstacles on the island on top of platforming and traps. One was a ranged attacker shooting the players with darts, the second would chase the player down when spotted. (see top right of the picture).
These enemies were used in combination to create encounter variety. They had a set amount of health that could be removed when hit with a players attack.
SOUND DESIGN
Using a combination of Ableton Live and Sibelius 7 composing software I started creating ambient background music to match the in-game environments. I wanted the environmental sounds of the beach to be very different from the underground areas. The beach uses a combination of ocean waves, light jingles, and bells while the dark caves use echos and damn noises along with droning music to create a very unsettling atmosphere.
On top of this, I also created an OST for the game trailer and overall music folder for a potential soundtrack in Sibelius 7 making use of my skills as a sound designer and music composer. This added a great deal of personality to the game.
