Article Written the : 11/02/2019
Project Made in : November to December 2018
In November 2018, we were asked to create a platformer game on Unity. The jump was supposed to be the main interaction with the world. With my partner, we decided we wanted to implement some kind of combat mechanic to break the monotony of just jumping from platform to platform.
We still had to stick to the guidelines, however, and we decided that, the same way Mario has to jump to kill his foes, our protagonist would be forced to jump in order to attack.
I had recently watched a video explaining the problems of huge swords. One of them was momentum : the blade would be so heavy that swinging it would send the wielder flying. I proposed it to my classmate and we agreed on the following idea : the protagonist would be wielding a huge sword that, with each swings, would send him flying away.
Another idea emerged from this one : in a lot of platformers, you have a double-jump...what if our double-jump was a swing of that huge sword ? That way, the attacks would become part of the movement, tying it with the subject of our school project (the jump) and integrating it more organicaly in the gameplay.
After a while, we decided it would be a brillant idea to add another attack, to vary things up a bit. Following the same thought process, what weapon could be used as a mean of travel ? Why not a huge pistol with a recoil so huge it would send you backward ?
That way, the sword swinging would be the offensive move, the one you use to advance and attack enemies in front of you, but the pistol would be the defensive move, the one used to kill one enemy, but quickly getting you out of danger.
In our first draft, the pistol would charge back itself whenever you swung your sword or slamed it on the ground, as if it charged up on the kinetic force of your attacks, making it impossible to just evade every enemy by spaming the pistol. While this was a good idea, we had to scrap it off the final product because of some time constraints, but if I had to redo this game, I would absolutely put it back.
Another guideline we had was to have some kind of key needed to open doors between levels. I wanted something more interesting than just a blue key for the blue door or any other kind of McGuffin (an item whith the only purpose of enabling an advancement of the plot). We decided that the sword could break some parts of the ground by slamming on it. In order to slam the ground, you had to jump and perform a sword attack toward the ground.
I also pulled an idea from the Metroid game series : using your canon as a key to some doors. We decided that the pistol could be used to "charge up" special doors in order to open them. We then decided to take those two mechanics -the ground slam and the pistol- and turn them into collectible upgrades for your sword. That way, those red and blue keys wouldn't only be used to open doors, but would also open up gameplay possibilities.