PLATFORM:
PC - Windows
GAME ENGINE:
Unity Game Engine
CODING LANGUAGE:
C#
GAME CONCEPT:
Darkness has fallen, and the zombies are rising. Only you can save the day, and seize it from the oncoming horde. All you need is your trusty shotgun, and a high WPM (Words Per a Minute) score!
In this on rails shooter, instead of pointing your shotgun at enemies to kill them. You blow them away by typing out the correct phrase, as quickly as you possibly can before they reach you and eat your brains.
GAME PRODUCTION:
This game was developed solely by me over the course of seven days, for the Game Parade 2020 Game Jam. The theme for this jam was 'CARPE DIEM / SIEZE THE DAY'. Once the theme was announced I started to write down ideas for the game. To help come up with some ideas, I had also written down a set of criteria and requirements that the game must meet for it to be successful and can be developed within seven days. Some examples of my requirements include:
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The game can be developed by one person, in a short time frame
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The main mechanic of the game must be very simple.
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Main mechanic can be explained in one sentence.
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Takes 10-30 seconds for the player to understand the mechanic
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The game must be really replay-able and fun
It took me roughly an hour or two to come up the zombie typing game idea. I really liked this idea as I felt it was really strong since it met a lot of my criteria that I had set out. Also, the main mechanic was very simple to program and since the is an on-rails shooter it makes coding the movement and AI much easier. So once I was happy with this idea, my next step was to write out a game design document and plan out on paper the levels, mechanics, enemies, etc. This was very important as it's something I could always refer back to at a later point if I ever got stuck. Also, it's always good to write something down because you easily forget it by the next day.
Once the planning was all done, I started developing the game. Over the first two days I created a rough prototype of the game with cubes for enemies and a grey box layout of the first level. I did this so I could get the main mechanic right before I actually started to work on other parts of the game. Once this was done, I spent the next five days improving upon the enemies such as adding in models and animations. Also started adding detail to the level to make it look visually nice for the player. Finally, I also spent lots of time playtesting the game to make sure that there were no bugs. Also, got other members of my family to playtest the game as well to make sure that they understood how to play the game, and that the difficulty for the game was just about right.
On the final day, I had finished the game entirely and decided to spend most of the day polishing the game further and making sure that there were no game breaking bugs. I finally submitted the game two hours before the deadline.
PROBLEMS OVERCAME:
Luckily there were not any major problems that were faced during the development of the game, but there were some minors ones such as annoying sound bugs that caused the same sound to play at once which were quickly fixed. However, I did originally plan on making more than one level but once I started developing, I decided that it's better to make one really good level instead of three average levels that are not completely finished. I do plan on adding these two levels later down the line in a future update.