Fellas in Space.

My Work On The Project

• Game Design Within a Team: Collectively concepted, prototyped, designed, and iterated on a complete game design.

• Programming: Custom scripted the character controller, alien functions, asteroid functions, and UI/menus.

• Agile Workflow: Project was developed using the scrum method of sprints to organize work completion and analyze the schedule.

The Design Process

1. Concept

Once we decided on the genre of twin-stick shooter/dress up because we were drawn to both options on the list provided to us, we started with quick design sketches to come with as many fleshed out ideas as possible.

With each iteration of this process, we got closer to an idea we were happy with and wanted to prototype.

2. Prototype

We wanted to explore the possibility of one of our potential designs, so we created a quick prototype of the idea to the extent of it being presentable to playtesters.

Now armed with playtest feedback and our own observations, we returned to the rapid sketch process to ideate different directions we could take this game.

3. Implement & iterate

With our new design recorded, we worked to prototype it and mold it into an experience we were happy with. I then implemented the design through programming many of the features and would iterate on the metrics based on playtest feedback. I also worked with the art team to coordinate asset implementation such that it could be adaptive and the colors could be modified through code.

Our iteration process for many small things really helped push the design and find the little things we needed to get right for the game to be a complete, polished experience.

Design Challenges

Color Coding

Due to the game’s use of color matching as it’s main mechanic, it was incredibly important for us to make it as easy as possible for the player to understand what colors go where. One thing we learned from our early prototype playtesting is that the requested items need to be very visually distinct, which led us to move to a fully color-based system. This also gave us a few opportunities to visually communicate a lot of the color-based information to the player.

RGB Aliens

One of these opportunities was to change the aliens’ skin color and border colors to be based on the colors of clothing they are requesting. This made is easier for players to quickly see what colors are needed and also removes the possibility of misreading an alien’s request when their skin is blue and they’re asking for pink and green clothes.

Color Changing Elements

We implemented a color changing border around the screen to clearly communicate to the player which color they currently have selected as we found that it could become difficult to keep track of just your color wheel below the player character amidst all the chaos. We also took this opportunity to change the color of the player character’s backpack and projectiles to match the current color as to further increase readability of the screen.

Feeling Fair

While playing and observing the game with most of it’s gameplay implemented, we found that the health system didn’t feel quite fair. I recognized this to be because of the disconnect between the two ways players could take damage at that point - aliens freezing and getting hit by a meteor. These two obstacles require different elements of the gameplay and it didn’t make sense why you would lose health for both. I came up with two possible design solutions, make the alien’s freezing the only cause of losing health and cause the meteors to limit your shooting in some way, or make the meteors the only cause of losing health and have the only consequence of missing an alien be the loss of potential score. Because the game’s end goal is to get a high score, we decided to go with the second option as we felt that the loss of score was enough punishment for missing an alien, especially when the game gets chaotic and it becomes very hard to track every alien.

Take Aways

• Experienced a full game production with agile development over the course of 8 months.

• Explored twin-stick shooter design and the gameplay possibilities of color matching.

• Developed an understanding of visual communication principles.

• Practiced developing gameplay features from concept to implementation.