For the third block of the second year my study in Game Design & Development at the Hanze (Jan-Jul 2018), I teamed up with 5 classmates (with whom I later ended up forming Spaghetti Games), and together we worked out 5 different game concepts, over the course of one block. This resulted in five very different games, all of which were quite unique!
The first game we created was called Vertical Dawn. Vertical Dawn is a 3D “Bullet Hell” game, where the player runs around in a magical forest, shooting up many different types of enemies.
Vertical Dawn was eventually chosen to be the game we would continue to develop further, so it has its own webpage on my website, where you can read more about it.
After Vertical Dawn, we created a game called “Wasted in the West”. In this game, played with controllers in a local one versus one shootout, the player plays as a drunk cowboy, in a standoff with the other player. They both have a revolver with 6 shots, and have to shoot the other player – although that is not as easy as it might sound! The cowboys are very drunk, and wave their gun all over the place.
This game was my personal favourite. It really makes for a fun, humourous experience, in an awesome setting, with fun sound effects.
The next game we created is called Resonance. This game had a strong focus on sound design. The main character was blind – the screen was entirely black, until a sound was made (generally by jumping or throwing a bell, which the player can also call back), and the player would be able to “see” things, through echolocation.
This game was particularly interesting from a technical perspective. It really required some advanced programming and sound design. It was a huge learning experience.
After Resonance, we worked on The Shepherd. The Shepherd was our first attempt at creating a mobile game. The player controls a wolf (through touchscreen controls) and they have to lead AI-controlled sheep into a pen. The game had very friendly, low-poly, flat-shading graphics, but gameplay was a little bit lacking, as we had a lot of trouble with development. We definitely learned that mobile game development is not so easy! People were incredibly positive about this game, and our main Designer Nik really wanted to continue working on it. But Ewan and me, the developers, refused to continue working on it as it was a massive headache.
The final game we created was called “Untitled SHMUP Game”. It featured a spaceship that shoots massive waves of enemies in a (seemingly) 2D environment. Key game mechanic to this game was the ability to switch perspective, allowing you to dodge bullets from enemies by using the third dimension!
