Project Runway
June 3rd-August 3rd 2024
Click The Image To Jump To The 3D Platformer
Click The Image To Jump To The Bullet Hell Game
Click The Image To Jump To The Puzzle Game
During Project Runway I was hired as an independent contractor to create several projects for Full Sail University. These projects aimed for Full Sail to show them off and be deconstructed at Fullsail’s summer camp for children and teens ages 7-17. My task with each project was to create a game with several required features and to make these features easily deconstructable for learning purposes
Project 1:
Third Person Platformer
Required Features:
For the Third Person Platformer, I was tasked to create a number of basic features which included:
Three Fixed Camera Angles
A fixed camera that follows the player from behind
A fixed camera that watches the player from the left
A fixed camera that watches the player from the right
Interactables
An interactable parent object that would affect the player and then destroy itself
A child that does damage to the player
A child that heals the player
UI
A basic UI that displayed the players health bar
Showcase of Camera
My Biggest Challenge
Extra Features:
For this game I was given the freedom to expand upon the initial features, and turn this game into something that was both polished and fun to play. With that in mind I took the liberty to create a number of extra features including:
Respawn Points
I added respawn points to be more forgiving to players when they die/fall part-way into a level. This was fairly easy as I made the pickup for the respawn point a child of the interactable parent blueprint, and updated the player’s respawn location as they were picked up.
Collectible Coins
I felt the game needed something more for players to do than just move from place to place. I decided to add these coins turning the game into a collectathon. While this feature was incredibly simple and did little to change the actual gameplay, it had great impact on the enjoyment my playtesters had.
Locked Doors
I added a locked door feature that checks to see if the player has collected a certain number of coins before opening. I felt this was important to add as it adds freedom to how I could design my level, and future designers could create theirs.
This allowed me to create branching paths but required players to experience both before completing the level. This leads to each player being able to have their own experience that can differ from others.
Moving Platforms
The addition of moving platforms allowed me and any future level designers to be able to increase the difficulty of the level without requiring players to be perfect with every jump.
This edition of a timing element leads to players thinking more about how/when they move, and the edition of motion can be visually stimulating even when there are lulls in gameplay/challenge.
Fixed Camera
I struggled initially to get the fixed camera behind the player to work. I initially tried locking the camera to the player’s back but then learned that this would lead to the camera being incredibly choppy and very disorienting.
I eventually tried tying the camera movement to the same keys as the player’s movement. This led to it working great and as I tested my camera against the examples I was given, I found that it worked incredibly similarly.
I had no problems with the left and right cameras, however, and the most time-consuming part of these sections was updating the movement to match the camera’s orientation instead of the characters.
Overall this was a fantastic learning experience for how the camera and character movement tie together, and the results I came to do a fantastic job of lining up with the actual character/camera movement seen in the reference game I was given (Super Mario 64).
On the left, you can see the code I used to achieve my results, and a video of my cycling through the different camera systems.
Required Features:
Project 2:
3D Puzzle Game
For the 3D Puzzle Game, the features I was tasked to create include:
Numbered Door
A door that only opens when the player has entered the correct key code
Powered Door
A door that is connected to a battery slot and button
The button opens the door but must first be powered by a battery
Powered Elevator
The elevator works very similar to the door but differs by needing to have the height easily changeable through a float in the level editor
Pickupable Item/Inventory
The ability to pick up and collect batteries, but can be expanded upon should we want to collect further items
Extra Features:
For this game, I prioritized making interesting puzzles with the limited features required. The main feature I created was to expand upon the existing puzzle feature:
Computer Terminal
The computer terminal works in much the same way the lights connected to the powered doors do. The key difference is that you can edit in level what is displayed on the terminal.
I used these to help the players have a simple way to solve the keypad puzzles, but they were not essential to completing the puzzle
My Biggest Challenge
Puzzle Creation
I am not someone who plays games where puzzles are the primary game mechanic, and the ones I have played were not 3D. This led to me struggling to come up with fun and interesting puzzles.
My solution to this was to research other 3D puzzle games and see what worked well and made the players feel smart. This led to me focusing on players exploring the level to collect the batteries and finding new paths on the way there.
The other puzzle I made focused on the numbered doors. I made the level hint for every door code be the floor number followed by the room number. Players initially struggled with this which led to me adding the computers as an easy way to figure out the code, but players who did find the pattern also felt rewarded as they did not need to use their extra batteries.
Project 4:
Bullet Hell Game
Required Features:
The required features for the Bullet Hell Game were:
Base Attack
The player would have a base attack that fires without input as long as there are enemies on the screen
Special Attack
The player has a special attack that they can activate doing doing AOE damage to all enemies hit. The range and damage of this effect needed to be easily changeable as well.
Score
The player needed to have a score that could increase as they defeated enemies. The different enemy types also needed to have a varying score that they would give the player upon being defeated
Enemies (Each Enemy Listed Is Meant To Be An Easily Expanded Upon Parent)
Melee Enemy
An Enemy that would charge at the player and do a close range attack
Ranged Enemy
An Enemy that would move randomly on the screen and fire projectiles at the player on varying interval
Spawning Algorithem
This spawing algorithm needed to be made to start with a small number of weak enemies and allow the enemies to grow in number and strength
All enemies also needed to be spawned off screen from the player
This Algorithem also needed to be easily changable so the difficulty of the game could be deconstructed
Extra Features:
My primary focus in creating these features was to show future designers how they can expand upon the existing enemy types to create new ones and to give players more rewards for defeating enemies allowing them to progress further.
Tri-Shot Enemy
I felt the game needed a third enemy type to feel fleshed out and more challenging. I used this opportunity to make a more challenging enemy that could also be referenced when future designers wanted to make their own new enemy type.
Rewards Drops
I felt the game needed some way for the player to scale with the enemies, and restore health. I made a simple item drop that had a percent chance to go off every time an enemy was defeated.
The first drop would restore a variable amount of the player’s health. This allowed players to go for longer runs and attempt to reach new high scores. This also led to players feeling a sense of stress and relief when they dropped to low health but then got a drop.
The second drop I made would increase the player’s damage output by a variable amount. This allowed the player to be able to somewhat keep up with the enemies increasing health and difficulty.
Finally, I made the rewards drop easy to expand upon. While I did not implement it I left it open-ended for future designers to use these drops to expand upon the player’s shooting pattern or special attack.
My Biggest Challenge:
Difficulty
I had struggled to find playtesters before the due date for the game. Following the due date I did manage to have some friends test the game and many of them struggled with the difficulty I shipped the game with.
While it is unfortunate that the game shipped in this state, this would be easy to fix as the parameters for the enemy damage, spawn rate, and attack speed were easily changable. If I did not want to change these features another option to make the game easier would be to increase how often rewards dropped
The variability in the features I made gives designers many knobs to tweak to find the perfect game feel.