GameCamp 2021: Mecha Hell

Game idea

Our idea for the game was to create a 2D Wave Based Survival game set in an abandoned space station filled with aliens. You as the player take the role of a Mecha and your objective in the game is to survive as many waves as you can.

Development

The development of the game started off with creating a prototype where we tested out the movement and shooting mechanics. Placeholder art was used for the first couple of builds until the core mechanics were up and running.

A week after the first test version was created we managed to implement the level into the game in which the player could roam around the station and shoot some aliens.

During the middle part of the project many of the critical mechanics were added into the game, such as keycards for the doors and giving the player the ability to upgrade their abilities and weaponry.

 

 Final weeks of the project were mainly used to add more assets to bring extra atmosphere to the level. Feedback for the player was a huge focus during the final two weeks of development.

During the last week of the project the team did some final adjustments to the game. Bug fixing and game balancing were not the only things that the last week included. Online leaderboard where the players could see the longest surviving players was also implemented.

 

Each week felt like a great leap for the project in terms of the content and mechanics. The biggest goals of this project was to keep the scale of the project in control so there is no burnout and for everyone in the team to learn more about working as a team to create a game and figuring out the quirks and secrets of Unity.

Team EezyPeezy

Aleksi Asikainen, Coding
Aleksi Hietala, Coding
Karin Aimonen, Art
Ville Raunio, Art

Link to Itch.io page

GA Spring 2021 – Heroes Get No Dice

Heroes Get No Dice is a tower defense game, where the player assumes the role of a super villain who is forced to defend their base against the forces of good. The game was aimed to be for a wide audience, which is why the featured elemental damage system, models and user interface were designed to be as easily approachable as possible.

We initially planned for the game to encompass multiple levels with three distinct themes and a plethora of dastardly tools for the player to utilize while defending their base. Due to the challenges implementing all the various systems and required models, the scope of the game had to be reigned back a few notches; surprising absolutely no one.

Due to our artists having little to no experience with 3D, the amount of time and work needed in order to produce good-looking assets amounted to a lot more than our team had originally anticipated.

Art style differences, animation and importing or baking materials were a few of the troubles wreaking havoc on this tropical hideout.

Some of our solutions were most likely not  terribly optimal, but we were nevertheless happy whenever we overcame a stubborn problem or two.

All things – even the villainous types – must, however, come to an end. As it stands, the game ships with 15 waves of enemies, set in a single persistent level, with a handful of enemy types and a starter platter of deadly tools to use for enforcing your “no good guys”-policy.

Hopefully, they’ll serve you well… because a certain superhero is approaching, and he’s ready to rock.

Good luck, evildoer.

 

Team:

Aleksi Asikainen: Programming

Heikki Gauffin: Programming

Lauri Kullas: Audio, Programming

Sanni Kataja: 3D Artist, VFX

Emmi Pusa: Environment Artist

Sofia Sinivuori: 2D Artist, UI

Mari Weckman: Characters Artist

 

Download Here!

GA Spring 2021: Corporate Fool

Corporate Fool is a colourful and cartoony, semi-isometric action / puzzle game, where you are trying to escape the shackles of employment by finding key cards within different parts of the office.

Features

  • Cartoony and colourful art style.
  • Three distinct areas.
  • Controller and Keyboard support
  • Simple puzzle / Action Elements

 

Development

Having spent the previous semester developing a game from our homes and knowing the coming project would be developed under similar circumstances, we began the project with vigorous planning sessions in order to lay a solid foundation. This foundation would prove to be vital towards the end of the project.

Despite the situation, our team did manage to develop everything we had set out to and we are happy with the end project.

Take aways the reader might find useful are as follows.

  1. Set guidelines for working in scenes in Unity.
  2. Spend time laying the groundwork for your project.
  3. Always remember to be empathetic and supportive towards your team mates.

Team

Henna Ahvenniemi – Art, VFX

Lenny Smith – Project management, coding

Inka Kaasinen – Art Direction, Artist, Environmental artist.

