Description

Design and code a bitmap game that tells an aspect of your own story. Somebunny Help Me is a game with the goal to help Mr. Bunny find his way back home safely. There are many different obstacles that he must face alone on the way, but there is no quitting and by overcoming those hardships, he will eventually return to his village where his family and friends are. This is a game that narrates my life motto through the story of Mr. Bunny, that no matter what hardships I face, I will persistently strive to achieve my goals.

Design Process

The bare structure of Somebunny Help Me is similar to Frogger game, where its goal is to proceed to the next stage without bumping into obstacles. Likewise, this game has a total of three stages that are all linked to one another. Mr. Bunny, stuck on an island begins the first stage in water and has to swim across to the shore avoiding the school of fish. The second stage is on the beach and he has to dodge the scattering crabs in order to move onto the jungle. The third jungle stage has dropping coconuts and bananas that Mr. Bunny must avoid to go safely back home to his Bunny village. From here, I wanted to add small elements that could make the game more interesting. There are 5 carrots (lives) in the beginning of the game and each one is taken away if bumped into an obstacle. Once bumped into an obstacle, for example a crab, the crab will disappear at the position of collision and reappear at another random position. The speed of movement for the obstacles are varied to create more variation within the game. When bumped into 5 obstacles and out of lives, the bunny is out of energy and you must start from the beginning to continue. However, there are carrots that randomly drop within the game that give an extra life. These can be collected to help maintain life. There are also stars, or the power-up feature, that randomly drop to create an invincible shield for a short moment when eaten. In this moment, a spherical shield is created and there are no effects on the bunny when collided into an obstacle. I also incorporated sound to these elements for a more playful interaction.

Reflection

I really enjoyed the process from creating a scenario, making a grey-boxed version of the game, and then developing into a completed game. The progress was very gradual but steady and this allowed me the time to try out new things and make improvements. The time span of this project really urged me to take challenges and pushed me to find out solutions, rather than finding another way out. There were also many elements that I had never tried before, such as creating assets and importing them. But this made it more personal and motivated me to make more improvements. I realized that with the interactive nature of games, there were a lot of minor details that needed to be fixed in order to be convincing. Especially with our expectations of a game, specifically with a widely-known frogger game style, it was challenging to de-bug every small detail, but in the end I think those made the difference for this overall experience.