Prologue is a single-player platform adventure game on PC in which you play a knight who can travel between different ages.
This game was made during my first year of game programming studies at IIM.
It's the result of six months solo work. It's also my first project using unity and C# language.
My Contribution
For this project, as I worked on it alone, I designed the entire game mechanics (gameplay, game feel, juiciness, UI). However, here's the one that stands out.
Fighting System
Developed the game's entire fighting system. It's all based on timing.
If the player blocks the enemy at the right moment, the enemy becomes vulnerable and can take damage. If the player blocks at the wrong time, the enemy inflicts damage on the player.
Since combat is essentially based on timing, and combat is recurrent throughout the game, the system needs to be rigorous from a technical point of view to give the player a good feel for the game and make combat more nervous. Therefore, it's a system that got my full attention.
Enemy Behavior
Created all four enemy behaviors.
Some are in patrol mode as long as the player is not in their line of sight.
Others remain in sentinel mode, guarding both sides until the player is in their line of sight.
Ghosts go straight ahead, firing projectiles until they hit a wall.
Finally, the boss has two distinct phases, in which he first attempts to fire projectiles at the player before charging him.
All these behaviors include line-of-sight awareness, the ability to follow the player if spotted (and jump over obstacles or avoid cliffs), and the ability to return to their routine if the player evades them.
They also have the ability to attack as described above.
Time Travel
The game lets the player change era.
Indeed, in some zones, changing era allows the player to unlock some passages and progress through the level. Some jumps even require the player to change era in the middle of the jump.
For this mechanic, I'm creating two levels built in the same way, but with their own particularities. All I have to do is put the player on the other level when he changes era.
This requires a great amount of rigor, especially because of the various bugs that can occur during this transition. The player must always have the impression of keeping control when changing era, and not having the sensation of breaking the game.
So this mechanic also got my full attention.
Shop, Inventory and Upgrades
The player can pick up coins and store them throughout the game. He can then spend them with a merchant in exchange for equipment.
These shop and character upgrade systems go side by side with an inventory system that stores what the character collects during the game.
The inventory is then updated every time an item is collected, and the player can consult it in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
Skills
Objects are hidden throughout the level and give the player new skills when he find them.
These skills allowed me to implement some classic platform game mechanics, and therefore to train myself to reproduce them. These include a double jump and a dash.
The dash has received a little more attention from me, so that it fits in as well as possible with the combat system (for example, to make the handling of the back dash more intuitive). The player can now dodge attacks instead of deflecting them.
