(Harsh) -
Hello, My name is Harsh Modi and
(Ruchit) -
My name is Ruchit Bhardwaj
(Harsh) -
and, we are here to present our game, Aether - a journey through time and space!
(Harsh) -
Our Inspiration behind the Name and the Game
One thing that was common between our team members was our affinity towards deep space exploration and once we realized that using Unity, one could create worlds of our own, we thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to showcase our love for outer space. Hence, we sought out to build Aether.
We thought, what better to name it than the poetic personification of the sky or air, inhaled by the Greek Gods themselves.
(Ruchit) -
So, here is a quick recap of where we were at the midterm mark -
[Play 20 second midterm video]
(Ruchit) -
So as you saw, our game was essentially built as an
- Obstacle Runner
- Dodge different obstacles along its path and escape the planet! The path that it travels on, determines the speed at which the player travels.
- The player also had some powerups that it could leverage in order to gain an edge.
- The first one was the Time Powerup, that allowed the player to add +5s to the already available time he has, which could prove helpful in escaping the planet
- The second was the Size Powerup. Collecting the size powerup increased the player size and made it easier to jump between different paths.
- The third was the Levitate Powerup, which allowed the player to hover in the nothingness of deep space!
(Harsh) - And then the midterms happened, and we received the user analytics and feedback, and oh boy, were we in for a surprise. The feedback that we got, left us wondering, where could we improve?
(Ruchit) - We went through each and every feedback, analyzed every analytics graph that we could, and finally categorized them into these 3 insights -
First, make the game more interactive!
-
Our friend, anonymous duck suggested, that it would be nice to have some kind of invicible weapons - and so, we implemented the SHOOTING FUNCTIONALITY. Once the player collects the SPACE GUN powerup, it can shoot obstacles that are straight in its path, thereby making the path easier to travel on. The game also keeps score of the number of obstacles that it destroys.
-
There was yet another feedback to an existing powerup that we had - the SIZE POWERUP. Some of the players suggested to link the size powerup with the obstacles and we did just that. In addition to making it easier for the player to jump across different paths, collecting the size powerup now allows the players to breeze through small obstacles, shattering them into pieces! But beware, the size powerup also has it's limit! Do you know what? Play our game to find out! ;)
-
Finally, Anonymous Helix suggested to add teleport functionality to the game, and so we present - The WORMHOLE POWERUP! Collecting the wormhole powerup, allows the player to cut through the fabric of time and space, making it land on a point further in the game, in an instant!
And, with the amalgamation of the shooting powerup - to shoot obstacles in its path, the size powerup, which allows the players to breeze though obstcles and the wormhole powerup, to teleport to a distance further in the game in an instant, we incorporated INTERACTIVITY in our game.
(Harsh) -
Our second top insight was to make the game intuitive.
Our friend anonymous scale suggested that “its probably... beginning of the game” and hence we came up with the health point system. From the mode of death vs level graph on the left, we inferred, that the number of deaths in level 1 is significantly high. Now, if you just look at the first graph alone, it could be due to the fact that the player was not acclimatized with the game, but when we clubbed this finding with another analytics data, i.e. distance travelled vs level, we came to the conclusion that the distance traveled at each level, was significantly less because the player died just after a single mistake and hence we implemented the health point system. Now the Health Points allow the players to take damage up to 5 times, before they perish, and the game restarts.
(Ruchit) -
- Finally, our last insight was to make the game more challenging. Some people were finding the game design a bit too easy and hence we improved the game design to make it more challenging. It was relatively easy to arrive at the conclusion that the game design was less challenging from this graph - on an average, a player was able to complete level 1 in just above 30s whereas for level 2, which we originally thought was challenging enough, just took about 20 seconds for the players to complete. This was clearly opposite to how we had expected the graph to behave! And hence, we improved the level design!
(Harsh) -
- The players were also finding the game to be significantly slow without much thrills and hence we implemented the speed power-up - to send the spaceship into a warp drive
(Ruchit) -
And now that we have made the game more challenging, we challenge YOU! to complete all three levels in atmost 2 tries. The first person that is able to do so, in front of US! wins a Starbucks Gift Card from Team Aether!
So buckle up, It’s time! From a dream to a draft to a reality, here’s presenting - Aether!