Documentation + User Guide

documents are attached 

User guide: 

The user controls the player with the basic controls of A/D to move left and right respectively. To make a jump, the user has to press space and to perform a double jump, the player has to press space again while mid jump.

The aim of the game of to move the player to the top of the platform. There is a timer which will stop when you first load the game level and it will stop when you reach the top of the level.

There are many difficulties and objects the players would have to interact with, the first of which are the 

moving platforms which can move left/right and up/down 

Trampolines which the player has to hold space on to gain a higher jump and boost up

Fans which will proper the player upwards

Clouds which are timed and once touched the player will now have a limited amount of time to make it to the next cloud

And the red zone which will restrict the player height. 

There is also a space zone which influence the gravity of the player

How does my final game compare to my vision laid out in the concept document?

• Original Concept Statement: You are on a quest to get to the top of each level. You manoeuvre your character using abilities such as double jump, dashing all the way to the top! What’s the challenge? Only those with a determined mindset and strategic thinking and can maneuverer through all the difficult terrains such as the slippery ice terrain and in space of low gravity. Now remember adventurer, don’t fall. There are no checkpoints.

The original concept statement stated that I wanted to create a challenging precision platformer with abilities such as double jump and dashing. It also features multiple terrain types such as ice and space. The final version of the game does indeed include many of the features listed such as the double jump, no checkpoints and a space terrain which the player could move up and progress through. However, the differences from the game and the concept statement were that the double jump was not implemented/dropped. This was due to me not feeling comfortable with having too much extra ability and over complicating the course. 

Another difference is the ice terrain which I semi-implemented by having icy platforms; however, there is no full ice terrain like there is for the low gravity space zone as I felt that how the player reacted to the icy zone which would transition vertically from the ground terrain at the bottom level didn’t make sense so I just replaced it with icy platforms instead. 

From the graphics point of view, I wanted the game to have an ‘indie’ look with pixel graphics similar to those found in games such as Celeste and Jump King. The final version of the game does indeed fit with the pixel style of the game using multiple modern pixel assets . I believe this also fits the audience of any age group from children to adults as well as casual gamers through the warm style of the pixel art. 

• Original game idea:  Both of these games are quite subtractive [Jump king and celeste], they feature only one goal – get to the top in the shortest amount of time possible but have one mechanic players would need to master. In Jump King the mechanic would be you would your jump key like a spring and the height that you would jump would be determined on how long you hold the jump key. The mechanical skill is the timing of the key as it is not as easy as it looks. The physics in Jump King is not linear, the velocity and gravity of the player would differentiate through different times of the jump making it hard to master.

 For my jump platformer game, I wanted something very similar where the player would develop the skill over the course of playing and would require skilful mechanics and careful thinking about how they would approach each platform. This would be implemented through double jumping and correctly timing the jump on the edge of the platform.

When comparing my game to the precision platformer idea I wanted to create, I believe I have achieved my goal. The original game idea was to get to the top of the level in the shortest amount of time possible. The final version of the game features a vertical linear scrolling level which the player would have to progress upwards to to the end platform. The game does also include a timer and an end timer for when the player first loads the game and first ends the game by getting to the final platform. I also achieved the variable jump height mechanic where your jump height would be determined by how long you hold the jump key. For the precision part, I achieved through multiple platform challenges such as head bangers and long distance jumps where you would have to jump of the very edge of the platform consistently. I also added objects such as clouds which would be timed to fall after a certain duration as well as restrictions such as the low jump restriction as well as trampoline and fans which would propel the player in the air.

Summary feedback:

For the movement, a majority of the feedback consisted of the players liking the movement with most of the feedback consisting of ‘yes’ and comments such as the movement felt intuitive. However there were only two people who provided criticism for the movement to which they both stated the movement felt “too heavy” and it would feel better if the jump was more floatier. For the final version the game, I changed the fall multiplier ever so slightly from 4.3 to 4 as I felt that the movement and jump itself was fine. 

For the graphics of the game, an overwhelming majority of the people said the graphics were good and the style was consistent the theme of the game. None of the current graphics of the final version the game were changed due to many people liking the graphics and I kept the graphics the same style.

For the difficulty of the course, I set a 1-5 scale for the difficulty for the course. ⅔ of the people who tested the game felt the course was very hard as well as some features such as the clouds were too short. From this feedback I did make the course a little bit easier by adjusting the timing of the falling clouds. However I believe that despite that change, the course is challenging and it did suit my intentions of making it a precision platformer. 

