Aliens through the Cosmo-Mart of Mayhem and Madness

Team led project taking on a 2 player game. Learned to tune variables in Unity and worked closely with artists and programmers to deliver a 'otherworldly' experience

Project Overview

Brief

This was part of the Integrated Project Team Module at GCU where I lead the game design and project managed. Our brief was to take on a multiplayer style game intended for younger audiences.

Role

Team size - 6

Responsibilities - Ideation, outlining content deliverables (artstyle, mood boards, flowcharts) through documentation.

Created mechanics, UI and level design concepts, hosting playtest sessions to improve implementation for devs.

I lead the team with weekly meetings and presenting updates to stakeholders. Finally I provided intro scene and trailer direction with scripts and voice overs

Results

Within 3 months, I used open team communication and gained in engine experience in Unity to refine game aspects like the character controller, and tailor mechanics to achieve the intended gameplay experience

We received 74/100, being commended by lecturers for creating a 'funky' and engaging experience.

Play with Password - GCU@2022

The Process

Setup

Aliens Through The Cosmo-Mart of Mayhem and Madness is a 3D casual local multiplayer game. It features a top-down camera experience overlooking a map. You step into the shoes of two aliens trapped Inside the cosmo-mart(a supermarket in space) by the grandmaster.

The players are instructed to collect and deposit items by moving around the market. Players will use their abilities to manipulate and hinder one another to pave their path to success by depositing all items.

Target audience and creative direction

Our game was intended to be playful, capturing a chaotic and silly feel for young gamers. The main types of fun we identified were

Challenge: Players use their resources (speed boost, traps, stun) to navigate the level and counter the other player's path as they also try to collect items. Enemy AI also block your route as well grasping the slippery movement of your shopping cart to efficiently collect and deposit your items.

Social interaction: The local multiplayer nature creates an impetus to compete with one another and the player behaviour arising from the fast paced gameplay, makes for a spontaneous experience.

Bartles Taxonomy was used to identify the types of players, our game would appeal to

Socializers and Achievers create a good dynamic for players therefore mechanics were designed around these

Fall guys inspired the funky art style and theming, informing the bouncy and playful nature

Overcooked inspired the overall gameplay. A dense setting where players do the opposite to helping each other - competition helped to create unpredictable and chaotic gameplay

Supermarket Shriek also informed decisions around using momentum for player movement.

Artstyle

Art direction took inspiration from childhood movies like Aliens in the attic and Disney stories. Bright colors and awkward shapes were suitable for the target audience

Camera

Split screen

A split screen camera was initially tested to create a competitive camera setup, however it was quite jarring, especially with the intensity of the game and density of the level

Fixed top down camera

This was much better at providing both players with visual clarity and readability of the level

Final game camera at fixed 45 degree

Mechanics

The core loop is the repeated player behaviour with the long term goal of collecting and depositing all shopping items

Short term goals:

Collect the next item
Avoid the other player’s traps
Avoid getting stunned by the other player
Avoid Alien AI

Player abilities

Purple trap - Randomly teleports the player disorienting location

Dash - Propels player forward rendering other player frozen as if they're knocked out

Green Trap - similar to dash by slipping player up and making them slower temporarily

Playtesting

We tested a build that contained all the main mechanics. The character controller, UI and level layout were not refined here nor was AI introduced. This served as great way to iterate.

A list of improvements needed can be seen in the drop down

Addressing player feedback for final build

Items

Players expressed that the items blended too much with the level props on the shelves as well as not knowing the deposit location clearly. To address this, I removed the UI icon for the items and placed a glow coordinating to player character color. Text was also added to deposit location

Game feel

The first few builds of the made the character controller really precise and pointed

We wanted to aim for a sillier, and slightly weighted feel when gaining momentum.

I worked personally with the programmer to tune values and colliders to get the slippery feel in the final version.

This was a learning moment for me to be within engine to make the movement a fun mechanic to be learned too.

Particle effects and character animations were added to bring the characters to life, adding visual pop

Shows the bouncy and chaotic final version, that felt closer to fall guys and supermarket shriek

UI mockup

UI improvements

AI obstacles

The playtests were conducted late in the project, however we wanted to address the lack of player challenge. Simple AI were created with predefined routes in the level.

These create challenge with the movements system as not only do you have to gain momentum, but move carefully to avoid these whilst collecting

Level Design

Initial designs showed that the level was too small and dense to move around for the chaotic gameplay. Some stacked shelving did not work visibility wise, therefore to avoid issues we kept with lower stack shelves where items could be readable.

The layout also doesn't differentiate itself from normal supermarkets using recognition over recall to as they're probably familiar with these real world setups. A space skybox with flying saucers was added to overcome the playtesting build's 'Mexican prison' look to a space themed one.

Future levels would be benefit from more unique layouts to further challenge player movement

Variety of shelving and layouts narrowed to more visible and spaced enough for camera and player maneuverability

Final version

Narrative

I felt giving the game a fun backdrop would add a bit more personality. I scripted a storyboard for artists to create and did a voiceover intro scene before the game started.

I also did the same for the trailer - these were really fun tasks that brought some humour to the project's backdrop to sell it!