About

Made by a 2 person team for WolverineSoft's week long Summer Game Jam, Revenge & Reform is a multi-character action platformer, with each character sporting different jump heights, speeds, and special abilities.

Development Info

  • Developed for WolverineSoft 2019 Summer Game Jam
  • 1 week development cycle (07/01/2019 - 07/08/2019)
  • 2 developers
  • Unity Engine

Contributions

  • Level Designer
  • UI/UX Designer
  • Programmer
  • Combat Designer

Post-Mortem

About the Project

Revenge and Reform was created in one week for WolverineSoft's 2019 Summer Game Jam by a two person team. I was in charge of all programming, game design, vfx, and UI/UX design, and my partner designed and created all of the sprites and backgrounds for the game. After the jam was finished, I went back and fixed some bugs, added a main menu, and a tutorial.


What Went Right

  • Switching between the different characters was engaging
  • Level 2's design in particular accomplishes it's goal of focusing on the Smolvey character's abilities.
  • Made a substantial amount of progress in just one week
  • First complete game since learning Unity




What Could Be Improved

  • Better scoping at the start of the project. My partner and I spent 12 hours a day for a week straight working on this game, and still had to cut different enemy types, the boss battle, and some levels.
  • Better platforming controls. Once we were finished, playtesters often complained about the movement feeling floaty and unresponsive.
  • Finding a better use for one of the characters, Swolvey. They currently have no special ability, just a more powerful punch, and so most players never utilized the character.




Lessons Learned

  • Make your MVP early on, and playtest often
  • Scope small, and be prepared to cut. Make sure to take the amount of time it takes produce art assets into account when designing.
  • Use version control software, even for small projects. We ended up losing our best designed level that we had been playtesting on an hour before the end of the jam because we hadn't been using any VCS.
  • Explain your mechanics in game. Before adding in the tutorial, most players had no idea what the main mechanics of this game were.
  • Don't be afraid of text! When designing R&R's tutorial, I did my best to exclude any text where possible, thinking this would force me to explain our mechanics through gameplay alone. Instead, this left players confused and ill-prepared for the levels.