Juho Mansikka – Coding

Jirko Haapapuro – Animations, assets, characters

Jasa Paavolainen – 3D artist, assets

Aatu Seppänen – Level Design, Game Design

Olli Heino – Music, sound effects, sound design

Playable Version

Itch.io: https://lennysmithgames.itch.io/corporate-fool

GA Spring 2021: Fun Dinnertime

Team Moneymakers decided to make a scary game with low poly, indie game developer style. 

We took heavy inspiration from these small, indie developer horror games that are fast and “easy” to play through but still offer some challenge and are memorable. 

The player character (you) is a guest at a nice dinner party! The Fox, The Mouse and The Squirrel are already waiting for you to help set the table. But after starters, Fox gets missing. You should go to find him. Something feels off.

Development started with doing all the necessary assets to the game using Blender as a 3d software, as at same time programmers started to gather first mechanics to the game using Unity engine. 

 

Both artists and programmers work at their own pace and schedule, and from time to time we combine our creations and build the game up. Team used GitKraken to share the project and keep everything up to date.

Idea was to have multiple different endings that the player could explore after finishing one, and we got two of the choised to the last build. Unfortunately time was not our favor and some of the endings are not in the build yet.

Our biggest challenge was time and timing of the other courses that were rolling next to the project, but after all we are happy with the outcome, compared to our challenges through the game project. 

Team: 

Artists:

Veera Sauerland

Hy Bui

Emilia Mikkola

Programmers:

Jaakko Leskelä

Lassi Ojainväli

Latest build

GA Spring 2021 – Curse Of The Amulet

The Project

 

The project is part of the spring season in Games Academy and its goal is to introduce the students to 3D-game development and deepen already gotten skills in Unity and in game development in general.

Our team started the spring season with a clear idea on what we wanted to do. That idea came to be Curse Of The Amulet.

The game

Curse Of The Amulet is a atmospheric, action-packed adventure game, with challenging gameplay. The game has multiple enemy types that offer a variety of challenge.

Skeletons vary from regular, mace and helmet equipped and bigger chief skeletons. The forest is also filled with giant mushrooms and possessed trees that offer a the player a unique challenge.

Giant Mushroom
Skeleton

 

The player has two ways of fighting the enemies, sword and a spellbook. The  sword is a reliable way to deal damage up close even to multiple enemies at once. The spellbook has four unlockable spells for the player to use against the enemies. These spells are hidden throughout the forest, only the fireball already unlocked from the start.

Beam
Fireball
Shockwave
Iceray

 

 

 

 

Levels

The Game consist of two levels, The Forest and The Castle. At first our idea was to make three levels, one of them being a dungeon level, but we decided to scrap it. Throughout the project we wanted to keep the scale adjustable so we wouldn’t have to make too many compromises on the game. We also wanted to make sure to use every asset and mechanic we created, so nothing was wasted.

First level: The Forest

Intro

Level starts in a decaying forest where the player quickly is introduced to the combat and the enemies. Player moves through three arenas where they will collect their weapons and keys from the enemies to advance deeper in to the forest.

Arena, with fireball and skeletons
Deeper forest

In the deeper forest the player will try and collect the remaining spells, find a way to the castle garden and open the gate. There the Old Castle Guard awaits them.

Old Castle Guard

Second Level: The Castle

The Castle is a smaller and more linear area. This way we could ensure that  the experience is as fluent and engaging as possible for the player.

Castle dining room

The castle is home to more tougher skeletons and a skeleton chief who guards the key to the great hall. There the player will meet the Cursed One

Library

The Story

Game starts with a flashback of the player encountering an ominous figure that strikes the player down. Once the player wakes up in an decaying forest he will start the journey to meet his destiny.

The Encounter

After a few encounters with skeletons, giant mushrooms and not forgetting the tree trunks that seem to come alive. The player finds himself at the gates of the castle garden.

There the player will find The Old Castle Guard who guards the key to the castle. Once the Guard is defeated, the player can enter the castle where the ominous figure awaits. Once the skeleton guards are defeated and the door to the great hall opened the player will find The Cursed One.

