Boss Hog

Top-Down, Bullet Hell

Role: Game Designer

Engine: Unity

Team size: 4

Duration: 10 Days

Submission for VimJam 2

Theme: On The Edge

My Roles

Prototyped player movement, mechanics, and camera positioning.
Weapon mechanics
Designing particle effects.

Description

The player character Boss Hog is a pig living on the edge. The enemy characters are cows. In the 19th century, cows were referred to by farmers as "bosses" which ties in with the boss theme.

Boss Hog is a 3D top-down, bullet hell game. Players will need to dodge oncoming enemy bullets while returning fire to take them down. Instead of real bullets, this game's shots feature barnyard fruits and veggies. Collect different guns to acquire new bullets and firing patterns.

Itch Page

Prototyping

Movement

I prototyped the basic foundation of the game using C# for the programmers to refine later on. I programmed the player to move vertically and horizontally within the camera's view. The player character can only move as far as the edges of the camera.

To simulate the sense of moving forward. I programmed the floor to move toward the player and constantly repeat once it reached its end.

Shooting

I designed a basic shooting function by setting the bullet to a prefab. I coded it to shoot from the plater's current location. The bullets are then deleted once they arrive off screen.

Camera Positioning

In order to see more detail from a top-down point of view, I set the camera to be positioned at a slight angle. This allows players to see details. In addition, the player, enemies, and environment were slightly poisoned at an angle to enhance those details to the player whilst still looking as if the player were viewing from a top-down perspective.

Design Features

Guns

I modeled each gun according to the shooting pattern whilst keeping them themed to barnyard foods. The basic shot weapon has a short cooldown between each shot. I designed this weapon around apples due to the cooldown. It shoots relatively slow but the shots pack quite the punch. This is why I found apples to be appropriate for the weapon. I designed the gun around the idea of apples growing on trees. Since the bullets are infinite the apples are infinitely generated into the gun similar to how a tree grows apple.

Corn felt like the best vegetable to base the spread shot on. Based on the idea of kernels shooting out in all directions I found it to match the shot pattern perfectly. I designed the gun to look as if it were shredding off the kernel to be used as bullets for the gun.

Lastly, I designed the rapid shot bullets to be peas. Since they do little damage I wanted to choose a vegetable smaller and frailer than the other two. Since multiple peas come in a pod I found it to be appropriate to use them as the design for the weapon. each shot rapidly shoots all the peas in the repeatedly. I designed the gun to look as if the player were squeezing out the pes in the pod, causing them to shoot out at their target.

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Particle Effects

Using the Unity particle system created particles to enhance elements of the game.

I created rubble from beneath the player's motorcycle to make it look as if it were moving at a fast pace.

Upon receiving feedback, I decided to make a cartoon-like explosion effect that triggers every time the player of an enemy is defeated. It gave players a clear visual queue form when they or enemies were defeated. Rather than no effect at all.