GAME DESIGNER | PROGRAMMER | UX DESIGNER
Jan 2022
Global Game Jam 2022
Made with Unity
GAME DESIGN
This game was made in 48 hours during the 2022 Global Gam Jam. The theme was "DUALITY". Since we always wanted to create a game with less maneuver and more randomness, a coin perfectly matches the theme as well as our demand. A coin is like a dice, when you toss a coin, you are actually rolling a two-sided dice, so the coin is full of randomness but not that complicated for the player to understand. Moreover, a coin is flat, like a card, a two-sided card, which means coins are the perfect glue between a card game and a roguelike game, in which luck plays a major part.
After brainstorming, we decided to design a turn-based game with a bunch of different coins acting on two characters -- an angel and a demon, who fight against enemies one by one on a country road. The demon's main job is dealing damage while the angel's main job is defending. The coins in the game have two colors -- black and white, representing the demon and the angel, plus a specific coin can have both colors or no color on the same side. With different permutations and combinations, there are 16 kinds of coins in total, which means the player can experience lots of possibilities in the game.
Brainstorm
But that's not enough to create a fun game, more randomness is needed. So what's followed is the item system and buff system, in which players can harvest different items at the end of each fight. When the trigger conditions of the items are met, players can have stronger effects or buffs in their rounds, and the conditions are based on the results of the tosses. With these mechanisms, the game has become much more interesting and full of randomness -- as long as the items and buffs are enough.
PROGRAMMING
We utilized a plugin called Node Canvas to control the game flow, which means what to do at a specific time. My programming job in this project is divided into three parts, Coin Manager, coin toss effect, and item development. The Coin Manager is supposed to manage all the coins in the game, such as the toss results and when and how to engage in the game flow.
To simulate the physics when a coin lands on the ground, I utilized the recorder function and the built-in physics system in the Unity engine to create the animations I need. The effects are pretty smooth and natural.
Coin Toss
After everything about the coin was done, I fully devoted myself to item development. During the jam, we only created 20 kinds of items and 6 kinds of buffs, but after we submitted our game, we continued to fulfill the game. At last, over 100 kinds of items were added to the game.
Then, we developed the basic UI and icons for the game and finally, we combined all the elements together and designed a simple environment for our characters to fight.
Here are some of the screenshots of the game:
Screeshots
After we submitted the game, we watched an online show in which the organizers played our game. They gave us a good review and said the game was interesting.
If you are also interested in Coin Angel Demon, please feel free to download and play by clicking the link below. (P.S. this is the game jam version)
Here is a playthrough video of an enemy fight in the game.
Playthrough Video