TwinStickJukeBox - Ana Stefan Portfolio

Twin Stick Jukebox Twin Stick Shooter You are the queen bee trying to get back all her honey that explosive wasps and speedy bugs stole by throwing knives at them. They each drop honey that makes you stronger through leveling up, thus being able to get power-ups.

Solo

7 Weeks

Technical Game Designer

Godot Engine

itch.io

PROJECT OVERVIEW

About Project

This was a solo system design focused project, where I got to design and implement a game mode, an enemy, and a weapon. We were given a project template that already had some weapons and enemies implemented. We had to pick a reference game, sketch the elements we wanted to implement, create and give a pitch presentation, then finally work on the assignment. We had to update a Conditions of Satisfaction document weekly based on playtesting results.

Challenges

Boring Initial Gameplay
Since I chose Vampire Survivors as my reference game, the main gameplay was practically back paddling. Doing this with the only goal being to survive as long as possible can quickly become boring. This is why I brought in the power-up system, as a way for the players to always have something to look forward to and slowly getting stronger. This gave the players another reason to keep playing and based on the playtesting feedback, was enjoyable too.

Power-Up System Implementation
When I started working on the power-up system, I found it hard to implement what I had in mind. This might have been due to working with a new engine and coding language. To help myself, I made a breakdown of this system, which helped me understand what steps I needed to take in order to successfully implement my feature.

Playtesting Feedback: Too Many Enemies
Towards the end of the project, when I was playtesting more often, I noticed that players would usually only survive for about a minute on average. This encouraged me to balance out the spawning of the enemies, adjusting it per game phase. There would be less enemies at the start of the game, gradually adding more as time went on, so that the players still had a challenge.

MY CONTRIBUTIONS

Developed The Bombee Enemy

I created an enemy inspired by Minecraft's creeper, designed to follow and explode near the player, with the blast serving as a means to generate more in-game currency (honey). This explosive enemy contributes to a faster player progression through power-ups, fostering a sense of empowerment. The implementation involves a simple function to track the player and a collision detection mechanism, triggering an explosion if the player remains within a radius for 1.5 seconds, leading to the elimination of nearby enemies through signals.

Bombee In-Game

Bombee Sketch

Bombee Script

DEVELOPED THE KNIVES WEAPON

The weapon is a projectile that does 1 damage, utilizing inspiration from Vampire Survivors. The simplicity of the weapon allowed me to use power-ups to make it more intricate, such as "piercing bullets" or "extra knife projectile". This is so that the intended player experience can be achieved through upgrading the weapon. To implement it, I spawn a knife projectile every second in the direction that the player is facing in, which has a base health of 1. Upon upgrading "piercing bullets", the health is increased by 1, which allows it to pass through more enemies.

Knives In-Game

Knives Sketch

Knives Script

Developed The

Survival Game Mode

The game mode I chose is survival and it implies staying alive for as long as possible in the given 10 minutes, ensuring the game does not continue forever. The goal is to get the highest score, which is determined by the amount of enemies killed. I made use of signals again for the score, increasing it by one every time an enemy dies.

Game Mode Sketch

Developed The

Power-Up System

The power-up system also gets a lot of inspiration from Vampire Survivors. When the player collects enough honey, they will level up and be met with 3 upgrade choices. The whole point of this system is to give the player the decision in what they want to power-up while they become more and more powerful, so they start feeling more in control.

Power-Up Sketch

Implementation wise, I got to create a power-up manager script that held all the power-up functionality. I used functions that take care of the processes such as selecting 3 different random power-ups on level up, handling player input, handling the UI, and more.

In-Game Power-Up System

Power-Up Screen Script

Created and kept Project

Documentation up to date

Starting from the initial proposal for my game concept to the Conditions of Satisfaction Document, I've developed several documents to keep track of various aspects of the project. Using the Conditions of Satisfaction Document, I was able to track my weekly progress and validate it through playtesting.

Conditions Of Satisfaction Document (W3 vs W6)

Achievements

Throughout this project, I was able to work with an engine and a coding language that were completely new to me. However, having experience with Unity and C#, I quickly adapted to the challenge, implementing the key elements of my game within the first 3 weeks. This gave me enough time to figure out how to efficiently implement my stretch goal, the power-up system. My work was recognized when I playtested my game at the end of the 7 weeks and had people tell me it is fun and someone even said they were impressed and it was the best year 2 game they played.