The Garden Above

The Garden Above is a relaxed sandbox exploration game developed for the year 3 Integrated Project at Glasgow Caledonian University. The objective of the project was to work with a client to client specifications, in a simulation of projects undertaken in the industry.

Adaptive Guidance System

In order to facilitate immediate exploration and interaction within the open sandbox, I aimed to eliminate any rigid tutorial segments. To achieve this, I devised an innovative approach: an adaptive guidance tutorial NPC. This NPC dynamically directs players towards interactive systems, encouraging them to learn through hands-on experience by highlighting various elements in the environment that can be interacted with. By doing so, players are seamlessly guided towards engaging with the game’s mechanics and features.

Game Production

As the producer of the team, my primary responsibility was to ensure effective communication and coordination among designers, programmers, and artists, all while maintaining a streamlined workflow within an agile-based system. Acting as a facilitator, I fostered a collaborative environment where ideas flowed freely and everyone had a clear understanding of their roles and objectives. I organized regular meetings, encouraging open discussions and feedback exchanges to address any challenges or roadblocks that arose. By actively listening to the team members’ perspectives and aligning their efforts, I ensured that everyone remained focused and on track towards achieving project milestones. Embracing the principles of agility, I adeptly adjusted project priorities, timelines, and tasks based on evolving requirements and roadblocks, ensuring a flexible and efficient development process. Through my leadership and effective communication, I empowered the team to collaborate harmoniously, resulting in the successful delivery of a high-quality game product.

Flower Generation and Propagation

The initial concept for the flower generation system aimed to replicate Lindenmeyer systems, representing each component of the plant as an independent node with attachment points, mirroring real-life plants. However, due to time limitations, this approach was simplified to include only stem, leaf, and flower nodes. When two plants are merged in the plant crossbreeding machine, their distinct node elements are selected and inherited by the offspring plant, akin to allele inheritance in organisms. This results in a dynamic and creative plant breeding system, empowering players to actively engage and design their ideal garden plants. In addition, the captivating nature of this plant breeding system captures players’ attention, evoking a sense of excitement and anticipation similar to the allure of opening loot boxes.

Boiling Sands

Boiling sands is a large-scale open world base building survival game, where the player bases are large and mobile. Players would range outwards from a static city into a changing desert landscape in their large vehicles.

Concept

This project originated from a casual conversation among friends who were inspired by playing Sea of Thieves. Curiosity sparked as we discussed ways to enhance the game and brainstormed new systems to introduce or refine. As our ideas blossomed, we recognized a desire for enduring progression systems that were absent in Sea of Thieves. Initially, the project remained as a concept, but everything changed when we were approached by Hamid Homatash, who introduced us to Tranzfuser. Recognizing the market potential and a unique niche, we decided to propel the concept into production. This decision opened the door for regular updates and an alpha-beta release strategy, enabling us to bring our vision to life and share it with players.

Vehicles

Drawing inspiration from iconic titles like Mad Max, Sea of Thieves, and Mortal Engines, our game features colossal wheeled or tracked bases that rival buildings in size. Set against the backdrop of a vast desert, players have the thrilling opportunity to take control of these mobile fortresses. With a focus on upgrading, repairing, and driving, these massive bases serve as the core of the gameplay experience, propelling players through an engaging game loop that continuously fuels their sense of adventure and exploration.

Terrain Generation

The terrain generation in our game is based on Perlin noise, with carefully applied filters to create a classic sand dune appearance. The terrain extends infinitely and seamlessly integrates with the built-in Unreal Engine navmesh, ensuring smooth player movement. The Perlin noise algorithm is seeded, allowing for on-demand terrain regeneration as needed. This system provides flexibility and control, allowing us to fine-tune the terrain to fit the gameplay and visual requirements.

B.Bop Mania

B.Bop Mania is a traditional platformer game I developed, incorporating all the classic mechanics inherent to the platformer genre, with one twist. The control scheme is randomized at the start of the game, and is slowly reconfigured by the player as they earn coins.

Control System

The control system in the game is specifically tailored for controllers and intentionally designed to be challenging. Upon starting the game, each player action, such as jumping, moving right, or dashing, is assigned to a random input. For instance, moving left could be mapped to the left trigger, while jumping might require pushing the right joystick upwards. As players advance through the levels, they have the opportunity to collect coins, which can be used to unlock “swaps.” These swaps allow them to interchange the inputs assigned to two actions, enabling them to customize their controls for better comfort and playability over time. However, it’s worth noting that if a player experiences three consecutive deaths, their controls are automatically re-randomized, adding an additional layer of challenge and unpredictability to the gameplay.

Level Design

Our level design follows the traditional approach of gradually increasing difficulty over time, while also incorporating carefully crafted small moments to enhance the player experience. These moments include exhilarating gap jumps, wall jumps, precise falls, and other engaging challenges. In addition, the levels feature familiar elements like spikes and environmental hazards, adding to the overall thrill.

To ensure a balanced difficulty progression, each moment is assessed and assigned a difficulty rating on a scale of 1 to 5. This rating is determined by various internal parameters, such as the distance between platforms in a jump. The greater the distance, the more precise and challenging the jump becomes. By strategically stringing together these moments, we create a thoughtfully designed difficulty curve that spans the entirety of a single level. The cumulative sum of these difficulty ratings ultimately determines the overall challenge level of the level, ensuring an engaging and satisfying gameplay experience.

Project Management

The project was created over the course of 48 hours for a game jam. This meant that design decisions were made alongside the development of features and the creation of the art assets. This meant that communication was constant to make sure the team was working on something useful at all points and that we shared a cohesive vision of the end product.