Quillody
Quillody
A top-down 2d puzzler I assisted building from the ground up using Godot and GDscript! Our team was awarded the certificate of excellence for our SFU IAT410: Advanced Game Design final showcase as well
Description
Quillody is an atmospheric 2D top-down puzzle-platformer built in Godot that fuses striking art direction with a deeply emotional narrative. Developed from the ground up using GDScript, the project prioritizes real-time interactivity, responsive AI behaviours, and a seamless marriage between story and mechanics.
Engine: Godot
Tools: GDscript
Project Type: Team (5 members), Academic (IAT 410: Advanced Game Design)
Duration: 4 Months
Genre: Top-down 2D
Focus: Gameplay Interactions and optimization
The first prototype of protagonist and his lantern orb mechanic
First integration of enemy AI (the red Orb)
Incorporating the mechanics into a level, the yellow line being produced by the white box and the green box projecting it
Final version of the mechanics being incorporated into the level
My Role
Designed and implemented responsive player movement, a specialized lantern interaction system, and complex enemy AI.
Managed the technical pipeline for sprite animations, ensuring visual assets translated into fluid, frame-accurate in-game behaviours.
Spearheaded debugging efforts and performance profiling to deliver a stable, high-quality user experience.
Challenges
Challenge: Initially, core mechanics were tied to the _process function, causing logic to trigger at different speeds depending on the user's hardware. This led to inconsistent physics and "game-breaking" speed variances on high-end vs. low-end machines.
Solution: I refactored the codebase to utilize _physics_process and implemented delta-time multiplication across all frame-based logic. This ensured the gameplay remained consistent and hardware-agnostic, providing a uniform experience for all players.
Through rapid prototyping and iterative design, I mastered the framework’s signal-based communication and node hierarchy. This allowed me to build more modular, readable, and scalable code.
Highlights
Engineered a level-agnostic audio controller that seamlessly transitions between SFX and dynamic music tracks based on player progress.
Resolved high-priority runtime crashes, specifically a game-freezing explosion mechanic, by implementing robust input buffering and cooldown logic.
Transformed a complex, resource-heavy project into a streamlined build that maintained high performance without sacrificing visual fidelity.
Resolution
Quillody is a testament to the power of thoughtful collaboration and iterative development. Beyond the technical triumphs, this project sharpened my ability to communicate within a multidisciplinary team, provide constructive peer feedback, and maintain a high standard of code readability. It remains my most ambitious and rewarding project to date, solidifying my passion for creating immersive, polished gaming experiences.