Developed by Timothy Mah (timothymah), Kate Edgar (kateedgar), and Adam Sun.

Game Development Project 2nd year Computer Science.

Game Summary

Our game is a 2D story platformer about a character’s tough journey battling with anxiety. The player will explore a series of levels which use heavy symbolism to depict the main character’s healing process and demonstrate coping mechanisms through the use of mini-games. Our goal is to shed light on the non-linear healing process of overcoming mental health issues and to provide players with a story that they can hopefully relate to and learn from.

Controls

[space] to skip text/dialogue
A or [left arrow] to move backwards, D or [right arrow] to move forwards
[space], [up arrow], or W to jump
Use [shift] to dash (move in a horizontal straight line for a short time)
Wall Slide by holding direction keys (arrows or A, D) in direction of wall
Wall Jump by pressing a jump key while wall sliding

Level Design Goals

Level 1 is focused on the core mechanics (run, jump, wall jump, dash)
- Fast paced, dynamic platforming
Level 2, dash is disabled. The player can only use dash through red areas (which they can only stay in a few seconds)
- Methodical, timing
level 3, wind pushes the player backwards
- Slower, strategic platforming
level 4, after the player falls into the water, they start to freeze. Stand beside the campfires to warm up.
- Rushed, against the clock

Lvl 4 is unfinished and is lacking assets.

Reflection

If we had the chance to do this project again, we would make the scope of the project much smaller. Designing and play-testing four different levels was very time consuming, which didn’t give us enough time to perfect the other elements of the game (health, tutorial, story, animation). Premade 2d assets would have made this easier. The 2.5D style of the game meant layering different assets free-hand, which was exponentially more time consuming than using a flat art style.

Contributions

Kate	Created entire health, dialogue and damage systems. Designed levels 1 and 4 (format and mechanics) and created the story scenes. Partly wrote game story. Performed play testing for levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 (at various stages of development). Made alterations to the tutorial level (unimplemented). Made major contributions to the project proposal, wrote parts of the play testing and progress report, gathered data from 2 play testers, and worked on the wrap-up report.
Tim	Coded the movement script (wall jumps, wall slide, dash, etc.), the camera script (Levels 1, 3, 4), and the scene swap script. I made the prefab assets for the ground, walls, jumping pads, moving platforms, falling platforms, ice, 2 way platforms, ladders. I implemented all the lighting and particle effects, and drew assets (spikes, ice, snow, trees). Drew and implemented all character animations. I made and designed level 3 and implemented the final 2.5D art style for levels 1, 2, and 3. Play tested levels 1, 3, and 4 and made contributions to all written reports and story concept.
Adam	Designed the concept and mechanics for level 2. Wrote and produced 4-5 music tracks for the game. Worked on dialogue and cutscenes and contributed to the script. Created the fade transitions. Wrote and contributed to scripts for miscellaneous functions: a second type of moving platform, respawn and checkpoint logic, the red 'danger zone' code for the second level, a triggered moving platform, and sfx.