高鸣明
Game Developer
Alise
Engine: Unity 3D
Team Size: 4
Duration: 12 weeks
Lead Responsible: Game Design/ Level Design/ 2D Art/ Project Management
Secondary: Programming/ Technical Design/ Animation
Alise is the first video game I made. It's a 2D platforming game. We used Sekiro's game experience as a reference. We wanted to give players a sense of oppression by designing giant enemies, forcing them to face powerful enemies head-on. Players who conquer impossible challenges gain confidence and a sense of pride.
The game background is inspired by the classic story of Alice In Wonderland. We designed four main scenes: Forest, Dungeon, Castle outside and Castle inside.
Full Gameplay
Prototype
Parry is the core mechanic of Alise. We designed a scene for testing the hit feeling of and parry in the prototype. The test enemy will drop the weapon (blue bar) in his hand whenever an attack button is pressed. This is used to adjust how many frames the player's weapon is in the Perfect Parry when it touches the enemy's weapon. See a Sample Test Code
The detection of Parry and Perfect Parry is done through the Animation Event.
Tutorial Design
First try
↓
Interpretation
↓
Practice
↓
Exam
The tutorials need to guide the player step-by-step. It's a process from understanding to mastery. In step 1, we extended the spikes, but it was still possible to jump right over them. Step 2, the pop-up text explains how to jump over the longer spikes than before. Step 3, repeat and practice the Down Parry operations. Even if you fail, you can get a recovery potion. Step 4, complete multiple consecutive Down Parry operations.
Character Design
Idle
Jump
Run
Hurt
Alise's weapon: Long-handled weapons are better suited to blocking attacks. In the original story, the little girl's body suddenly becomes smaller after she takes a bite of cake. We assume that the fork used to eat the cake fell to the ground and was used by her as a weapon. Alise is not as tall as the fork now.
Enemy: Puppeteer
The twin sisters in <Fran Bow> inspired Puppeteer's design. It is implied that the current world is not real but fantasy.
Boss: The Red Queen (2 stages)
A classic character from Alice in Wonderland. The colour scheme references the classic combination of dark blue and red on the chessboard.
Animation
Appearances
Down Attack
Accumulation Stab
Conclusion
Overall, Alise is an exciting but exhausting project. It was the first time all the team members had made a game and chose the more challenging genre of action games. We experienced a lot of setbacks, such as teammates quitting in pre-production, poor online collaboration, etc., which led to a more extended development period. It taught me the importance of good project management. Each phase requires a buffer time to be set in advance to deal with any possible contingencies.