Cole Williams - Level Design and System Design
Heir Dash is a 2D Platformer Game made in Unity. Born with his family's generational dash, the newest heir to the throne must prove his worth by climbing the tower and reclaiming his ancient family heirloom.
Project Info:
Course: Digital Production
School: DigiPen Institute of Technology
Team Name: UpB3
My Roles:
Tech Lead
Level Designer
Systems Designer
Game Story
The player takes on the role of a young heir to the throne of the clan Dache who is in an attempt to prove himself worthy as a future leader by taking on a right of passage known to his clan that has not been attempted for many generations. Like other before him within his family, he was born with the ability to dash forward between short distances. Can he use this power in order to reach his goal, find the secret behind this trial, and go on to become an honorable and respected leader of his clan?
Level Design
As a level designer for Heir Dash, my contributions included:
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Creation of first half of levels using tilemaps and sprites
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Implementation of tutorial and learning mechanics through levels
Level Creation
The levels within Heir Dash are split into the seven levels prior to the player obtaining the crown and the seven levels that follow. I created levels one through seven of the game as well as the area in the middle where the player collects the crown. The levels I created are meant to increase in difficulty while also giving tutorialization in the form of text appearing within the levels. The first seven levels take into account the players limited two dashes before needing to touch the ground to reset their dash count. Included hazards within the levels include stationary and moving spikes, although I aided in the concept and creation of the spike projectiles shown within the second half of the game. I also included a secret area to level five of the game for extra gems.
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System Design
As a System designer for Heir Dash, my contributions included:
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Creation of movement system and dash mechanic using C#
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Implementation of various sprites and animations
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Formation of colliders and collision events
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Refining of the pause screen mechanic
Dash Mechanic
The dash mechanic in Heir Dash is something I created using raycasts and translation of the players position. I designed it so the player inputs the direction using the WASD keys and pressing enter to dash in that direction while in air. The game casts a ray in that direction and if there is an object between the maximum distance the player should be dashing to and the position they are originating from, they dash to that point instead. I also implemented the detection of gems within path of a dash so the player can collect them. At the start of the game, the player has a dash count of two. When the player collects the crown in the middle of the game, they are given infinite dash which removes the limiter, allowing them to use it as many times as they want without the need to touch the ground.
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Projectiles
The spike projectiles in the game are used as a hazard that destroy the player upon contact. I worked on the animation for the spike shooters as well as the functionality for their projectiles. The spikes are instantiated at the moment the animation lines up the location that the projectiles start their path from. The projectiles move at a constant speed in one direction until they collide with something where they are then destroyed.
