3nd Year BSc Games Programming - Final Game Project
Itch.Io Page: https://schokolasbotter.itch.io/mr-trampolines-dance-mix
Project Description:
This is my final project during my 3rd year BSc Games programming and is a Solo Project of our own choosing. I did a few design challenges prior to the year in which I designed games from a random game name generator. Mr Trampoline's Dance Mix came up and once I had to choose the game I was going to make, I decided to continue this initial design. This game is a 2D mobile arcade game and combines elements from the classic game Breakout and Dance Dance Revolution. The player has to bounce Mr Trampoline on a Trampoline stacking up multipliers and if he manages to launch the character high enough in the air, the player needs to swipe in the indicated directions to dance and score points. The game starts out easy and curves up quickly to stay challenging even for players who get better and better. I also decided to work with a junior artist and my personal friend as an exercise to work with people of different disciplines and further enhance communication skills.
Challenges and Lessons Learned:
The design in itself was challenging as I had to come up with a game from a title I generated, but I loved the concept so much that I chose it as my final project. Another challenge was to communicate and brainstorm together with an artist and a musician and communicate my ideas and give constructive feedback on their work. I had to be efficient and clear so I do not waste their time and efforts, especially because both volunteered to help on this project.
For programming, this was the first time developing for mobile and I had to learn a lot and research a lot until I got an app on my Iphone. Then throughout the project I had to learn more and change my mindset to one of a mobile developer. This included usage of touchscreen and how to make touch commands work within the app. I ventured into the world of online as I used a free tool on itch.io for an online leaderboard which introduced a world of API from other users to me. This was also very challenging it did make things easier for me, but the functionality didn't fit my project fully. I had to adapt and learn.