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Tools
Unity
Adobe CC
Taiga
Genre
2D
Cooperative
Puzzle Platformer
Team Size
4
Showcased at
Featured by
What's this?
Contributions
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C# Programming - Unity
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Technical Design & Art
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Art implementation using C# and Unity Tools
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Communicated with animator on how to make implement-ready art
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Environment Art
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2D Procedural
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Video Production
Timeframe
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8 months
A cooperative puzzle platformer, where you are each other's platforms!
How can we create and implement artwork that embraces designed mechanics?
The Big Idea
Players must work together to navigate environment puzzles.
This dynamic of heavy reliance between each player is what we found makes the game truly "cooperative".
Core design - How the constant cooperation happens!
Individually,
Players can only jump so far
Not everything can be reached alone!
...therefore...
But with a pal,
You can go beyond!
You can pick up a camper to help out!
...and...
Tech Art Design
Technical art for a cooperative puzzle-platformer game experience. All work here was developed with a design-first approach. Rather than making sure it looked good, it has to fit design goals AND look good.
All implementation is done using C# in Unity.
Technical art I developed with emphasis on the design of the game
As the direction the players grow is an essential element of our game, we needed the character pieces to visually connect from the direction they attach. I created an all-purpose animator that can be overridden for unique character animations.
One 140-line script controls all the character piece animators in a player's stack!
Since one of our core game pillars is cooperation, I wanted to have a visual that connects the players. Faces that show attachment to one another would be a great addition. To achieve this, each animation frame guides a pivot that face sprites rotate around.
Designed Art
Designing mechanics first tends to mean art is developed after the mechanics are resolved. Rather than having mechanics be considerate of art, the art has to be considerate of the gameplay and the mechanics!
Tested using built-in Unity tools, such as the Tile palette and Tilemap components
Changing art & art style to facilitate our design, after realizing flaws in teaching our game
Metrics is a key element of Trail Mix's design, as success or failure is determined by making 2x2 unit jumps. Our prototypes were easy to read metrics-wise, as every level was composed of easily-countable square tiles.
Design note:
The metrics initially were not 2x2 for jumps! Instead it was 5 units vertically and 12 horizontally. It is tiring to count huge jumps, so we reduced it to be easily countable.
This also contributed massively to our constant-cooperation design. Even the smallest jumps now require a buddy!
Initially our main artist created a fully hand-drawn level, painted over a greybox. Playing with this art made us realize how it fails to aid our design and how essential it was to make tile-based art.
Tiles are reusable and countable, acting as a visual guide for players to count metrics.
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The art does not fully match collision
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Hard to count the space to jump
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Requires a complete re-export for changes
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Collision is matched perfectly
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Tiles are segmented, easy to count
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If art needs to be updated, it can be done per tile!
I keep a hand-crafted feel by using hand-painted watercolor splatters and outline/foreground tiles to overlay on tiles, breaking up repetition. Over two months I completed 900+ unique tiles, the team was able to use these tiles and watercolors to paint 13 different levels! (Click to enlarge)
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