Shootman

Shootman was created in Unreal Engine 4 in a group of 4 in Spring of 2022. 

Inspiration:

Growing up, I played a lot of Wii games, my favorite of which was Super Mario Bros. So, when designing the concept for Shootman, I aimed to mimic much of the functionality found in Super Mario Bros, with minor adjustments.

Enemies:

The greatest similarities can be found within the enemies in the game. By creating several enemies that vary in difficulty, I was able to ease the player into the game by having the easiest enemies appear first and more difficult ones appearing later before the final boss. The final boss is another Super Mario Bros-inspired aspect of the game as at the end of each world in Super Mario Bros, there is a boss battle, which includes Mario fighting one of Bowser's minions. In Shootman, the final boss battle includes a much larger robotic enemy that shoots plasma balls in all directions.

Time:

Similarly to Super Mario Bros, there is a timer in the game that causes an immediate loss if it reaches zero. The difference, however, is that the timer begins quite low; too low to complete the game with the starting time alone. To encourage players to fight the enemies rather than "speed run" the game, each enemy killed adds 10 seconds to the timer, thus giving the player enough time to complete the game.

Abilities:

To kill an enemy, the player can either shoot it by using j on the keyboard, or slice the enemy with a sword by using k on the keyboard. Also, to give the player a bit of increased mobility when facing enemies and progressing through the game, we gave the player the ability to double jump. It serves to help players reach higher platforms or areas that would be otherwise out of reach, as well as dodge and avoid enemy projectiles.

Powerups:

The last part of Shootman I designed with inspiration from Super Mario Bros, is powerups. There are three powerups in Shootman: x2 speed, health restoration, and a double shot for the gun. These powerups are meticulously placed throughout the game for when the player will likely need them most.

Directionality:

I also drew inspiration from Donkey Kong. Rather than creating a map that moves horizontally, the player must move vertically to progress. This adds value to the double jump feature as increasing vertical distance is needed to advance in the game. Additionally, instead of having the player reach Princess Peach to proceed, like in Donkey Kong, the player must reach a ladder that sends the player to the next level of the game. This eliminates the outdated stigma that females are always in need of "saving" in videogames as well as the idea that females are trophies. In Shootman, the rewards is merely surviving and defeating the robot enemies. 

Additional Design Elements:

A design aspect that is independent from Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong is the health bar seen on the top left of the game represented by green. Similar to the timer, if the health bar becomes fully depleted, the game is over.

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This project would not have come to fruition if it weren't for group members Jaden Gant, who was our game programmer, Will Montgomery, who was our game programmer and game audio designer, Courtney Young, who was our game artist, and myself, who was the game designer and level designer.