Welcome to our new adventure!

Nicolas, Niels (Developers),  Merlijn, Siyun & Yanouk (Artists) are 5 DAE students working together on a local PvP game. This multiplayer platform fighter is all about fighting your friends in the game whilst having plenty of fun on the couch next to each other. Featuring 2 up to 4 local players, the goal is to reach the end of the level first. However, be careful! Your companions won't let you put your feet up. Using the simple, but very effective combat system your opponents get the chance at taking you down while claiming the first spot themselves!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves: This week was all about research. Here's what we figured out. (A little disclaimer: some of the research results are still under evaluation, A mention below does not mean that it will unassailable be added to the final game)

A fighter? A race?  A significant topic of our prototyping phase is how we can bring this idea alive. How do we get the best of both a race ánd a fighter? Our approach was to put one mechanic in the function of the other, to preserve its simplicity and keep the game approachable for a wide audience, as well as keep the design process clean and clear for us.  In this case, we chose the dominant mechanic to be focussed on the race, with the fighting part being a means to win it.  The main scope will be to achieve a level design in which multiple different types of platforms (Some examples still under evaluation are: a bouncy platform, a 'one use only' platform, a slippery platform, a moving platform, ... ) provide the player's buffs, debuffs and, fundamentally, a whole lot of creativity to outsmart & outplay their friends in a tensive, exciting experience with friends.

Level generation! Now that we agreed on creating this race-centered game, the next logical step is to think about how we would implement that 'level design in which a whole lot of creativity is provided to the players'. As we see it, we have 2 possibilities.

•  A preconstructed level design: This would allow for us to think everything through and create the "perfect" level. The con being here that gameplay could become repetitive very fast.
• A generated level. By generating the platforms at the level creation, players get a different experience in every game. The con here would normally be that a "perfect" generation can't be achieved and that there shall always be some factor of luck/imbalance. But in our case, this will add up to a more tense moment among players who suddenly get another shot at winning it all.

Camera: Since all the players must be inside the camera at all times, we figured that using a camera following the average position of all players would fit the best. But with some needed restrictions. Firstly, since the game is both a race and a fast-paced fighter, the camera should not feel like it's slowing the players down. Thus we agreed on never letting the camera move back down, even if players simultaneously drop to the bottom of the view. The camera either acts like a bottom border, preventing players to fall out of view, or will subtract a life from the player and spawn him back in with a small cooldown. Secondly, we are considering giving the camera a permanent upward speed, so that players are pushed to keep going up and keep paced with the camera. But this will need some further prototyping and currently remains an idea.

Cel shading:  Concerning the art style we decided on a mix of 3D player pawns & game objects in combination with a 2D background consisting of multiple layers (maybe with a parallax technique). To realize a neat, funny, cartoonish-looking game, the artists came up with a cel shader. 

Coming soon

• In the course of next week, a decision will be made on whether we'll use Unity or Unreal Engine 4.  
• Small individual prototypes will be merged into 'bigger' prototypes, to evaluate the interaction between mechanics
• More  prototypes on Level Design