After the One is defeated the player must choose, will he destroy the amulet that corrupts its owner, or will he embrace it and harness its power?

Decision

Download from Itch.io

Team:

Eetu Pohja: Programming

Ville Raunio: Character Artist

Eszter Puzsik: Environment Artist

Mira Opukhovskaia: Character Artist

Jaakko Joenperä: Team management / Level design

Aleksandra Pere: Story

Eini Kuha: Art

Special Thanks to Lauri Kullas for creating original music for our project.

GA Spring 2021 – 8 ft.

8ft.  is in its simplicity a spider simulator, where you can live your spider dream of exploring the human habitat and catching bugs. The game consists of two rooms that you can explore; kitchen and bathroom, both including tasty bugs for you to hunt.

During the spring we started the work on 8ft. slightly late as our first idea which revolved around a garden gnome was pushed aside to explore a game idea with the possibility of using the ninja rope. For this we took some time to brainstorm ideas and decide on a concept we found most exciting.

Most of our troubles came from having not enough time between course and homework for school, but we still strived to create a game that works and serves a purpose. Our coders also battled to tame and understand the code of the IK spider that we hoped to use as a base for our own custom spider. Unfortunately due to time and the intense code of the IK spider we had to result into abandoning the custom spider, and borrowing the IK spider. We also hoped to create more rooms and consistency throughout the game but again due to time constraints we had to cut back somewhere.

Nevertheless 8ft came to a finishing a point and was a big learning experience to the whole team, sure to bring us food for the future so to speak.

Team:

Eppu Syyrakki: Programming

Laura Huovinen: Programming

Hannu Timonen: Art, music, sound fx

Niilo Kajala: VFX, animation

Janika Keskitalo: Art, Animation

Procedural IK Spider by Philipp Schofield – https://github.com/PhilS94/Unity-Procedural-IK-Wall-Walking-Spider

Go live your spider dream!

Build on Drive

Web version

GA Autumn 2020 – The Observers’ Ruin

The Observers’ Ruin started its development journey as a horror inspired spin on the arcade classic, Pacman, but as time went on, ended up inheriting more and more features and elements from the adventure game genre – namely the likes of The Legend of Zelda.

With a core concept of a lone survivor, striving to make it out of a nightmarish situation, it’s up to the player to lead the protagonist on a journey through the corrupted ruins of their once beloved temple, using both stealth and three unique abilities to make it out in one piece.

The game consists of seven unique levels that progressively introduce the abilities available to the player, as well as different types of enemies and other hazards, on their journey to the heart of corruption. Abilities grant the player some freedom on how to approach different challenges, but their use is also required at several points during the levels.

Most troubles that arose during development were centered around trying to establish the game’s identity, or direction, as our plans and ideas veered further and further from our original source of inspiration. We’d had some trouble with the AI, and since it’s an integral part of Pacman, decided to shift focus and build the game more so around exploration, abilities and light puzzle solving with both AI driven and scripted enemies to beware of.

Also, our movement system had to be rebuilt several times in an attempt to make turning corners smoother, both mechanically and visually, which was only made more difficult when wrestling with Unity’s old (and later, new) input system in order to implement controller support.

Yet, somehow, we managed to rise to the occasion, and The Observers’ Ruin is in much better shape than the eerie halls and stone pathways it houses.

For the most part.

Team:

Lauri Kullas: Programming, Audio, Level Design

Heikki Gauffin: Programming, Level Design

Inka Kaasinen: Graphic Design, Animation, Environmental Design

Eszter Puzsik: Graphic Design, Animation

Janika Keskitalo: Character Design, Animation

 

Link to the game

GA Autumn 2020 – Rocco the Raccoon’s Rolling Rad-venture

Rocco the Raccoon’s Rolling Rad-venture has the player rolling around with a raccoon in isometric maps, collecting coins, keys, opening gates, avoiding hazards and trying to beat time scores.

