The game can be found on itch.io. It is only a prototype and a mere proof of concept and because of that, there are still things missing and parts left unpolished.
I have worked on this game for around 6 weeks. Mainly focussing on the programming side of things this time around.
It all started with a very basic game concept, I wanted to combine the card game and city builder genres. This would be done in Unity, making use of local turn-based gameplay where the players could play cards and throw a dice to activate said cards.
First gameplay sketch
The gameplay would be based around earning money through activating your cards/buildings which would then lead to more money etc. I also thought of a prestige mechanic which is currently not being used but I plan on using it as a general currency to unlock more cards in the future.
For the last month, I have been working on a first-person simulator in which you buy, roast, process, and sell coffee. To make this project successful I will be using my knowledge from my work experience and my love for coffee.
A big thing for this project is to make sure it works with both a mouse & keyboard as well as a controller. To do so I have used Unity’s new Input System.
The very basic movement uses both m&k as well as a controller.
When aiming at an interactable the prompt and name will be shown.
This computer will be the center to accept quests, obtain rewards and spend them in a shop.
After the basics were done it was time to start working on a quest system, my inspiration for this was PC Building Simulator in which you accept emails with quests, complete them and get your rewards.
The quest system with quest tracking, the active email (red text title) will be tracked.
The finished quest system, if all objectives are completed the player will be rewarded.
Obviously, this is nowhere near a finished game loop, I plan to implement a way of obtaining ‘raw’ coffee beans to roast them and pack them up as shown above soon. This would also give the currency an actual purpose.
Also I plan to implement a lot of user feedback soon as you currently don’t know if you actually completed the challenge other than the money coming in immediately.
This game was created during a semester-long project in which I led the project and contributed with design and programming.
Eggsplosion is now on Steam! You canclick the button down below to add the game to your library!
I have taken the lead role in this project since it started but even more so when we decided to put it up on Steam. Since then I have worked on the following things:
UI/UX programming and implementation
In-game pause menu
Options screen
Leaderboard UI handling
Various smaller improvements
Content creation
Gameplay trailer
Short video content (Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube shorts)
General social media (previous + Reddit, Twitter(X))
Steam
Store page
Game builds
Announcements
Steam Features
Steam Input
Steam Cloud
Project lead (and lead designer)
Keeping things on track
Managing a trello board
Version control
Communication with team
To-go for any issue
Game design
Now about the game, Eggsplosion is a local multiplayer fighting/party game in which you play as a chicken against chickens.
The gameplay is quick and short but a lot of fun. There are different powerups spawning around the various maps that can change your projectile type or give your character certain boosts. Down below I will go into further detail regarding the design process and UI/UX and level design implementation.
The game/level design
Specifying our chosen conceptSketching out the first level
Our first brainstorm session
Coming up with the initial game concept
The powerup design
Brainstorming about powerupsPrioritising and categorising the powerupsCombining powerups and balancing
These sketches and brainstorming documentation eventually led us to the first real prototype of which I, unfortunately, do not have footage.
I do have a before and after for the level I worked on
I also worked on the user experience which was not my best work but I have made major improvements since my first try, at the time I did not have any knowledge of Unity’s new input system which held me back a bit.
Since then I have tested and received feedback which resulted in some big improvements. The majority of the complaints were about bad menu flow or confusing things happening.
There was no prompt indicating which button the player had to press to join the lobby.
Also, the players had to navigate upward and click the buttons to raise the number of rounds. As our game is for controller only this was unnecessary and thus I removed it and replaced it with the shoulder buttons.
I did the same for the ‘return’ button, this no longer has to be navigated to but instead the player can just press the east button on their controller.
The navigation felt confusing and too responsive. To fix this I limited the navigation to the three main buttons on the left.
I then opted to add button prompts and check for those inputs which would in turn invoke the button events instead.
This screen was visible between rounds to show the current score. However, a lot of times the players clicked the quit button which instantly took them back to the main menu forfeiting their progress up to that point. This was really frustrating.
I added button prompts and removed navigation, instead the player can continue with the usual south button (X) and can return with the usual return input (O).
After clicking the east button there now is an extra prompt asking you to confirm to leave the game. For the protection of the player’s current progress.
After making these additions along with several others, I felt it was time to get this game up on an actual storefront so more people will get to play it. I then set up a team meeting and the game has since been released on Steam! Check out the trailer below.
The first project of my study, CMGT. The goal of the project was to create a board gameinspired by one or more digital games.
We thought of fun ideas and eventually came to the concept of creating a board game inspired by fall guys, the player(s) would have to throw a dice to reach the top to finish as fast as they could. We worked out different obstacles that the player would need to pass.
The board would be divided into three layers, each more difficult than the other. The gameplay would feel a bit like “Ganzenbord“, touching the wrong cell will see you being moved back and getting lucky would see you jumping in front.
The first few steps of designing the board
We asked one of the artists to create different tiles which we’d place on the board to show what action needed to be taken. I made the board in Blender 3D, and during the two weeks, we made three different iterations.
The first iteration with basic colour-coded mechanics
The second iteration with textures added
The final board
The first iteration was just to testif the game worked and if the cells were in the right place, and then we moved on to the second one. This also was not yet what we wanted and it didn’t look that great. Also, the artists were done with the tiles and so I decided to work on the final board, one with different stones as cells. Each cell that needed a visual tile on top of it had one and the game played well.
During the process, we also thought of a little backstory. Basically, princess pineapple was captured and the pawns (each with their own little backstory) had to try and save her. The first to reach her would win her hand and thus, the game.
The only thing left to do was to create an imaginary box in which we’d sell the game and create a game trailer which you can find below.
