2018 // University // Computer Science and Design
SpaceX Shooter is game that was referencing recent events. The player pilots a Falcon rocket towing a red Tesla behind it. This project was my introduction to Unity and it was made in collaboration with two others for a game design course.
– Objective –
Collaborate with a small group of classmates to design and develop an original game in Unity. The group will work together on a game design document and will update it as the project develops.
– Approach –
Prior to deciding what we wanted to make our game about, each group member picked a part of the game they wanted produce. The group was made up of two computer science majors and an art major. My focus was on the scripting side of the game, and the others decided to work on art and music respectively. Once that was decided we opted to design a 2D game, since we felt that would be ideal for our skill levels and a prime opportunity to learn more about Unity. We wanted to make a somewhat humorous game and settled on the idea on creating a space shooter based on how SpaceX launched their rocket and inside it was a Tesla, this video was a big inspiration for the tone of the game.
– Work Completed –
The phrase “Galaga, but you’re towing a Tesla” became our pitch for the main gameplay mechanic. We decided to whiteboard some ideas for the gameplay loop and decided to make it less of a space shooter and more of an asteroid dodger. Since it made more sense removing power from the player so that their goal was to protect the car being towed.
With that figured out, we created a game design document that we would update throughout the entire development process. Below is the final version.
The class met as a whole to critique each team’s games. The first version of the “tow-cable” effect was done, and I remember much of the feedback we received was around how clunky it felt. The game at this point only had asteroids for the ship to dodge and many felt the game was interesting but didn’t have an engaging gameplay loop.
After spending some time brainstorming, we came up with the idea of collecting coins and finding power ups to make the game feel more engaging. The goal was to have one that empowered the player and another to disempower them. We settled on two pick ups, the ammo box that would allow you to fire lasers from the ship and the black hole that inverted the player’s movement. I also spent more time updating the car’s physics through different vector computations instead of Unity’s pivot point game objects.
After some finishing touches with the music, art, and basic game UI we came up with our final product that we presented at the InWorks development Expo on campus. Below is what we brought.
– Retrospective –
The final product is a really charming game that I could see popping up on some websites that I played games on when I was in middle school. Something that makes you smile and you may talk to your friends about.
I view this project similarly to the Edge Transit video, as a form of humble beginnings and curiosity in game development. I had always considered making games as a career, so being able to get some exposure to developing in Unity was gratifying. I’m trying to learn other game engine, particularly Unreal engine, and the things that I learned in developing this game serve as great fundamentals.
ALEX VERKEST 