Game Development Process

Game Development Process

Our team started with the idea of space while discussing our favorite 2D platformer games. We realize that our themes are mostly around timed/countdowns that create a sense of urgency and play around with gravity.

These ideas led to the current game that we developed. We decided not to tackle gravity since it is easy to cause confusion and go with the space theme and oxygen as a scarce resource. Our main character will be an astronaut that landed planets from planets on a mission to collect precious metals along the way. The player has limited resources and therefore will need to collect oxygen and gas along the way. Gas will speed up the player and there is a 30-second countdown for oxygen when each level starts and collecting oxygen bottles will boost up oxygen level to create urgency.

During our second discussion, to make the storyline more interesting, we decided to design an intermission level in which the player arrives after successfully completing the level and will have the option to choose which again they wanna take depending on which planet they land.

After realizing that our game could be too easy for players since we pass each level pretty fast, we decided to make each level harder by letting players collect more precious metals which constrains the number of precious metals the player can hold to one. 

First Version 

Planning of Levels:

Level 0: preparation for spaceship

Level 1: Oxygen tanks + battery introduction (1 precious metal)

Level 2: Obstacles (easy)

Level 3: Metal is hidden somewhere (maybe next to enemy/obstacle)

Level 4: 2 metals, easy obstacle (decreasing oxygen tank)

Level 5: 3 metals, more obstacles, larger or more difficult map (need to use oxygen tanks wisely)

Sketches:

Second (Last) Version

Planning of Levels:

Level 1: Oxygen tanks + battery introduction 

Level 2: Introduction of precious metal

Level 3: Introduction of enemy/obstacle

Level 4: 2 metals, easy obstacle (decreasing oxygen tank)

Level 5: 3 metals, more obstacles, larger or more difficult map (need to use oxygen tanks wisely)

Sketches:

Level 2: Introduction of Precious Metal

Level 3: Introduction of enemy

Level 4: 2 precious metals

Level 5: 3 precious metals, more obstacles