The Game
In a world where humans have a paramount impact on this worlds marine environment, you must embark on a journey throughout the great unknown. Playing as a little turtle named shelly, as well as its protector, you must carefully traverse through the sandy beaches and deep ocean that is littered with rubbish, clearing it as you play.
The Process
Working in a team of 6, my first major group project was an absolute blast. I learnt a lot during the process about working in a team as well as the general process of developing a project from start to finish (even though we only had 6 weeks to complete it. Utilising Industry standard practices such as daily standups and task tracking on Hack’n’Plan, I was able to work efficiently with my team and create a project that ultimately I was quite happy with. If I could go back and do something different I would definitely try and challenge myself more as a designer, coming up with an interesting design solution to the brief that was provided. I only wish I had had a few more weeks on the project to really make it feel polished.
UI Design & Development
One of the main jobs I took upon myself was designing and building the functionality behind the games UI & HUD. Having previous experience coding in C# provided a great avenue for me to take up this role as I felt confident in my own abilities to create basic UI functionality. Further, having previously designed a range of different UI solutions throughout high school and early university proved to be valuable experience throughout the design process.
I made a conscious effort to ensure the UI was basic and streamlined, taking into consideration the target demographic for the game.
Functionality wise, I made it in such a way that the player was able to adjust the volume and mouse sensitivity to their preference, and these inputs saved between scenes. Although very basic, the adjustment sliders were functional and I was very happy with achieving this at the time.
In Engine Work
Environment setup & Greyboxing
In designing level one we wanted to ensure that there were multiple paths the player could take to complete the level. The goal was for the player to clear some of the rubbish so that the turtle could reach the shore, with the player both removing the rubbish and having to avoid the enemy seagulls and crabs. The first level was also treated as an introduction for the player to the mechanics, as they have to complete a mini tutorial before they reached the main point of the level.
The second level brought the player into the ocean forcing them to dodge around rubbish whilst the greatest predator, the shark, chases close behind them. Wanting to maintain the motif of the humans cleaning up their mess to help the turtle, the player had to control a net that would create a hole through a wall of rubbish, allowing the turtle to pass through. Ensuring that we kept this flow between states was important to keep the immersive nature of the game. It was through multiple rounds of testing that we were able to make this feel fluid and fun for the player.
Animation Setup
Another large part of my role was setting up the animator controllers for the the player character and some of the enemies. Using functions that had been previously set up by the teams programmer I was able to call state changes and effectively transition through a range of different animations.