BioShooter

Description

This game follows a doctor inside a patient's body tasked to eliminate all viruses. A flying robot as a character companion follows the doctor and provides emotional and gameplay support. The game consists of three stages each separated by a door. Players have to find the key to access the next stage. This game was developed as part of my Master Thesis.

Responsibilities

    Level and Economy Design

  • Designed and implemented 3 modular levels inside Unity
  • Balanced game systems and in-game economy using Excel and Fibonacci series

    • Unity and C# Programming

  • Implemented 5+ enemy AI systems using C# scripts
  • Implemented robust AI companion system using C# scripts
  • Integrated interactive narrative elements inside levels using Unity
  • Designed and integrated dynamic dialogue system using Replica Studio and Unity UI
  • Created 5+ enemy variations and move sets using C# scripts
  • Optimized for browser using Unity Profiler and texture compression techniques, improving load times up to 60%

    • Sound and Audio

  • Implemented companion audio system using Ai voice generators (Replica Studio)
  • Implemented various sound effects such as enemy shooting, hit sound, etc

Design Process

Project Goal:

Experiment to discover whether a character companion is effective in soothing negative gameplay experience.

Constraints:

  • Short gameplay limit to 10-20 minutes
  • Focus on frustrating gameplay to ensure negative gameplay experience

Design Intentions:

BioShooter follows a 4-step design:
1. Introduction: The first long hallway introducing the core game mechanic of shooting.
2. Develop: The rest of the first level and the entire second level develops the design in two ways. First, allowing players to learn the game mechanics such as key-door system. Second, there are interactive narrative elements in both levels ensuring plot progression and bonding with the character companion.
3. Twist: The third level introduces a twist to the gameplay by escalating the difficulty through increasing the number of enemies, scarcity of resources and higher HP for enemies, with an exponentially larger map. All are designed to ensure players are facing negative gameplay experience to effectively measure the companion's impact.
4. Conclusion: The end room is a double boss to conclude the game with the highest difficulty.

Iterations and Challenges:

  • At first there were 3 different types of keys. The main key was supposed to open the door to the next level. Another key would open door to a fierce encounter with rewarding resources. The last key would open door to a safe area with resources. This idea was dropped since it was confusing for players to adapt to all these different mechanics in 10-20 minutes gameplay.
  • The number of rooms in the second level were initially higher, but they were dropped to stick to the 10-20 minutes gameplay.
  • At first enemies could not shoot the player. After a couple of iterations it was evident that the gameplay was not frustrating enough. Therefore, 6 enemy variations were designed with unique move sets, animations, and HP and damage to ensure the frustrating gameplay and diversity.

Media

Here you can play the game in web browser.

Level layout