Release Date: December 1st 2022
Platforms: Browsers
Team Size: 5
Time Spent On Project: 3 months
Role: Team Liaison, Developer
Responsibilities: Sprint Planning, Process Management, Communicating with Stakeholders, Playtest Planning and Organization, Documentation, Game Design, Game Development of Controls, Abilities, and Collectibles
Skills: C#, Production, Design
Engine & Tools: Unity, Microsoft Visual Studio, Jira, GitHub, Google Suite, Slack, Discord
Emu War is a 2D action-strategy and stealth game where you play as General Emunuel, leader of the emu horde, with the goal of devastating farmers' wheat crops. During the game, you must collect emus to grow your flock, eat wheat crops, and use stealth, evasion tactics, and player abilities to avoid and evade the hunters. Players should feel skillful in their tactics to outsmart the enemies and eat the wheat crops with their flock.
I was the Team Liaison responsible for communicating with external stakeholders, sprint planning, playtest planning and organization, and documentation.
I was the designer who pitched the original concept to stakeholders and convinced developers and graphic designers to join the team. I shaped the direction of the game throughout development while mitigating scope creep.
I was the developer who developed player controls, abilities, wheat collectible interaction, and menus.
I was the primary maintainer of documentation and Jira boards and the sprint master.
I organized and supported project build efforts and process changes.
Head over here for a deep-dive into the process.
Read on below if you'd like to:
The player can take control of the emu and move it with keyboard controls WASD. While moving, the camera moves with the emu with a small offset to allow for more fluid movement in the game view. This movement scheme evolved from the original, where the emu constantly moved toward the cursor and would stand still if the cursor collided with the emu.
The Speed Ability interacts with the movement system. When the player uses the Speed Ability, the Movement speed increases for a set amount of time; once that time is up, the Movement speed returns to normal. The Speed Ability has a cooldown before the player can use it again.
The Wheat Sense Ability interacts with the Wheat system. When the player uses the Wheat Sense Ability, a signifier appears near the emu, pointing the player toward the nearest Wheat crop. The Wheat Sense Ability only finds and calculates the angle to the nearest crop when active to save overhead. The signifier only appears briefly, hiding once the set time is up. The Wheat Sense Ability has a cooldown before the player can use it again.
Wheat is a vital component of the game; eating all of it will progress the player to the next level or the end of the game. Wheat interacts with three systems: the player, the wheat sense ability, and the horde.
While colliding with the player, the health of the wheat diminishes at a rate of 1, plus a boost if there are emus in the flock. This decision promotes the player collecting other emus and colliding with the wheat.
One of the subsystems of the player, the wheat sense ability, also interacts with the wheat. The wheat sense ability gets all the wheat in the level and points toward the nearest wheat. This decision helps players find all of the wheat in the level so that they may progress without searching the entirety of the level for one or two small pieces of wheat.
If the horde collides with the wheat, the health of the wheat diminishes at a rate of 0.1, plus a boost for each emu in the flock. The horde's rate is much lower than the player's because the wheat tracks all collisions with it. Therefore, if the player and a horde emu collide with the wheat, there's already a 1.1 rate applied to the diminishment of the wheat. As the horde gets larger, there are additional collisions along with a considerable boost for each emu in the flock.
The wheat health bar shows the player how much health the wheat has left. It starts hidden, but once the wheat takes any damage, it will appear for the player above the associated wheat. As damage gets done to the wheat, the health bar gets smaller, until eventually, the wheat has 0 health left, where the wheat and the health bar get destroyed.
