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PLATFORM
Jam-o-Drum is a beloved platform developed by ETC students. Jam-o-Drum is based on a four-mice system. Spinning is map to rolling up and down, and hitting is map to left click.
OVERVIEW
Santa’s Honor is a multiplayer game where 4 players come together to compete against each other in becoming the best Santa in town. Collect the most presents and hit other Santas with snowballs!
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RESPONSIBILITIES
-Scripted movement and throwing mechanics.
-Scripted scoring system and UI.
-Added lights and particle effects.
-Integrated sound and animation.
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HOW TO PLAY
-Control your Santa to move around by rotating the input disc on the Jam-O-Drum.
-Collect presents falling from the sky.
-Hit the input disc to throw a snowball at other Santas. The throwing mechanic has a cooldown timer.
-If you hit other players with a snowball, they turn into snowmen and can’t move for a few seconds, and also they lose 1 present for others to collect.
-Collect the most number of presents and win the game.
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DESIGN CHALLENGES
By the end of the first week, we had a functioning game where the players could move and throw snowballs at each other and the goal was to get 25 presents as fast as possible.
During playtest and our interim presentation, we got a ton of feedback about how we could elevate this idea further and solve the problems we had.
PROBLEM 1:
We realized that setting a goal to collect a specific number of presents did not let us control the duration of the game. Depending on the skills of the player, it may take a longer or shorter time period to complete the game. We wanted to make it uniform for all the players.
SOLUTION:
We decided to implement a timer instead of setting a fixed goal for the players. This gave us control over triggering the end of a playthrough and allowed us more control over the pacing.
PROBLEM 2:
The gameplay was fun but there was no interest curve or pacing changes. Moreover, there was no way back for the player lagging behind in terms of scores.
SOLUTION:
We thought triggering an end game in the last 15 seconds or so might help with this. So, the player with the least score gets unlimited snowballs to spam the other players with. This causes chaos in the game and kicks up the tempo of the game. The player with the lowest score now has a chance to get more presents.
PROBLEM 3:
We had the snowball cooldown UI set up on the center of each disc, but during playtesting we noticed that players were too focused on the Santas and almost never looked at the UI on the disc. Thus, they did not know when they could or could not throw a snowball.
SOLUTION:
For this, we added spotlights to each Santa. So, that the players know if the spotlight is off, then they cannot throw the snowballs and if it’s on they can. This was a simple way to solve the problem and worked really well for us as we put the indication of the cooldown on the player character itself.
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What went well?
-We achieved the ideal movement mechanic for the Santas which was easier to control and intuitive to understand for the new players.
-The hitting mechanic also felt very satisfying and fun to play with. The fact that it was triggered by the players actually hitting the pad, made it even better.
-The scope of the project was well defined. We planned the two weeks according to the resources we had and stuck to it.
What can be improved?
-Even though the unlimited snowball ability is fun, it can be chaotic at times.
-All the presents have the same points currently. Adding different points might add interesting decision points for the players mid-game and also help players catch up to the leading player faster.
-The layout could be improved to provide more space for the players to move around freely without bumping into obstacles.
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SIMILAR PROJECTS
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Designer/Programmer (Unity, C#)
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