GUNBUGS

Academic Group Project

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Bees have had their beehive taken over by the evil spider army, and the bee mafia needs your help.
You and a friend go on an adventure through the animal kingdom.Taking on a variety of enemies to take back the hive.

Using: Using 2020.3.19.f1

Genre: Top Down Shooter

Project focus: Multiplayer

Personal focus: Level Design

PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT

This was an incredibly successful group project. I worked with 9 equally skilled peers, and we all worked together exceptionally well. As everyone did their own responsibilities, I was able to flourish with my focuses, mainly on Level Design.
I fully immersed myself in the project and designed and implemented all the elements to make the Beehive Level as excellent as it could be.

INITIAL DESIGN SHOWCASE

When developing the full level, I started working on paper before implementing a final design. Because of the nature of the level, I designed individual rooms before combing them together.
Once I combined them into a layout that got the team's approval, I moved on to the full design in Photoshop.

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While implementing, I used the Unity Probuilder tool to get the first blockouts of the stage. While building, I would start placing and adding enemies to the stage, this way I was able to get immediate feedback from my team, as well as playtesting how they felt.

I took a lot of inspiration from first-person shooters when implementing enemies, mainly Doom (2016) and the Half-Life Series. Dooms open arenas allowed for a variety of creative enemy designs, allowing the Slayer to traverse through enemies and bullets. The open areas in Gunbugs have been designed in a very similar way, with enemies being strategically placed to challenge both the player's aim and spatial awareness, which is only heightened by the 2D nature of the project.
I wanted every enemy encounter to be a puzzle and a test of the player's skill, as the last level in the project, I could afford to be creative and express my design philosophies with a level of challenge I haven't done previously.

When introducing the Unique enemies, I took inspiration from Megaman and Shovel Knight. Introducing the enemy in a safe environment, then implementing them into the level alongside previously established threats.

BLOCKOUTS

This project has been an excellent opportunity for me to re-familiarise myself with the white boxing development cycle. I have been able to playtest and adjust the level design on the fly. I can change obstacles and how enemies are positioned, even something as major as making the area smaller.
As the project development and we had to start cutting certain powerups, I was able to easily cut and adjust areas to fit