 

Features

  • Single player
  • Isometric pixel graphics
  • Controller and keyboard support
  • Casual and relaxing gameplay
  • Collectables and obstacles

 

Development

We took Marble Madness as our reference point. Original idea was to have a colourful, casual game with puzzle elements and 5-6 different biomes relating to different eras and cultures, e.g. Ming-dynasty or ancient Greece.

Pretty soon we had an early prototype with some simple level layouts, character animations and movement. We started polishing and cultivating the concept, but eventually had to ditch the idea of different biomes (ended up having 2) and focus on general aesthetics and functionality of the game.

In retrospect, we spent too little time planning and thus got stuck in the early development phase and brainstorming. The project was a great learning experience for all of us.

Team

Lenny Smith – Project management, coding

Juho Mansikka – Coding

Jirko Haapapuro – Animations, assets, UI

Jasa Paavolainen – Tilesets, assets, logos

Aatu Seppänen – Art lead, animations, assets, tilesets

Olli Heino – Music, sound effects, sound design

LINK TO THE GAME

GA Autumn 2020 – Robberman

For the Game Academy Project, our team “TeaCoffee Overdose” chose to do a Bomber man-copycat with a theme of 20’s rubber hose-animation, and so was born the working title RubberMan. The idea was to play as a robber, blow up banks and police, and eventually get into the getaway car with the money when all the banks at the map were blown up. The name switched eventually to Robberman. 

Link to trailer

The team was thinking of making the game for local multiplayer with only one keyboard (oldschool style), but when we dropped the idea at the first steps, we started to make the game as a classic bomber-man game.

Early concept art

We were thinking assets like hidden exits, abilities, power ups and flying SWAT-force coming from the sky with old helicopters, shooting grannies running at the map etc, and the robber we had an idea for using the money he gets from the banks to use it against cops by throwing money bags on them. After all, the game took the shape that it has now.

Our programmers played around different techniques to make the levels easier etc random level generator, but due the time limits we decided to handmade them from the start. We used a tiling map to make the levels look neat and consistent.

Art style was decided from the very start and stayed consistent. Some of the characters changed their appearance but overall our style stayed the same from start to end. We wanted to focus on good looking animations and keep the feeling on hand animated look. 

We chose our main color scheme to be black and white to respect the original art style, but with some effect colors on the money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to download latest build

GA Autumn 2020 – Potion Bombers

 

Potion Bombers is a competitive multiplayer game that is based on the classic arcade game Bomberman. The team set out to make a fast based multiplayer game that was quick to play and had unique levels with different kind of mechanics in each of them. The game can be played with up to four players and is best enjoyed with controllers.

The team quickly got the idea of the different kind of levels and set on three types. Lava, ice and water levels. All levels have their own terrain and different mechanics in each. Difference to the original game is also in the players ability to break only a certain type of objects in the level with the walls being indestructible. These breakable objects spawn power-ups to the players to give them an edge in the fight.

The Levels

In the lava level players are able to break to floor with their bombs to reveal the deadly lava. This makes the matches quick and strategic with the ability to trap the other players using the lavaPicture of the lava level and the breakable floor

In the ice level players will slide on the ice making movement harder, the bombs also slide on the ice if the player pushes them giving the players ability to deal damage from a distance

Picture of ice level and power-up items

The water level has waterways that will move the players and the bombs along the stream giving the player ability to move quickly and tactically place bombs to attack other players.

 

 

Picture of the water level with a detonating bomb in the water

About The Project

The whole project was completed almost  entirely remotely, only meeting a few times to playtest the game. This added a bit of a challenge, but frequent meetings and discussions helped to keep the team motivated and focused.

Because of the time running out and few unexpected turn of events inside the team, the game is not as detailed as the team would have wanted with few graphical items missing, but the core game is fun to play, especially with four players. So in the end we are very happy with the end result since a fun game was our main goal.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/750299439737864262/770988009847652352/Bottle1x256.png

The Team:

Eetu Pohja: Programming
Jaakko Joenperä: Management, Programming
Emmi Pusa: Graphic Design
Laura Suvila: Graphic Design
Simo Kontiokorpi: Graphic Design

Link to the playable game