When asked what did the playes like about the game, a lot of the players like the visual aesthetic and the controls/movement as well as the consideration of visual effects just as the trail and the ‘ghost’ when falling. 

When asked what the player didn’t like about the game. Most said the timing of the clouds were off and were too hard, specifically the red zone and the double jump being a little too heavy. This did influence the game as I eventually nerf the clouds and made the jump and the double jump a little more floatier.

For the bugs, I got a lot of people saying E to interact didn’t work which is now fixed and the player can now interact with the NPC. Another common bug that people encountered that if the player jumps in between a gap, specifically in the tutorial state of the game, many of the players would get in a stuck state and couldn’t move or jump. I did a minor fix for this by removing the gaps in the tutorial zone.

For the suggestions, I did add the sound effects and music and fix some of the bugs and nerfed the red zone. However I did not add controller support as by trying to implement it into my movement script, it would make the super jump occur and I had complications trying to stop it from happening. 

Assets:

Gold Metal Simple 2D platformer Asset pack:

Gold metal, 2021. Simple 2D Platformer Assets Pack. [image] Available at: <https: assetstore.unity.com="" packages="" 2d="" characters="" simple-2d-platformer-assets-pack-188518=""> [Accessed 30 May 2021]. </https:>

The assets used from this pack that were used were the grass platforms as well as the player, coins as well as the cloud sprites.

Pixel Adventure 1 by Pixel Frog

Pixel Frog, 2019. Pixel Adventure 1;. [image] Available at: <https: assetstore.unity.com="" packages="" 2d="" characters="" pixel-adventure-1-155360=""> [Accessed 30 May 2021]. </https:>

The assets used is this pack that were used were the NPC character sprite, and the trampoline fans. Gold moving platform as well as the platforms used in the space section of the game. 

Space Pixel Backgrounds by Norma2D

Norma2d, n.d. Space Backgrounds Pixel Art. [image] Available at: <https: norma-2d.itch.io="" space-backgrounds-pack=""> [Accessed 30 May 2021]. </https:>

The space background was used to make the background of the space area

Sunny Land by Ansimuz

Ansimuz, 2017. Sunny Land. [image] Available at: <https: assetstore.unity.com="" packages="" 2d="" characters="" sunny-land-103349=""> [Accessed 30 May 2021]. </https:>

The assets used from this pack were the parallax sky background as well the tree sprites. 

Free Pixel Font - Thaleah by Tiny Worlds

Ansimuz, 2017. Sunny Land. [image] Available at: <https: assetstore.unity.com="" packages="" 2d="" characters="" sunny-land-103349=""> [Accessed 30 May 2021]. </https:>

The pixel 2d from the game was sourced from this asset 

Breezy’s Mega Quest

2021. Breezy's Mega Quest. [online] Available at: <https: ryanavx.itch.io="" breezys-mega-quest=""> [Accessed 30 May 2021]. </https:>

The purchased music from this asset I used were the title screen music as well as the zone 5 music for the main level

Scripts

Unity 2d ghost effect 

Mister Taft Creates, 2018. Make a 2D Ghost Effect: How to with Unity and C#. [image] Available at: <

> [Accessed 30 May 2021].

Better Jumping in Unity With Four Lines of Code

Board to bit games, 2017. Better Jumping in Unity With Four Lines of Code. [image] Available at: <

> [Accessed 30 May 2021].

2D DOUBLE / TRIPLE JUMP PLATFORMER CONTROLLER - EASY UNITY TUTORIAL

black thorn prod, 2018. 2D DOUBLE / TRIPLE JUMP PLATFORMER CONTROLLER - EASY UNITY TUTORIAL. [image] Available at: <

> [Accessed 30 May 2021].

Part 10 - Signs and Dialog: Make a game like The Legend of Zelda using Unity and C#

Mr Taft Creates, 2018. Part 10 - Signs and Dialog: Make a game like The Legend of Zelda using Unity and C#. [image] Available at: <

> [Accessed 30 May 2021].

Create TIMER and STOPWATCH in your game! - Unity tutorial Coco Codes, 2021. Create TIMER and STOPWATCH in your game! - Unity tutorial. [image] Available at: <

> [Accessed 30 May 2021].