Solar Systems Down

Game Type: 2D pixel art adventure shooter
Engine: Unity
Language: C# Scripting
Project Duration: 44 hours
Team Size: 4

The game was created in at the 2024 Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA) Game Jam.

As a member of Team TART, I was a gameplay designer and programmer, level designer, and environment artist. With my contributions, I established the foundation for outer and interior levels, designed the game flow alongside other developers, created the exterior environment assets, and scripted base movement and other supporting systems to enhance gameplay.

Play in-browser on our itch.io below!

Itch.io

As a team member of SolarSystemsDown, I worked as:

Gameplay Designer

Crafted the Game Design Document, holding the foundation of the game.
Brainstormed via Google Jamboard to jot down all of the team's ideas and hold strong references.

Level Designer

Designed the overworld layout and position of player and NPCs
Collaborated with other level designers to draft interior levels.

Environment Artist

Pioneered the game's color palette based on reference images.
Delivered all exterior environment assets that included alternate sludged versions.

Gameplay Programmer

Programmed the player movement in used in the side-scrolling overworld and top-down interior levels.
Collaborated with fellow programmers to script the dialogue system and environment parallax.
Scripted base code for the script that handles collecting the ship parts and ending the game.

Gameplay Screenshots

Gameplay Design

How did this experience affect me?

Expanded my design skills: This was my first shooter game, and I learned a lot about what made it satisfying. For example, shooting the sludge enemies felt intentional because the player had to charge up their energy-powered gun.
Deepened my network: My mentees and their friend and I took a 3-day weekend trip to Orlando. We stayed at one of their houses. We got to learn more about each other and got to eat at a Korean restaurant (we all ordered the same meal which was funny to me!). Strengthening our bonds really aided in the process of brainstorming because we were able to sort out what game we wanted after eating.

Game Ideation Board

Game Design Document

Level Designer

Contributions

Designed all three levels and set up the scene architecture in unity.

Collaboration: Received feedback from other designers to create the interior top-down levels.
Features: Repairable solar cell, health aid kits, sunlight spots to recharge solar meter, battery packs to recharge solar meter, and sludge enemies (seen in gameplay).

Overworld

Level 1

Level 2

Environment Artist

What I Learned

Consistent Pixel Size

The team wanted to avoid "mixels", aka mixed pixel art sizes. I delivered environment assets at a 1920x1080 resolution.

Shading

I got to experiment a lot with shading and the style we were going for. I started out too painterly but was able to simplify my shading to fit our overall theme.

1st Pass

2nd Pass

Gameplay Programming

Player Movement

Code Snippet

Contributions:
- Programmed both top-down interior and side-scroller exterior player movement.
Takeaways:
- My experience being a course assistant in the semester prior to the GameJam helped my programming skills. I was able to reuse what I already wrote and expand my code from the previous semester.

Parallax

Solar Systems Down 2024-10-28 23-03-26.gif

Code Snippet

Contributions:
- Constructed the parallax script with another programmer.
Takeaways:
- There were looping issues where the buildings would spawn in the wrong place.
- I learned that it's okay to take breaks and ask for help from another programmer, especially if I am not in the right headspace to continue working on the code.

Dialogue System

Communication

Contributions:
- Began the basis for the dialogue system.
Takeaways:
- I was able to freeze the player while dialogue was playing, program the dialogue lines, and play the bubble animation.
- My co-programmers were able to expand on what I wrote and add triggers for branching dialogue.

Collecting Ship Parts

Solar Systems Down 2024-10-28 23-08-04.gif

Example

Contributions:
- Built the foundation for the collecting the ship parts.
Takeaways:
- Co-programmers expanded the script to better fit our triggers.
- We were surprised when we found out there was a bug where if the player helped the 2nd NPC, it would give them all of the parts and let them win the game. Because the team was passionate, we patched this up quickly.

Solar Systems Down

As a team member of SolarSystemsDown, I worked as:

Gameplay Designer

Crafted the Game Design Document, holding the foundation of the game.

Brainstormed via Google Jamboard to jot down all of the team's ideas and hold strong references.

Level Designer

Designed the overworld layout and position of player and NPCs

Collaborated with other level designers to draft interior levels.

Environment Artist

Pioneered the game's color palette based on reference images.

Delivered all exterior environment assets that included alternate sludged versions.

Gameplay Programmer

Programmed the player movement in used in the side-scrolling overworld and top-down interior levels.

Collaborated with fellow programmers to script the dialogue system and environment parallax.

Scripted base code for the script that handles collecting the ship parts and ending the game.

Gameplay Screenshots

Gameplay Design

Level Designer

Environment Artist

Gameplay Programming

Player Movement

Contributions:

Programmed both top-down interior and side-scroller exterior player movement.

Takeaways:

My experience being a course assistant in the semester prior to the GameJam helped my programming skills. I was able to reuse what I already wrote and expand my code from the previous semester.

Parallax

Contributions:

Constructed the parallax script with another programmer.

Takeaways:

There were looping issues where the buildings would spawn in the wrong place.

I learned that it's okay to take breaks and ask for help from another programmer, especially if I am not in the right headspace to continue working on the code.

Dialogue System

Contributions:

Began the basis for the dialogue system.

Takeaways:

I was able to freeze the player while dialogue was playing, program the dialogue lines, and play the bubble animation.

My co-programmers were able to expand on what I wrote and add triggers for branching dialogue.

Collecting Ship Parts

Contributions:

Built the foundation for the collecting the ship parts.

Takeaways:

Co-programmers expanded the script to better fit our triggers.

We were surprised when we found out there was a bug where if the player helped the 2nd NPC, it would give them all of the parts and let them win the game. Because the team was passionate, we patched this up quickly.