Vamoose

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Features

Three challenging levels
Suspenseful yet thoughtful platforming
Tight, simple, fast-paced controls
Original atmospheric soundtrack by John Wojtechko
Assist mode
Collectibles and high scores
Captivating enemy "bullslugs"
Intense, alien aesthetic
Charming character design
Diegetic lava UI

Development

Over the span of six months, three iterations of Vamoose were developed. My classmate Jess Jaynes and I bore the idea in Fall 2018 and proceeded to together created a single-level game for a project in a game development class at college. After this, we built upon the game for another class project, adding enemies and two more levels. As the first big foray into game development for Jess and I it was a huge learning experience, and the game suffered from faulty platforming controls, crude visuals, and unpolished level design. Ultimately, this version only served as a prototype of what the game would soon become. Throughout the Spring semester and summer I reworked the game outside of class. I created and animated new character and enemy designs, corrected the controls, overhauled the level design and lava movement, added new audio-visual effects, added in new features like an assist mode, fixed bugs, and more. It’s still a short game by most gamers’ standards, but what's there is well polished. For my first original game, it was a huge success.

Design

A Martian Volcano

It was important that Vamoose delivered on its fantastical premise by feeling both alien and thrilling. This influenced all of my visual and audio design decisions. The start of the game begins with a menacing decent to the bottom of the volcano, eventually fixating on a pool of bubbling magma to the tune of eerie alien ambiance. During gameplay, if the player is cutting it too close to the lava, the astronaut’s feet begin to sizzle to signal their peril. And of course, the musical score by John Wojtechko perfectly captures the impending doom and extraterrestrial locale central to the game.

Despite being a simple game, I took the story seriously, and jumped at any opportunity I could to tactfully build narrative context. The descent depicted in the intro screen lets the player take the role of an adventurer diving deep into a volcano – before things go horribly wrong. The help screen’s limited text, as well as the game over screen’s frustrating “Expedition Failed,” all tell the tale of a daring space-archaeologist who is bent on a successful expedition – come Hell or high lava.

Impending Doom

In the early two iterations of the game, the lava rose at a uniform rate. In the third iteration, I crafted a more complex and much more enjoyable locomotion system for this key hazard. Throughout each level are several invisible “trip wires” that each correspond to a unique minimum lava height and speed. When the player passes a trip wire, the lava immediately rises to the minimum height if it is lagging behind and moves at the new speed.

This system allowed much more fine-tuned level design. For example, areas that playtests revealed players needed more time to complete have slow-rising lava, while areas that are a quick gauntlet of leaps pressure players with swift lava hot on their tail! Also, the minimum lava height constraints prevent even the quickest of players from leaving the lava in the dust.

Even when the lava isn’t onscreen, the player always knows how near or far it is by lighting and smoke effects. And when the lava is nearly upon the player, the astronaut’s feet will sizzle, signaling their imminent demise unless they leap to safety.

Smart-ish Slugs

The last thing you want to do in this game is fall – so it only makes sense that suitable enemies would try to make you do just that! Bullslugs come in all shapes and sizes, but they’re all short-tempered, and will charge toward the astronaut if she’s spotted. She can fake them out like a matador, but if she's not careful they’ll ram her right off the platform!

Bullslugs aren’t all bad, though. They take time to rev up before charging, giving the player enough warning to escape their path. And if bullslugs strike with enough force, they can even launch players up the volcano by ricocheting them against the walls at high speeds. How helpful!