Dinozards

Role: Game Designer & Gameplay Programmer
Development Time: 7 Weeks (2019)
Tools: Unity, Unreal Engine 4
Team: 12
Contributions:
-
Game Design
-
Prototyping
-
Game Play Programming
About
Dinozards is an arena based top-down multiplayer brawler where you play as a Magical Dino-baby having to fight for its survival against other Dino Babies for the affection of your Wizard Father
You can play 2-4 player Free for All or 2v2 Team Mode.
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Mechanics
Fire Ball
Cast Homing Seeking Fire Balls for Damage and Knock Back
Reflect
Reflects Incoming Fire Balls back at Players but with greater Speed and Knockback
Dash
Dash into Players to inflict lighting Damage or Evade incoming Fireballs
Game Design
The Fireball does Damage and Knock Back to players and is ...
the primary form of attack.
-
The Fireball can slightly Home in on a Target which is within a distance and takes the one that has the closest angle in front of the player. -
This is so it is slightly easier for the players to hit each other by just aiming toward the direction of the player they want to hit. Also encourages dodging by the other players which creates more movement and action. -
Testing without it during the prototype showed that the players very rarely could Hit each other. -
If two Fire Balls Hit they merge and create a big explosion.
Customization
Several of these set settings in the Fire Ball Prefab but some don't so they're available to be customized as well, such as Hit Radius, Height Above Ground, Reflect Speed Multiplier etc.
Ideation
The Main Inspirational Source came from a Warcraft 3 Mod that featured Spell Casting & Knocking Players into a Shrinking Threat
The Unreal Engine 4 Prototype
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I made all the Spell Casting Abilities such as Casting Fire Balls, Reflecting and Dashing ...
-
I also implemented the VFX that was made by Jacob Stenberg and we got into a good workflow where I would start working on an ability and he would get first drafts of the VFX ready so we could quickly implement them so we knew what tweaks needed to be made. I also acted as a bit of a Generalist where if something needed to be done, fixed or added I jumped in and did it. -
When I write code I always try to keep it as clean as possible by utilizing Coroutines and Local Variables as much as possible and avoid unnecessary uses of Update. -
I always strive towards making things as customizable as possible, especially in games like these where small changes to a mechanic can make a big difference.
Game Play Programming
I made all the Spell Casting Abilities such as Casting Fire Balls, Reflecting and Dashing ...
-
I also implemented the VFX that was made by Jacob Stenberg and we got into a good workflow where I would start working on an ability and he would get first drafts of the VFX ready so we could quickly implement them so we knew what tweaks needed to be made. I also acted as a bit of a Generalist where if something needed to be done, fixed or added I jumped in and did it. -
When I write code I always try to keep it as clean as possible by utilizing Coroutines and Local Variables as much as possible and avoid unnecessary uses of Update. -
I always strive towards making things as customizable as possible, especially in games like these where small changes to a mechanic can make a big difference.
Overview
2v2 Match
Animator used as State Machine
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Fire Ball
Fire Ball Ability & Fire Ball Projectile Prefab
(Hover Over for More)
The Fireball does Damage and Knock Back to players and is ...
the primary form of attack.
-
The Fireball can slightly Home in on a Target which is within a distance and takes the one that has the closest angle in front of the player. -
This is so it is slightly easier for the players to hit each other by just aiming toward the direction of the player they want to hit. Also encourages dodging by the other players which creates more movement and action. -
Testing without it during the prototype showed that the players very rarely could Hit each other. -
If two Fire Balls Hit they merge and create a big explosion.
Customization
Several of these set settings in the Fire Ball Prefab but some don't so they're available to be customized as well, such as Hit Radius, Height Above Ground, Reflect Speed Multiplier etc.
Fire Ball Ability C# Script
Fire Ball C# Script
Reflect
The Reflect Ability can Reflect an incoming Fireball ...
-
It can also knock close players back but doesn't do any damage. -
When Reflecting Fire Balls, time gets slowed down very briefly to give players time to react.
Customization
The Designer can set Duration, Radius From and To as it gets bigger over a small period of time, Angle Hit to the Sphere Cast so it matches the VFX, Knock Back, Slow Down Time Dilation, Duration and more.
Reflect Ability & Inspector
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Reflect Ability C# Script
Dash
Dash Ability & Inspector
(Hover Over for More)
I made all the Spell Casting Abilities such as Casting Fire Balls, Reflecting and Dashing ...
-
I also implemented the VFX that was made by Jacob Stenberg and we got into a good workflow where I would start working on an ability and he would get first drafts of the VFX ready so we could quickly implement them so we knew what tweaks needed to be made. I also acted as a bit of a Generalist where if something needed to be done, fixed or added I jumped in and did it. -
When I write code I always try to keep it as clean as possible by utilizing Coroutines and Local Variables as much as possible and avoid unnecessary uses of Update. -
I always strive towards making things as customizable as possible, especially in games like these where small changes to a mechanic can make a big difference.