Overview: A god game with a symbiotic relationship between a nemo and a sea anemone. As the nemo fend off the parasites, big fish, and seaweeds from overtaking and eating the sea anemone, the sea anemone provides shelter. The two creatures upgrade until they are all powerful. Use WASD, Shift to hide, Space to eat. Camera is set at 45 degree perspective. Use mouse to move camera.
Firstly, the itch.io page.
The Kind-ers
Meet the "No Breakfast Club"
Producer: Jake de Burca
Designers: Courtney Spivey, Sandy Steele
Artists: Kristina Cutajar, Courtney Spivey
Programmers: Mauro Lana, Sandy Steele
UKIE game jam Submission | Runner Up | Theme: Diversity and Inclusion
This was a 48 hour game jam with no restrictive design mechanics for submissions.
During the initial phase of planning, there were a lot of ideas thrown around, but ultimately we decided on my pitch of unique characters that each had a special ability but could not reach the goal without help of all other characters (which was compounded from a few previous ideas all combined together so can't take all the credit). Our submission was a 2D platformer with 4 unique character that had abilities that helped each other.
After the idea was settled, I worked as a background artist and drew the UI as per usual. When it came to level design, I made a few different types of obstacles, platform types, and levels. Unfortunately we did not have time to implement some of those levels, but the mechanics of each level component was implemented in game by Sandy, the technical designer turned programmer. Of course, it was a team effort and everyone helped out where they could.
We were very happy with the results as we placed third in the jam and received some sweet prices.
(Character designs and gifs by Kristina Cutajar)
Anemone
Meet the "Dead Dundee Rats"
Designer: Courtney Spivey,
Artists: Kristina Cutajar, Matthew Jenkins, Courtney Spivey
Programmers: Dean Angus, Ben Gatt
Sound Designer:Courtney Spivey
Submission to the GJL Parade Spring 2021 Jam | Theme: Strength Lies in Differences
This was a 7 day long game jam (we made it into a 48 hour game jam).
This game was the first game created out of the DDR group. We entered it as a test-run for our group dynamic and as we were all busy with school, decided to only work on this game over the weekend, even though the jam's development period specified a week. We were not able to implement everything we wanted into the game at the end, so ending up on the first page of results was a surprisngly good achievement for us.
My personal responsibilities this jam was coming up with the game idea, writing the GDD, the sound designer (none of the music was mine, of course, just properly accredited & purchased sounds) making the tutorial and then balancing the game. Matthew made incredible 3D assets, half of which never made it into the final build because we ran out of time. Some of my game play level mechanics also never went into the game because of time constraints, so we all learned a bit about time management from this jam.
Nice art and concept. I like the use of the theme and the intro of how the clown fish and anemone rely on each other.
Game Design Document
Clownfish: 1. Controlled using WASD. 2. Flocking behaviour for fish Needed. ENEMY (Seaweed): 1. Seaweed randomly grows around the anemone 2. When the seaweed reaches a certain threshold of growth the anemone starts to take damage 3. To save the anemone the user must use WASD to guide the school of fish towards the seaweed and press SPACE, which causes the fish to eat seaweed. ENEMY (Bigger Fish): 1. Bigger fish will randomly come on screen from different angles, and the user must guide the school of fish back to the anemone and hide using SHIFT. 2. If big fish catches any smaller fish then those small fish will die. When clown fish successfully make it to the anemone it releases a toxin, the bigger fish becomes paralyzed and slowly floats towards the anemone where it is eaten. 3. If anemone eats fish then it regains health. ENEMY (Sharks): 1. Extremely fast 2. User gets warning (shark soundtrack) before the shark appears 3. If clownfish isn’t hidden in time then shark will kill some of them and take some of the anemone as well 4. All clown fish can do is hide 5. If they are seen then they should die very quickly 6. Shark is rapid coming across the screen. Resources: As the game progresses, the sea anemone’s health bar increases. As the game progresses, the clownfish slowly grow in population (show tiny fish swim out of the coral reef to join the rest of the school). Clownfish eat seaweed, Sea anemone eats fish and clown doo-doo, Sea anemone grows from dead fish and is different from the health of the sea anemone. So they can spawn virtually anywhere but will most likely remain close to the base anemone. LEVELING UP: Coral reef expands out from a singular anemone to slowly cover the whole screen. If one coral dies, the surrounding reef starts dying as well and the clownfish needs to poop on them to revive the colony. The game ends when the whole screen is covered with coral reefs.
ART ASSETS: Sea Anemone (central one) | Sea Anemone (side small one) | Sea Anemone (different smaller free standing one) (after that, just duplicate assets where needed) | Sea Anemone need to show decay if attacked | Clownfish | Poop | Sand (seafloor) | Sea decor (idk to make it look kinda cute idk lol hahah lol) | Shark | Seaweed | Smaller fish (to be lured) SOUND ASSETS: Duh duh shark sound | Game start screen music | Level music | Game win sound effect | Game over sound effect | Ocean bubble sounds and general vibe
A River's Journey
Meet the "Dead Dundee Rats"
Designer: Courtney Spivey
Artists: Kristina Cutajar, Matthew Jenkins, Courtney Spivey
Programmers: Dean Angus, Ben Gatt
Sound Designer:Robin Couwenberg
Ukie Water Game Jam Submission | Theme: Water Conservation
The Ukie water jam was a jam where many different conflicts occurred internally and I learned a lot from various challenges. For one, it was a jam our team had been looking forward to, and was unsure about how to approach the water theme from, whether to be cynical, sarcastic, understanding, or something else. As I was the primary game designer, I felt as if it was my responsibility to come up with a fun game. After an unsuccessful first day of planning, everyone on our team was a bit worn out. Some people had pitched the idea of playing as an African woman trying to pitch a jug of water over their heads and get all the water back to their village, but I personally found that idea to be insensitive and kept rejecting it, to my teammate's disapproval. Aside from that idea, there were many that felt like they were on the right track, but lacked some deeper meaning, at least to me. Nothing clicked as a perfect blend of game mechanic and message, but ultimately we decided on a 'where's my water' sort of game mechanic where the water would gradually get dirtier as the levels progressed. This made a lot of sense, and as we created the game, we built upon that idea and the game saw itself come to an understanding of its statement.
