Dinozards
Role: Game Designer & Gameplay Programmer
Duration: 7 Weeks (2019)
Tools: Unity, Unreal Engine 4
Team: 12
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.
You can play 2-4 player Free for All or 2v2.
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Design
Ideation
We decided early on that we wanted to Down Scope as much as possible and have a fast-paced game targeted toward a large audience.
That would be easy to pick-up and play, but be flexible enough where if we had the time we could just Add things to it.
This effected the direction we went for which was a Fast-Paced, Top-Down Brawling game that was easy to extend with levels and characters etc.
The concept wasn't as clear in the beginning however since these types of games are made up of dozens of small things to the Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics that make everything come together.
The Main Inspirational Source came from a Warcraft 3 Mod that featured Spell Casting & Knocking Players into a Shrinking Threat
The Unreal Engine Prototype
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We started with Prototyping in Unreal Engine 4 since we where more experienced in it and could find a satisfying core loop much quicker by using it.
This was highly valuable since we must've tested about 15+ variations of the Mechanics and Dynamics in 2 weeks time.
We tested the Prototype and got feedback from external players, then re-iterated and tweaked, then tested again.
It was a very Exploratory Design Process but was necessary to find the MDA since the small changes could make big differences when there where so many dynamics of the mechanics.
For example should the player be able to turn when reflecting or be locked in place, should it surround the player, should player dash in direction of rotation or movement, should dash counter reflect etc. etc. There where so many of these small variations to each mechanic that made a big difference to the game play.
My Contribution
I implemented all the Spell Casting Abilities such as Casting Fire Balls, Reflecting and Dashing as well as implemented the Animations and worked on the State Machine.
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.
2v2
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.
Fire Ball Ability
The Reflect Ability can Reflect an incoming Fireball back to the Player that casted it and is the primary form of Defence.
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.
Reflect Ability
The Dash is the players primary form of Evasion and does Damage and Knock back to players but not as much as the Fire Ball.
Does small Tick Damage afterwards since the players get the lighting on them.
Can be used to escape out of the Storm.
Dash Ability