Role - Lead Designer
Size - Solo Project
Platform - PC
Work Period - 50 hours of work
Project - Prototype for a unique control scheme for a well establish genra of games
The Unity engine is a free open market game engine used to develop numerous games in varying levels of the game industry. It is the engine that I am most accustomed to and used to construct the main mechanic of the prototype, gesture-based inputs. The primary goal was to find a way to use nothing but the three primary mouse buttons in conjunction with mouse movement/gestures to form a prototype of a platformer game.
Intent
My intent for this prototype was not only to find ways to make the gesture input system work and be responsive but to also design challenges/puzzles to help introduce each mechanic to the player. From my experience of other successful platformers, one of the key factors is the pacing of the gameplay reflects off of the core mechanics that make the platformer unique. With this in mind, the main idea initially was to develop a slower puzzle-based platformer to use alongside mouse gesture input methods to interact with said puzzles/challenges. This allows for users to get comfortable with the different control scheme at the pace they are able to solve them.
Celeste- Uses jumps and dashes to quickly traverse open area platforms for a faster pace of gameplay.
Limbo - Uses jumps to navigate a world to reach key places and objects to then grab to use for a slower pace of gameplay.
Early Development
The initial steps of development were sketching out the individual mechanics of how they interact with each other as well multiple options on controls for each mechanic. This was important to layout due to the limitation of the number of buttons on standard mouses to help keep track of the overall possible control scheme for the prototype. This helped form an overall control scheme of the right click for movement and left click for gesture initiation. The reasoning behind this overall control scheme is based on users being accustomed to left-clicking quickly allotting them to get accustomed faster to the gesture input system. Whereas the right click is primarily used for holding to move the character in the direction the cursor is facing allow for simple and intentional movement on the player’s part.
After Sketching, in engine development started with programing each mechanic followed by the initial staging of levels to demonstrate them.
Demonstration of lock on and attack mechanic
Attack Motion Gesture Example
Attack Storage Gesture Example
Setup of first level
In Engine
The overall level design is that each level introduces a separate mechanic via tutorial text and images of controls to teach the player alongside some open space to practice said mechanic. This is followed by some game objects that pair with the mechanic to form the challenges of the level to help reinforce how the mechanic works to the player.
The image below is one such level (ex.1). It introduces the dash mechanic to the player via the image of the controls to visualize the gesture as well as text to help explain how the mechanic works and interacts with already introduced objects. There is space available to allow the play to interact with the new mechanic before introducing the challenges of the level. The final aspect of the level are the two challenges that will impede progress until the player shows they have an understanding of the new Dash mechanic with being able to reach new heights as well as use the same targeting node multiple times to line up an attack on the barrier.
(ex.1) Level 3 Dash Introduction
Changes from Feedback
(Left to Right) Neutral state, Crawl speed, Dash charge, Walk speed, and Attack state
Mouse Trail - One major change implemented was the mouse trail effect that follows the cursor. Originally I designed the diegetic UI of the drill on the player character to inform actions being taken as well as the cooldown of those actions. An oversite, on my part, was putting too much focus on the player character due to experience from standard platformers having all focus on the character and their immediate surroundings. Yet from testing and due to the importance of the gesture input system, players were more focused on the cursor itself. Thus adding a trail to the cursor and having it react accordingly with each mechanic helped enhance player feedback for each mechanic.
Example of Tutorial Text
Tutorial - A minor aspect that changed a lot from observational testing was the execution of the tutorials. Originally, I made illustrations of each mechanic to convey how the gestures look from the player’s perspective with space and objects to allow players to interact with the mechanic to learn at their pace. Yet players tended to avoid trying out the mechanic more than twice while ignoring the optional game objects that interact with the mechanics. Adding text alongside the illustrations helped to guide the player into trying out the mechanic of the level and helped improve players’ understanding of each mechanic.
UI of Attack Sensitivity Threshold
Attack Sensitivity - One of the last things added to the prototype was the option to adjust the threshold limit of the attack gesture. Some players were having issues executing the attack on their PCs. This was due to a number of reasons based on their mouse ranging from their default sensitivity to the natural dpi of the mouse affecting how the cursor interpolates its current velocity. Overall this is an important addition to allow each player to adjust to the mechanic rather than changing their prefered mouse setting to fit it.
Public Domain Assets Used:
Ground Sprite used as floor and walls- www.pngkey.com/
Background Forest used for background- edermunizz.itch.io/