Dashing Good Time
Dashing Good Time was in development from Jan 2017 - Feb 2017 during my sophomore year at DigiPen. It was a solo project focused on 2D level design and Challenge/Accomplishment engagement. It was developed in DigiPen's Zero Engine.
Since this was a solo project I developed everything in the game with highlights including: 2D level design, UX, game design, and gameplay scripting.
Gameplay Screenshots
Development
In this precision platformer the player must utilize different movement mechanics such as jumping, dashing, and aimed wall jumps to reach the end of portal of each level. There are 3 "worlds" with a total of 15 levels. Each world
Gameplay Sample
introduces an additional player and level mechanic expanding player's movement but also making the game more difficult. The game follows the design pattern of introduce, practice, test, put a twist, and master when it comes to teaching mechanics to the player. Terrible UI but game design skills show.
The main purpose of this prototype was to explore the challenge and accomplishment engagement type. That is making a game that compels people to keep playing due to its difficulty. It was all about reaching a balance with the skill and tension in the levels.
The most vital design concept I got out of developing this game was pacing. It is vital in a difficulty based game to pace the tension and challenge. I did this by splitting up each world into 5 levels. Levels would have seperate responsibilities as mentioned in the gameplay section(introduce, practice, test, twist, master). By doing this the difficulty was more gradual and the player was introduced to different types of challenges instead of straight up difficulty, which avoided burn out!