Devlog

Development Process

March 2 - characters

Each of us designed our own character and made them walk and idle.

March 9 - motions and environment

Each of us developed our character: we added jump, shoot, hurt, and die interaction. We also designed our environment with enemies and moving/falling platforms.

March 23 - multiplayer game structure

After Spring Break, we came together as a team and combined our characters in the same scene, as well as created the multiplayer inputs. We discussed our whole game structure, game story, interaction, and level design.

March 30 - Prototype

We improved our games into 2 levels: the horizontal level 1 and the vertical level 2. We decided to have only two players in one level because that’s more controllable for inputs. We added the opening scene, characters selection scene and the final scene, in order to make the game experience more accomplished.

April 6 - Beta

We did a playtest with our classmates and received lots of useful feedback. We made a list of suggestions and each of us picked several to fix based on our capabilities. 

April 13 - Final

We made our presentation and shared our game. At the same time, we got some new feedback and figured out our future iterations.

Feedback

1. Set Username input to differentiate two players

2. Clear instructions or guides to help players get into the game faster

3. Improvements to the UI buttons

4. Adding a cooldown to each skill so players can use more strategies

5. One more level to show more about the background story

6. More sound effects

Success

1. We did a great job in visuals and received much positive feedback on the visual presentations.

2. We divided four characters into two different scenes so that players can avoid too much occupation on the keyboards, providing a better game experience.

3.  The visual style and game mode of the two scenes are different from each other. Level 1 is more like a racing game about who can run faster to reach the special door for there are many monsters on the way to the special door. In Level 2, instead of monsters, there are some Life Trees that can heal players. Two levels created a comprehensive experience.

4. Our background stories combine all four characters in an organic way, providing strong support for our game.

5. Our background music is in vibe with our game topic. In Level 1, the music is more chill and playful, expressing the vividity of the green planet. In Level 2, the music is tenser and more cyberpunk style, creating a battle game atmosphere.

6. In addition to the main characters, there are many other functional characters in our game, the flowers, the puppy and the special door, the life tree, and the heart of energy. The life tree is a standout because it has the special power to refill players’ life. With the company of all these characters, players would have a more fulfilling experience in Multiverse Adventure.

Failure

There is a lack of instructions or guides that inform the players about the keyboard inputs and their goals. Although we have a detailed background story, it’s not very evident in the gameplay experience. Also, LEVEL1 and LEVEL2 are not really connected as we planned to. The winner in LEVEL1 should have a 20% extra health in LEVEL2. The UI, especially the health bars at the corner of the screen is too small to be noticeable.

What We Learned

We learned a lot from this multiplayer platform games, including the technical parts like character controlling, animation and animator, health bar, character selection, scene changing, etc. We also learned about the designing for strategy and levels. Since we have 4 players and it's hard to play on one keyboard, we design two levels, each with 2 players with different strategies. In conclusion, it's not an easy journey with a lot of bugs, but we learned a lot from this experience.

Future revisions 

We would like the future revisions of the game to have power upgrades for the players as well as more shield upgrades to defend against opponent players’ attacks. Jump height upgrades also are a good option. Collecting diamonds/gold in the game allows purchasing these bonuses.  

To increase adventure we can add more dangerous enemies that can move and also shoot. I also would like to add a few fatal obstacles like falling into spikes, poison, lava etc. that can kill the player in one shot.

To connect the two levels, the winner in race one can earn his tag-team player in Level 2 a health boost of 10% as an advantage over their opponents. Added health can help you survive longer in the game.