AZALA - 2D Platform Adventure
Position
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Overview Created a fun, fully functional side-scrolling 2D adventure game through the use of Unreal Engine 4, complete with a main menu, 3 levels, a boss fight, and a playable credits screen. Over the course of 12 weeks, the game was conceptualized, designed, built, and demonstrated from scratch, literally a black screen, into a project that not only highlighted our individual abilities but allowed multiple instances of teaching ourselves new skills beyond the scope of our class. |
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Design The design of this game was to create a combat-filled run through an old city-like area as an adventurer trying to get out. The goal was to give a slightly eerie feeling, and perhaps a feeling of ancient mysteriousness. The enemy combatants are to feel golem-like and ancient in appearance, drawing upon imagery from old Egyptian hieroglyphs. Each level increased in difficulty and changed up the theme, becoming more intense as the player navigates though the challenges. Level Style The choice to include not just a sideways run up and down, but also multiple vertical challenges was to give the feeling of traveling through buildings and climbing over obstacles, giving a multitude of use for the mechanics as well as varying up the play-through. This game was inspired by the play of Mega Man Zero, and features similar mechanics and styles, such as the slightly robotic look of the creatures and the structures. |
Gameplay
With a variety of mechanics, the player can jump, double jump, shoot, swing his sword, dash, and wall jump/slide his way through the ancient city to eventually find his escape. The gameplay in this platformer relied upon players reacting quickly, and carefully navigating their player position to jump out of the way of enimies. As each level progresses, the monsters also get more difficult, either moving faster, or doing more damage. At the end there is a boss fight where there player must constantly be on their feet. Special Thanks - Professor David Whittinghill of Purdue University for knowledge and guidance - Professor Dan Triplett of Purdue University for feedback, knowledge, and guidance - Casey Chastain of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute Graduate Program for hands on assistance, debugging help, and guidance - Axell699 on Unreal Engine Marketplace for his Platforming Kit after we struggled with programming obstacles and combat functionality |
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Full Play Through
Inspiration Photos & Research |
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Individual Team Contributions |
Justin Legare - (Design/Programming) - Unreal implementation, level design, level building, player and enemy functionality, play testing, programming, sound effects and implementaion, concept art, final packaging for demonstration
Chris Schlatter - (Progamming/Design) - Story design and writer, music design, programming, functionality coordinator, presentation coordinator Anando Ghosh - (Art/Programming) - Character design and creation, a lot of environment art, environment conceptualization art, parallax scrolling designer, 2D character animator, Adobe Photoshop master artist Philip Berges - (Art/Design) Enemy design and creation, background art and theme designer, sound effect researcher, texture artist, 2D enemy animator, Adobe Illustrator master artist, http://philberges.com/ |
Level Designs and Creature Designs
White Board Sketches When creating levels, before anything white board sketches were made to give a sense of distance and structure to how the platforms would look and the obstacles the main character would overcome. In these sketches, some basic jumping puzzles as well as gaps and enemies to demonstrate the characters different abilities (gun shoot, sword swing, jump, wall jump, dash), forcing the player to learn the skills quickly before even encountering the main level. These sketches were done to also help with enemy placement and trying to map out how long the level should take. Our aim was roughly 2-3 minutes per level, and by drawing them all out, we were able to take a look at how long it would take to finish the gameplay. Level 0 In these initial sketches, a hypothetical level 0 was created to help the player learn some basics, but after doing a mental walkthrough of the gameplay we realized that having that level 0 was unnecessary. This bonus level was later converted into a credits level where we we show off unused assets. |