The next day the team was reinvigorated and wanted to do as much as physically possible in the space of 12 hours. After making the general design document with the programmers, I made the three levels layout of the game, the first is set in a natural reserve, the second in the city, and the last near a nuclear plant run-off zone. As the levels increased in difficulty, I also changed the types of obstacles and barriers that were present in the levels. As a step to further the message, I added in the constraint that the water you end up with each level is the water you get to use in the next level. We made sure there was a restart button at each level in case anyone caught onto the meaning of that game mechanic, but most players played through the three levels and found the last level challenging enough that they did not attempt to replay it...until they got to the ending screen. At the end of the game we would show the water the player had ended the game with in a jar, showing how much of it was clean and how much of it had been contaminated, and simply asked the player if they would drink that. The way I designed the levels ensured that everyone’s water supply would always contain some amount of dirty water, so the message would be quite transparent.
When I finished implementing the levels in Unity I worked on pixel environment art for the first time, and drew the background art for the three levels of our game.
Overall, although the game jam itself had its share of team issues, we were able to reach our stretch goals and fully implement a thought-provoking game. One thing I will mention from the programming side is that the water physics is very taxing, so if you want to try this game out, this is a heads up.
Game Design Document
Overview: A ‘where’s my water’ type game where the player directs the flow of a river down different environments, avoiding obstacles and polluted waters to help your river reach the destinations. As they progress, the water the player ends each level with is transported into the next level, making the river dirtier and dirtier as it travels away from nature and into civilization. We ask the player if they want to redo any of the levels, and at the end of the game we ask them if they would drink the water they've collected.
Settings: 2D, top down, pixel art styled game Camera: Starts at top of each level map and pans from top to bottom, regardless of the player’s movements. Slowly gets faster as we get closer to the bottom of the level, increasing difficulty for the player. The speed resets on every new level.
SOUND ASSETS: crunchy dirt breaking sound multiple water flowing sounds neutral end level sound Ui button click MUSIC: starts peaceful leading to more sad and gloomy as you progress through the levels maybe ambience music for each level for civilization have more busy music and more modern ART ASSETS: Obstacles from obstacles list Background art from levels Tutorial stuff
Wiggly Lovers in Outer Space
Meet the "Wigglies"
Designer: Courtney Spivey
Artists: Kristina Cutajar, Courtney Spivey
Programmers: Ben Gatt, Sean Borg
Sound Designer: Donny
Brackey's Game Jam 2021 Submission | Theme: Stronger Together
This was a weekend jam with no restrictions on game design.
I worked as a game designer and background/UI artist for this game. We had two different game ideas and we actually decided to go for a more combat heavy gameplay experience as the programmers wanted something challenging to work on.
All in all it was a very fun jam and the people who played it said it was a very fun and enjoyable experience.
This game has some really cool art and trying to keep track of both aliens at the same time is an interesting challenge. Nice game!
Game Design Document
There are two aliens. They have their unique powers and characteristics, but combined, they are unstoppable. In this game, you control the two aliens side by side, dodging meteors, destroying enemies and powering up for a boss fight at the end of the game. Your goal is to last as long as you can in the game. 2D top down endless scroller game. AD for movement, or left/right buttons, the alien can never go back. Space for a powershot, mouse click to aim at enemies and shoot them.
The player can Bump into obstacles/enemies which will kill the alien that is hit Shoot enemies to destroy them Power up by combining the two aliens into a stronger alien for five seconds Resource Constraints: The player can die by getting blasted. The player only has five seconds of merge time. The player has a cool down period where they cannot remerge the two aliens. Enemies and Obstacles: ENEMIES There are stationary and moving enemies scattered throughout the game. Stationary Moving (left and right) Missile (projectiles fix on alien) They all shoot projectiles, Missile type aliens will have projectiles you can shoot and destroy. DEBRIS Meteors MUST be avoided, unless you are in combined form. Otherwise they will kill the alien that hits it. Resources: FUEL The aliens recharge their turbo powerup by shooting enemies. When the gauge is full, they have the ability to combine and become basically invincible for 5 seconds. The aliens have endless bullets / lazers otherwise.
Alien Spaceship Debris (meteor) Background Art Enemy (stationary + moving left and right) Bullets (enemy) Bullets (protagonist) Lazer Combination of aliens Thicc Lazer Sound Library: Launch off sound Bruh.exe sound effect Alien Merge sound Bullets shooting sound Lazer sound Single alien dead sound Colliding with meteor sound Restart sound Intro Music Level Music Boss fight music End game Music