James Johnson
Technical Designer
Micro Game: Downfall
A first person micro game about falling as fast as possible
Project
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Team Size: Individual
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Role: Design, Art, Programming
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Tools: Unity, C#, Maya,
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Platform: PC, WebGL
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Download Link: itch.io
Intent
To make a game which could be understood and completed in less than 30 seconds. I also wanted to provide significant player feedback to give a real sense of speed as the player falls.
Features List
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Reactive player camera and HUD
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Unique downwards centric gameplay
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Time / Score trackers and ranking
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2 playable levels
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A shotgun!
Systems And Process
I discovered the core of this prototype while building a force accumulator for a generic first person controller. The simple act of falling around obstacles was very enjoyable, and I decided to make it into a full prototype.
System #1: Camera Effects
The rough core was there, but the player's speed felt very linear. There wasn't much intensity or action to dropping at terminal velocity. To fix this I dynamically altered the camera's FOV depending on how fast the player is moving.
The effect was nice and gave the fall some oomf. I made other systems which worked in the same way.
- Speedlines get longer
- Wind sfx increase in pitch
- Whoosh / swish sfx play when passing an object at high speed
- More screen shake the harder you hit the ground
System #2: A shotgun
After testing out the initial prototype playtesters kept asking for more movement options, they wanted to have some control over their speed and maybe even a limited dash. I agreed that the player needed a bit more control over their decent.
My solution was to add a high recoil shotgun. I've always liked games where the player can use tools in interesting ways. With a shotgun the player can slowdown, speed up, and interact with the world.
To make it work as a dash I set up right click to flip the shotgun 180 degrease, and fire backwards. A weird combination of ridiculous and cool.
A second level was made to suit the new movement mechanic and give the player a sense of progression.
Post Mortem
What Worked
I think the biggest success in this system is the amount of feedback. The effects, sound, and easy to understand controls help to engage the player and get them to the fun in only a few seconds.
The particles, camera effects, and sounds give the player a sense of speed, while getting an S rank run is challenging enough to make for an engaging experience.
What Didn't Work
One of the things I learned over the course of this project was how to do lighting, or rather what not to do. I struggled with creating enclosed environments which were well lit and not distracting.
If I was to do this project again I'd like to spend more time working on the level lighting to keep things moody but not so dark that things are hard see. Thankfully it was hard for players to get lost since it's so linear, but I got lazy with the lighting because of that.
Conclusions
The feeling of speed and control in a digital environment is the result of layered audio and visual effects, mechanical and observable changes to the game as a consequence of player input, as well as the level layout which they're maneuvering through. I think the prototype was successful in making players feel like they were falling at fast speeds, but there is still a lot that I could add to help push the effect.
One of the most important aspects of making these systems was accurately portraying the speed of the player. For example shifting the FOV too drastically too quickly would create an optical illusion that caused players to vastly over estimate how fast they were actually falling.
This is a game which thrives on clarity, as I mentioned above I'd like to rework the lighting to fit that. The more the player can see the further out they can plan, leading to more satisfying runs.
