Roles: UI/UX Designer, Programmer, Asset Artist, Composer
Skills: Unity, C#, Game Development, Art, UI/UX Design
Play Bounce Battle here.
Overview
With my interdisciplinary interests in psychology, arts, and technology, I was naturally drawn toward game development. With Unity and C#, I created Bounce Battle, which featured elements from platformers like Mario and two-player combat inspired by Super Smash Bros.
Roles
To create this game from scratch, I wore many hats: I was the UI/UX designer, the programmer, the asset artist, and even the composer.
Process
In this game, players need to transition between menus and understand key gameplay information (such as health and ability status). As this is a two-player game, the character each player is controlling must be easily identifiable.
I identified the core features of the game:
a two-player game
With a Mario-style stomp as the main attack
Thus, everything from then on was informed by these two features.
Art Style
A pixel art style was chosen to evoke Mario’s aesthetics.
Abilities
Character abilities were created to make interesting interactions.
Dodge roll (to avoid enemies above)
Double jump (to gain height above your enemy)
Quick and powerful stomp (for well-timed attacks)
Side-ways kick (a backup move in case you didn't jump high enough)
Attributes
General attributes were considered for balancing characters
Quick and light characters who can easily dodge attacks but do less damage
Slow and heavy characters who require more deliberation to play but do more damage.
Medium balanced characters
Concepts
Characters were designed based on creatures often associated with jumping. Such as kangaroos (included) and grasshoppers (not included because they lack identifiable silhouettes in the simple pixel art style)
Finalized Characters
The finalized characters were:
Kangaroo with a side-ways kick (medium, well-rounded)
Rabbit with a dodge roll (low health but fast)
Frog with a double jump (lower health but versatile)
Black puma with a quick and powerful stomp (slow but powerful)
Movement
Basic player movement was polished and finalized for satisfying gameplay
Coyote time (players can jump even while slightly off a ledge)
Jump buffering (players will jump even when slightly above ground)
Variable jump height (depends on how long you press the jump button)
Fast fall (falling much faster when the jump button is released)
Level Design
The level was built with a tileset for faster building and iterations.
The open arena was designed with verticality for jump attacks.
The background has parallax to emphasize movement through the arena.
Solution
Finally, the art assets, code, and music were put together, iterated on, playtested, fixed, then finalized.
Main Menu
Allows players to navigate throughout the game
Options button for pause menu
Adjust sound and fullscreen
Character Select
Allow players to select characters and deliver game instructions.
Player 1 is on the right, corresponding to the side of their controls; Player 2 is on the left.
Silhouette-icon buttons for selecting playable characters
Identifiable shapes of animals that are great at-a-glance and avoids visual clutter
Character panel
Keys and corresponding actions shown as visual instructions; an animation speaks a thousand words!
Character information listed for easy reference and comparison
Possible Improvements
Support remappable controls for accessibility and different keyboards
Game Scene
For consistency, Player 1 UI is on the right and Player 2 UI is on the left.
Each player is labeled throughout the game.
Health bar UI to visualize damage dealt to each player
Fits main attack method better than "Knockback Percentage" found in Smash Bros.
Ability cooldown
Turns gray upon using the ability, and returns to blue upon end of cooldown
Future iterations should show different ability icons for each animal to serve dual purpose of reminding player of ability and showing cooldown
Settings icon to pause and change settings
Pause Menu
Playtesting revealed that players would like return to the character selection screen after trying out a character in game
So the menu button leads back to the character selection screen, instead of the main menu.
Victory Celebration
Emphasizes the winner through visuals and mechanics
Built-in time for winning player to roam around and celebrate their victory (highlighted with the darkened background)
Winning player displayed in text
Results
Here are the analytics for Bounce Battle on itch.io:
2,327 Views
82 Downloads
1,020 Browser Plays
58 Collections
4-Star Rating
926 7d Impressions (in November 2022)
0.32% CTR (within 7 days in November 2022)