"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive." —Elbert Hubbard

M.Idella.H

Game Designer |

SoJuFiTu | Alpha

Started | (04/2023)

Completed | 05/2023

Est. Logged Time: 24hrs

User Interface

Level Design

Postmortem

Pre-Production

DESIGN CONCEPT

Genre: Top Down Shooter | Time period: None | Location: None | Inhabitants: Enemies

This team project is a minigame with 4 levels with the simple goal of reaching the end. To reach the end the player must complete the task they are giving all while surviving the waves of enemies.

My Mechanics

Companion Dog Commands
Juggernauts
Enemy Spawners

Team Members Mechanics

Rail Target/Door
Shield

Mechanics

COMPANION DOG COMMANDS

Fido

Fido is controlled using the mouse exclusively he can Attack, Fetch, Stay and Return on command.

Fetch

Fido can collect health kits for the player by clicking the Left Mouse Button on the object.

Stay & Return

Fido can be commanded to stay anywhere along the route he takes by clicking the Middle Mouse Button and then be called back to the player with the Right Mouse Button.

Attack

The player can send Fido to attack the Juggernaut only by clicking on the Juggernaut with the Left Mouse Button.

THE JUGGERNAUTS

Vulnerability

When Fido attacks the juggernaut he crouches down disabled and exposing his health bar. The player can now shoot to destroy it.

Enemy AI

When the Juggernauts spawn they automatically target and head toward the player. Should they reach the player they will die instantly. The Juggernauts are invincible until they aren't.

M.O.A.B

When the player destroys the Juggernaut it triggers a MOAB that destroys all active Turrets.

ENEMY SPAWNERS

Gates

The Gates spawn juggernauts on the circular platforms. Sometimes automatically

Pressure Pads

The pads can spawn either a Juggernaut or the Turrets along the walls

CHECKPOINTS

Checkpoints

The flags pop up when the player is halfway through a level and will respawn in the middle with half the progress saved.

User Interface

VISUAL FEEDBACK

Player Controls

Fido controls are bound to the mouse buttons. For visual feedback the cursor was changed to a paw print.

HUD

The Player HUD hosts their health, and if they've picked up the Shield and/or a Checkpoint Flag. The Task list is also displayed above it.

Task List

Below shows how the player will receive information general information and it displayed as task for them to complete.

Level Design

LEVEL LAYOUT & GAMEPLAY

Tutorial Level

A Tutorial level designed to take the player across the level and learn to use the companion dog and other mechanics. Complete all the Tasks to move on.

Time Attack Level

A beginner level with simple structures designed to keep the player in the middle for added protection. They need to survive the clock.

Juggernaut Level & High Score Level(Final)

Both are similarly designed and they both spawn Juggernauts and turrets but when the player is in the Juggernaut level(left) they need to manually spawn Juggernauts to take out the amount of Juggernauts that would be displayed as the task with Turrets automatically spawning in along the walls. The final level the player must manually spawn in turrets to reach the necessary score to win the game with juggernauts automatically spawning in.

FULL PLAYTHROUGH

Post Mortem

WHAT WENT WELL

Intro, Practice and Mastering Mechanics

Implementing where each mechanic would be introduce, practice and mastered went extremely well. Designing the level objectives around the final two levels was great but the tutorial level proved to be difficult.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Tutorial Level Design

I wouldn't go as far as saying it went wrong rather than it took a while to get it working. All the other levels came easy because of their singular tasks. Creating the branches of the Task List and moving objects based on the completions as well as checking current conditions like if the Pressure pad was stepped on the task list would respond accordingly.