Coin-Op Capital

This project was a two person week-long games jam. My primary roles were project lead, designer and developer.
Additionally I handled some pixel art, story, dual language implementation and audio creation.
The game's theme was to create a retro game and an additional bonus challenge was to use a limited colour palette of 8.
I wanted to create a game based on superhero games such as 'Prototype', 'Infamous' and 'Spider-man'.
I was inspired by my recent trip to Japan and the festival Setsubun, where they would celebrate throwing beans at Oni to drive away bad omens.

Movement and traversal

The initial problem I encountered was how to get the character to feel 'super'.
To deal with this problem I wanted the player to have good traversal and momentum capabilities.
This led to the creation of five mechanics, sprint, jump, double jump, air dash and wall running.
These mechanics were conceptualised to be chained together.
For example, whilst sprinting the player could wall run, if the player pushed the jump button in the air they would air dash.
Sprinting also affected properties for jump height and forward movement, encouraging its usage.
An energy meter was also installed to balance the player's traversal skills and their usage in combat.

The next issue was what should the combat entail?
The result of this was based on objects to be thrown such as beans (part of the Setsubun festival).
Each throwable needed an ammo capacity, and to solve the issue of running out of ammo, vending machines were placed around the map.
Additionally when low on ammo, the character will inform the player akin to 'Spider-man's' self quotes that they should visit a vending machine.
Two types of throwables were implemented in the game, gatcha and beans. Beans would do more damage to Oni but are more scarce.
Similarly to the ammo, health could be restored at an 8Twelve shop, which the player again would be notified.
These quotes will also appear once, so players don't get frustrated being re-told constantly.

The first issue was to determine how the player would know when they are in combat.
To solve this a couple of methods were introduced. Firstly the enemies colour would change to their original colours and secondly the music would change.
The next issue was deciding the enemies attacks and how do these attacks require the player to use their traversal and combat capabilities.
Two primary attacks were conceived and implemented, Will O'Wisps (Homing projectiles) and Oni Orbs (single shot projectiles).
These two attacks will keep the player moving whilst encouraging them to use the distance to their advantage when dodging.
Three Oni's Pink, Blue and Yellow have one extra trick up their sleeves, a berserk mode.
Beserk mode acts similarly to their original attacks but this allows them to fire columns of projectiles and more Will O'Wisps adding to the player's difficulty.
The final problem that needed to be addressed was, why do the players need to fight and defeat the Oni. What's in it for the player?
Defeating these entities will drop a coin that the player can use to continue the story.

I wanted to have a PS1 aesthetic superhero game transition to a pixel art arcade side scroller.
To achieve this I decided the protagonist needed to collect coins from the Oni to power up the arcade and save their friend from within.
Using Unreal Engine 5's pawn possession it made switching between the two characters seamless.
I wanted the story to be given in snippets, but also show clear progression, each time the player went to the arcade the art style would increase in clarity.
This allowed for good pacing between the 3D segments and 2D story sections.