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PLATFORM:
PC - Windows & Linux
Mobile - Android (COMING SOON)
GAME ENGINE:
Unity Game Engine
CODING LANGUAGE:
C#
GAME CONCEPT:
You are Rocket Bloke! A bloke that for some reason has a rocket tied to his back, and now he must try and get through levels of ever-increasing difficulty while collecting diamonds that he hopes to spend and Jerry Cans to fuel his rockets; avoiding hazards along the way.
A very simple runner that was built over the course of few days as part of a programming test I took part in. Releasing it here because I really like what I've made, and I kind of want to gauge if I should continue to develop this game into a full game for both the PC and Mobile Phones.
GAME PRODUCTION:
The Rocket Bloke Prototype was designed and coded by myself over the course of a few days, as a part of a programming test that I took part in. The main requirements for the programming test were as follows:
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The player must collect items that can be used to avoid hazards within the level
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If the player collides with a hazard, they will either die or lose some of their items
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The controls must be simple, and easy to understand
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The tutorial should be only one screen, or the main mechanics can be understood within 10 seconds of playing the game
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The player gets a score at the end, which can be multiplied by landing on a multiplier block at the end of the level
Before starting any coding, or even a design document the first stage of the project was to do research. This research was playing other similar games like Root Rails, and Stair Run. While playing these games, I would note down what they did well, what they could improve upon, and what I could do to make my version more unique.
After looking through all of the games, and running ideas through my head about what my game could be about. I landed on the idea of a man with Rocket Pack tied to his back, who must collect Jerry Cans to refill his Rocket Pack, and collect diamonds for cash. I really liked this concept, as it meets all of the requirements that I was tasked with reaching and it's something I could easily develop in a few days.
The next stage was to create a design document. For me, this is probably the most important stage as I can write down all of my ideas into one document which I can refer back to later. Moreover, it gives me a chance to properly layout how the mechanics are going to work, how the player will be controlled, what items can the player pick up, what hazards will there be in the game (and will these hazards be instant death or take away some of the player's rocket fuel), how the points system will work, how many levels will this game contain, how the User Interface will look and function. You can take a look at the game design document below.
Once I was happy with the design document, the next stage was to start coding the player controls and the main gameplay mechanics. Since this was a fairly simple game, all of the mechanics and player controls were coded within a few hours. The rest of that day was spent playtesting the player controls and mechanics to make sure that they were working as intended; eliminate any game breaking bugs, optimise the code and to clearly comment the code.
As I was finished with the mechanics and player controls, the next part I moved on to was creating the User Interface such as creating a bar that told the player how much fuel they had, how many diamonds they had, the pause menu, the ending screen and death screen. This user interface took sometime, as I had to make sure that it was clear and easy to understand as I did not want to clutter up the screen too much. The user interface took roughly a day too complete in full.
The final stage was making the main levels for the game. This is the part of the game that took the longest, as these levels had to go through a lot of playtesting to make sure that they:
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They were fun to play
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The levels were easy, and did not experience any huge difficulty spikes
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The levels a little bit harder as they went on
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Mechanics and obstacles were introduced slowly over the levels e.g. one new mechanic per a level
As said this section took the longest as I wanted to make sure the levels were just right, so I did not have enough time to develop all of the five levels that I had planned out. In the near future though, I will release new levels, mechanics and much more in future updates to the game. This stage is also were I spent a lot the time polishing the game up such as adding sounds, post-processing effects, models, animations, UI textures, UI animations and music.
Personally, I really enjoyed working on this game so I plan to add more to it. I'm also planning to port it to Android in the near future so I can release it on the Google Play Store. In the mean time, you can try out the game by clicking the Itch.Io Link!!!
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