Spring 2022 Capstone: Battery Runner

  Nicolas Nguyen ATCM 4397.007 Battery Runner What is Battery Runner?      Battery Runner is an auto side-scroller platformer where the player will dodge obstacles within the level while their character automatically run in one direction. This game was inspired by Gravity Guy and heavily inspired by Geometry Dash. Play as a living battery and collect sparks for power to protect against the invasion of Insulvators that hungers for energy. Beware when colliding with an Insulvators for they absorb will absorb the player's energy as well.  Why Auto Side-Scroller     The auto side-scroller genre is an unsupported gaming genre that changes the dynamic how rhythm games can be played, and how levels are designed. With simple game mechanics, players are able to heighten their visual and auditorily senses when focusing on dodging the obstacles that comes their way. Visually, the players will see the obstacles that will come to ...

 Nicolas Nguyen ATCM 4397.007      With the demo completed and the Battery Runner's fundamentals programed, all that is left is to finish the game's development. At the moment, there is currently only 1 level. Battery Runner is expected to have more levels to provide a challenge for the player with different songs, smoother gameplay, more challenges, and cleaner user interface. This will also be a good opportunity to revisit previous problems and improve already existing levels and design.      As seen in the game, the next level is already under development and is titled "E.R.F", another one of Bensounds music. This music is a good linear music to help introduce the player to Battery Runner, as well as provide a simple linear gameplay to learn the mechanics and expectations, making it the perfect level 1 music. Other songs will also be needed and the game should have at least 5 levels. Further research will be required.      Revisions w...

Nicolas Nguyen ATCM 4397.007      Not all things went according to plan in the creation of Battery Runner. Because Battery Runner was designed to be a fast pace game, there were many ideas and goals for the game to be further developed into a full fledge game. Or at least, a working demo with working levels. After mid development of the first level, there was a sudden realization how much of this project was underestimated. Due to this major error resulting in the demo play time for Battery Runner being significantly longer then intended, and the time it takes to build these ideas requires more time than given, many of these ideas were either put on hold or rejected.  Plan A: The Original Plan      Originally, Battery Runner was suppose to have 2 playable levels in total, follow by a main menu. Within each levels was suppose to use the full duration of the music used to create the level, the estimated duration being about 3 minutes. As stated before, B...

Planning Out Battery Runner Week 01: Plan -planned out schedule base on UTD weekly deadlines. -Take notes on spring break and major events (Finals and Midterms) -Take notes on due dates for other classes and their syllabus.  -Have a fundamental plan toward creating a game! (Theme? Player? Genre? etc.) Week 02: Research -Create asset list for game (Sprites, Background, Music, Sounds, etc.) -Search sites for music and sound effects -Plan out color scheme -Research Walking Cycle, Batteries, Lightning, Geometry Dash, Technology Themes, etc. -Create sprites bases and background layouts in Adobe Illustrator Week 03 - 5: Getting Started -Sketch example level -Research game engines to build game (Unity, Unreal, Gamemaker, etc.) -Design Sprites (Running, Enemies, Collectables, Backgrounds, etc.) Week 06: Tried Unity -Dedicated this week trying Unity -Tested sprite editor and Coding -Tested level designing in 2D space Week 07 -10: Programing -Find all, if not most, sound effects and music -D...