A short tower defense inspired game with a cute Halloween aesthetic. Created by a team of 4 in the span of 5 days for the Sheridan College Design Week Jam.
Role
Artist, animator, game designer
Tools Used
Unity, Photoshop, Spine2D
Initial Ideas
The theme for this Design Week challenge was to first create a game that could be played physically, then our large team of 12 would split into 3 where 2 teams of 4 make a digital game based off the idea. The initial idea came from my idea of a dodgeball game inspired by the King's Court variant. For the digital game, we took the physical game idea and gave it a more tower defense, Plants vs Zombies spin. I was tasked with creating the aesthetic for the game, where I created mood boards for the team to pick from. Since this game jam took place during Halloween week, we went with a cute Halloween aesthetic.
Game Design
The initial game I thought of was inspired by King's Court dodgeball. Players defend a castle made of pylons. There would be 1 - 2 players to defend the castle, and 3 - 4 players attacking each other and the castles. If an attacker was hit with a ball, they'd be out. The defenders had to catch or block incoming balls from hitting the castle. If there was a team without any defenders or a castle was fully destroyed then the team would lose. The digital game instead had players defend candy from hoards of monsters. Attackers could shoot monsters with energy balls to decrease their health, and defenders set up barriers to slow them down. Building would cost power, so players could stand within a power up area to recharge. These areas would also power up the energy balls for attack.
Game Art
On my team I was the only artist, so I was tasked with creating sprites, animations, and backgrounds. From the cute and creepy moodboard we chose, I designed 2 player characters in Halloween costumes and a few monster enemies based off typical Halloween monsters. The backgrounds and items in the game we also inspired by Halloween. I created sprites in Photoshop, and animations/spritesheets in Spine2D, and handed them off to the programmers to implement.
Challenges and Takeaways
Being the only artist on the team was a bit tasking since I was in charge of all the art assets. What helped me the most was making sure I had the easier things done first, then whatever took more time was scheduled and done appropriately. Our game unfortunately wasn't shortlisted for the industry guests to play, but they did enjoy the art I made.