Crusade is a short 2.5D co-op puzzle platformer created in roughly 5 months for my big "Final Year Project" at university. It is a "forced co-op" game (as I like to call them), meaning the 2 players have to work together in order to make any meaningful progress. The game is heavily inspired by games such as LittleBigPlanet and It Takes Two, taking note of their design decisions and making its own spin on them.
It also won third place in the Games Design category at GradEx 2024!
Crusade's trailer, made at the end of development, can be found below:
This game is the biggest, most finished project I have made to date, and I believe it has truly allowed me to not only improve my development skills and efficiency, but also realise just how much I had improved over the course of my time at university.
I am generally pretty harsh on myself when it comes to my projects, and this realisation has made me shift my mindset slightly to a more positive one - acknowledging that every project I make allows me to get better at the process of making games! This mindset has only been reinforced with the win at GradEx, as I went into the event with very reserved expectations.
Crusade uses 3D and 2D assets from various sources to achieve its silly, light-hearted knights theme, so to give all of these wonderful creators the credit they deserve, here is a credits list of who worked on what:
Jack Blunt (me!)
Luke Brown, for helping me make a dynamic camera system.
Portfolio Link: https://sites.google.com/view/neatly-packaged/home
Breakz Studios on Pixabay, for their music, "Funny On (Short Version)", which is used in the game's trailer:
https://pixabay.com/users/breakzstudios-38548419/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=164282
Louis Strange, for custom-commissioned UI assets such as backgrounds, icons and the title graphic at the top of this page!
ArtStation Link: https://www.artstation.com/mrstranger
Synty Studios, for their POLYGON Knights Asset Pack:
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/polygon-knights-pack?sessionInvalidated=true
PrincessMoo on Sketchfab, for their Low Poly Wizard Staff model:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/low-poly-wizard-staff-5c31676ca793457ab66a82f30f980e37
Modenede Gastone Interiors on Sketchfab, for their Luxury Gold Carved Mirror model:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/luxury-gold-carved-mirror-6522fc0b5b304937820b0612284e0c39
Yuliya on Sketchfab, for their Crystal Low Poly model:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/crystal-low-poly-8a8ad77ec18f4ff09bfb395a3540f93a
Plaggy on Sketchfab, for their CCO Lever model:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cc0-lever-1d4a93a0427a43ffabb5cc47c8a819be
If you want to try Crusade, the link below will take you to the project's Itch.io page!
Itch.io Page:
