“Space Dragunz” was a game born from a short game jam for UEL as part of the course, Made with fellow students, Andrew and Ricky, the criteria for this game was to make something in 2D, with only movement keys and 2 action keys, and so the nature of this exercise was to make something simple and quick!
Test out Space Dragunz on itch.io! Link
Roles: Lead Programmer, Audio Technician
Engine: Unity
We were deadset on the title Space Dragunz; we were infatuated with the idea that this Universe would inhibit ancient but ironically highly technologically advanced dragons, piloted by equally quirky and interesting characters.
Before going onwards into the ideation phase, it should be noted that the following restrictions were put in place for this assignment:
- What was feasible for our time limit? (1 week)
- How do we keep the controls simple and intuitive given the meta-game scenario? (Is it possible for the functions of the keys to become too complex?)
- Does the idea have to be entirely original for it to be fun?
With the backstory in mind, we focused on creating a fully fleshed out idea before going forwards with production. Inspired by Asteroids and Geometry Wars, the player pilots a dragon to survive against waves of enemies for as long as they can.
We wanted each dragon to have a unique ability, to incentivise players to choose a creature to play as based on their needs. In this case, as the only dragon in the game, the first creature is able to move at hyperspeed – moving so fast that enemies appear slow in comparison.
Learning Outcomes
- Making Managers (AudioManager, GameManager, TextManager, etc) is super useful for not only keeping scripts which maintain the structure of the game away from scripts which handle the mechanics, but also makes it easy for designers/audio techs to throw things into the game without having to look through code.
- Balancing a game can be tough! This was evident in the playtest, where a few players managed to exploit the game by simply rotating on the spot. Having someone who is intentionally trying to break the game is integral to making a good, balanced game!
Reflection
- Feedback from playtesters indicated that it wasn’t obvious what the FTL juice did. Issues included: is the button command toggle or hold? Does the juice refill? What does this do to the enemies or the player? A good fix would to simply have a tutorial level, however admittedly it can be hard to distinguish whether the FTL is actually doing anything or not. Having something like an enemy animation when the FTL is activated is one of many possible solutions.
- Gameplay can sometimes be monotonous. Considerations should be taken into mixing up the gameplay. One of the suggestions from the playtest was to introduce a new type of enemy midway through, which charges at the player at high speed, meaning the player has to steer out of the way to dodge them.
What’s Next?
- Making new enemy types
- Powerups
- Improving the UI (energy bar, score tracker, etc)
- Android controls
Hoyung Ling 
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