Klemens Reckfort
Level Design - Game Programming - Game Design
Archie’s Book Chase (2014)
Help Archie Collecting All Books In Time:
"Archie is the Last Archivist in the once Biggest Library of the World. A World that does Not seem to need Books Anymore. But after Years of Loneliness, a Customer Appears and wants to Borrow Five Books of a Special Kind. The old Archie comes to live again, Reacivates his Old Roboarm and Storms the Hall of the Forgotten Books." Help Archie through the Library by Jumping, Grabbing and Swinging to Catch all Five Books and Return to the Customer In Time.
About The Game Project:
Game:
2D Jump and Run
Team Size:
Five
Date:
April - July 2014
Game Engine:
Unity Engine 5
Achievements:
• First Approach to the Unity Engine 5 and its Particle Systems
• Using and Reusing Artwork to build Animation Sheets
My Tasks:
• Developing a Greybox Prototype
• Level Design
• Implementing Animation Sheets
• Particle Effects
Production:
Though it was my First Game I made with a Local Team where I Participated in nearly Every Aspect of the Development, Programming a Greybox Prototype, Designing the Level, Creating Particle Effects and Creating and Binding in Animations.
Binding In Archies Animations:
Our Artist in the Team provided all Sketches and Images for the Animations only in a Certain Order.
I had to put the Artwork into the Right Positions before Importing and Binding them into the Game.
To Achieve that, I had to Develop a Fitting Template in which I then only had to Put In the Images.
The Point on the Shoulder, where the Shoulder of the Mechanical Arm should be, is the Center of Every Sheet because it also is the Center of the Collision Box in the Game. The Blue Line describes the Floor and the Red Cube the Sheet Borders itself. With the Help of this Template I was able to Reposition and Resize Every Sheet easily.
For some Animations I used Blend Trees that Blend the Animation Sheets by Velocity Values and not by Timeline Values.
This way I was able to Reuse some Sheets creating Additional Animations that were not thought of to be in the Game beforehand.
For Example when Archie is Falling Down with the Roboarm Not Extended, he will Fall Faster and then, because of that, Turn Further Around until the Head is Looking Down. This Additional Frame immediately suggests the Players that Archie is Falling Faster, letting the Players identify New Ways to Move Faster.
This Frame is originally a Part of the Jump Animation.
Level Design:
After we had a Working Prototype that Fulfilled most of our Goals we wanted to Achieve with the Gameplay, I started to Develop a First Level.
This Level Design provides Different Paths, some Hard and some Easy Passages and at least One Game Critical Area. It also had Areas where the Player was able to Develop Maximum Speed and also do some Combos and Combo Chains. But it had One Flaw in Design: Backtracking.
Backtracking easily lets the Play Emotion Drop down because most times there is No Book left After Collecting the Furthest One. Also some Players Get Lost because they often think the Goal is on the Left Side where they Started but often Forget, that they Fell Down in the Middle of the Level to catch the Books on the Lower Level. This led to Disorientation and Frustration.
This final Level Design here, starting on the Bottom Left, provides more Individual Routes and the Players can Try Themselves out, Finding the Fastest Path back to the Starting Point.
