KAIJU BATTLE IS A SPIN ON CLASSIC BEAT'EM UP GAMES FEATURING JAPANESE KAIJUS
My duties as a Designer include:
Writing the logic and behaviour for all objects
Level design
Game Theme
Conceptualize Characters, Rules, Settings
Designing and implementing the mechanics
BEHIND THE SCENES
THEME DESIGN
The design intention of using Kaijus in a Beat'em Up game occured to me when I realised there aren't many games that use Kaijus. One of the main objectives is to bring light one of my favourite genre of games (Beat'Em up) and combine it with collosal Kaijus.
WHY KAIJU?
Well, I grew up watching a lot of 特撮(Tokusatsu) shows like Super Sentai, Kamen Rider and Ultraman and was always fascinated by the design and theme of every episode, characters, monsters. As I grew older I get amazed by the amount of effort put into filming each scene.
RESEARCH
During the development of Kaiju Battle, I took the opportunity to play all sorts of Beat'em up games, from classics like Final Fight to newer installments such as Scott Pilgrim vs The World: the game.
DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES
Using Stencyl was a huge pain in the ass due to the fact that tutorial or guides are almost non existent. There are still things that were made simpler using Stencyl such as not needing to code and the easy to use drag and drop system. Trying to apply certain basic mechanics from other games has shown to be the biggest challenge during the development process. This opened up my mind to understand the challenges the developers faced during the age before Internet.
ITERATIONS
WEEK 1
The most basic movement and combat system were implemented before going into more detailed stuff. (health system, background, etc.)
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Things accomplished:
8 way movement
Punch
Enemies Die
Player Dies
WEEK 2
Fixed major bugs that caused the game to be unplayable​. Added Health bar system (not complete)
Fixes and Additional Features
Fix AI hitbox
Health system (Incomplete)
BGM and SFX
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Feedback​
Fix punching issues
Can't pickup Heart
WEEK 3
This week I mainly focused on getting the core mechanics of a Beat'em up game to function properly before diving into other 'not as important' functions.
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Fixes and Additional Features
Health System works perfectly
Enemy Hitbox issues fixed
Background and Tiles
Can pickup Hearts to heal
Tracking enemy
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Feedback
Fix enemy hurtbox
Longer levels
More Enemies
WEEK 5
I added a point system for the game. Defeating enemies and destroying buildings gain points. As well as adding the game over screen with the players final points
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Things accomplished:
Point system
Game over screen
WEEK 6
Implemented a new genre into the game (Endless Runner). I added the basics of a endless runner game to set a foundation for upcoming weeks.
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Things accomplished:
Jump
Point System
Losing Screen
Coins
Enemies
Spikes
WEEK 8
Added new features to make sure the game has a winning and losing condition.
Dynamic difficulty is a new mechanic I was experimenting with and it turned out pretty good. Player can now shoot projectiles on the endless runner level to better fit with level 1.
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Gameplay for level 1 has been changed from a side scroller to static fighter (enemies spawn from left or right). This was done as I felt that the previous version felt like a forced method of merging game genres.
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Things accomplished:​
Fixed Point System
Lifebar
Dynamic Difficulty
Player Projectile
Level1 Side scroll to endless fighter
WEEK 9
Added a boss level after level 1. Implemented different attacks for the boss to make the fight more interesting. (Haven't added invulnerability state for boss to prevent instant kill). Fixed enemy spawn in level 1. Added an enemy that drops bombs in level 2 (endless runner).
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A lot of early ideas had to be scraped off due to time constraints.
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Things accomplished:​
Fixed Enemy spawn for level 1 (static)
Boss level after level 1
Different attack for boss level
Projectile enemy for level 2 (endless runner)
Enemy explosion effect
WEEK 10
Began to implement Stealth level. Worked on spotlight and patrol enemy mechanic.
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Things accomplished:​
Background for Stealth level
Enemies (Scientist, Spotlight)
WEEK 11
For this weeks build, I focused on fixing bugs from previous levels. Still trying to figure out how to fix stealth level.
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Things accomplished:​
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Boss Level:
Invulnerability for boss after getting hit
Fixed missile spawn issue
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Endless Runner:​
Bomberplane no longer gets stuck
Nuke now goes through floors and no longer stuck to each other
WEEK 12
For this weeks build, I managed to figure out how to spawn spotlights individually and kill off every few seconds. Patrolling enemy no longer despawns and now walks further so that players can progress.
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Things accomplished:​
Spotlight(enemy) now spawns without issues
Patrolling enemy no longer despawns
Spotlight amount increased due to fix
BGM for Stealth level
Alert SFX plays when enemy touches player.