Robbin' Robin
Project Overview
Robbin' Robin was developed as part of the Confetti Game Jam during their Industry Week. Working as a team of 3 we had 6 hours to develop a project around the animal we were assigned. We used the real world inspiration of robins invading other birds nests to develop a small collectathon platformer where the player has to collect 10 eggs within a time limit. This project was the winner of the Confetti Game Jam.
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This project was developed in Unity.
Mechanics
Movement and size manipulation
The Player moves through the environment and as they collect more eggs their size will grow. This mechanic was mainly inspired by Katamari and how the Player's ball grows.
Difficulty: As the Player is trying to navigate the play area and collect all the eggs within a time limit they must also track the size their bird is growing to. The placement of the eggs in the level and the layout of obstacles means that as the Player increases in mass they will find it impossible to reach some eggs. They must use repeated play of the level to find the optimal route to collect all the eggs in the fastest time possible. Over the course of 6 hours, 3 levels were created using modular assets that increase in difficulty by putting further emphasis on how the size of the Player changes and how it affects the Player's ability to move through the level.
Experience
As the only member of the team with experience in participating in Game Jams, I took on a leadership role for the team which I feel is what lead to us winning the Game Jam.
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Scope : With only 6 hours to work in it was important to set a realist goal for the project. I saw many other teams over scoping during the time and when it time came to present, they had unfinished and half implemented mechanics. This is why our team decided to focus on a single mechanic that was thematically relevant to the animal we were given. This tigh focus on scope allowed us to quickly implement the core mechanic then spend the rest of our time creating assets and prototyping levels.
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Artsyle : With only a single artist on the team we had to have an art style that looked appealing and could be created, and if necessary replicated by other team members quickly. This is why I made the call to have a flat shaded character and environment. This played to my knowledge of the shaders in Unity and meant no time would have to be wasted on lighting the project.