Emphasis: Visual Communication
Semester: Spring 2023
Summary
In two months and almost 200 hours, I designed and developed a mobile game from scratch. The code was written in C# using the Unity game engine. The visuals were all designed and illustrated by me from scratch. You can play the game HERE on mobile. (Desktop version coming ‘soon’)
A Hero’s Caddie flips the script on the medieval fantasy adventure genre. Instead of playing as the hero with all the glory, you play as the guy who follows the hero and manages all the loot. Much like a golfer’s caddie, you’re the one calling the shots and making the decisions that make your hero great. You haul around an enormous backpack and make sure your hero is well-equipped to defeat any foe. When your hero inevitably dies, all you have to do is go back to the last town and hire a new one to continue your journey.
The Process
Once I came up with the idea in the shower, I brainstormed the different mechanics and features I could include in the game and then narrowed it down and refined it to just the bare minimum. I used Figma’s Figjam to sticky-note and record the whole ideation process.
I then jumped head-first into the code. I used Unity as the engine and C# script. I first tackled the physics and the actual drag-drop mechanics that would make up the majority of the gameplay. While coding, I made sure to keep everything as modular as possible. What I mean by this is that I made sure whatever I coded could easily be duplicated and reused. For example, I plan on including MANY different weapons to collect and loot to hoard. So, I needed to make sure that I could add a ton of these objects to the game as quickly and seamlessly as possible. It made for a slow start to the coding but easily made up for it when it came time to add all the weapons and enemies later.
The thing I love about game development is the sheer quantity of skills that go into it; there’s the visual design, the animations, the storytelling, the problem-solving, the sound design, and the user experience design. If I ever got stuck coding, I’d draw some weapons. If I ever got a creative block with my designs, I’d go digging through some royalty-free music for inspiration. Game design has been the best creative outlet I’ve found that keeps my visual communication skills sharp.
The Future
I chose this project for two main reasons. One was that I genuinely enjoy game development and all that goes into it. The second reason is that this project would show a future employer who I am. It shows my passion for learning, my versatility in applying design principles, and that I’m a fun guy who loves geeky things.
I have big plans to keep developing this game and work with my followers to develop something awesome. I have no intention of ending my game dev journey any time soon.
Social Media
I recorded and shared my progress on Instagram. Go to @gamdevgoof to see more visuals and some video walkthroughs of my progress! I plan to continue working on this game until it is a full fledged app so stay tuned and be a part of the development by following me on Instagram! Here are some of the visual assets I worked on.
Hours
Full disclosure, I stopped rigorously tracking my hours after I hit 120. So with some educated guessing I put a total of 190 hours in before the deadline. Here are the hours I did record:
