Behind the Scenes
The Beginning
The project was based on the classic game, Dig Dug, reimagined in a FPS experience. The game would retain the cave setting along with more cutesy enemy types to fight, with the twist that shooting enemies grew or shrank them.
First Pass
The first pass involved white-boxing some basic rooms that would be used in the level generator and a basic melee enemy to begin working with AI. The basics of growing and shrinking were completed along with the door system to allow travel between the small rooms in the game.
Second Pass
The second pass involved completing several more rooms and converting them from white-box to cave-like environments along with another enemy type that could climb on walls and the ceiling to shoot at the player from a range.
Adding On
Once the main gameplay loop was established, the focus was placed on adding a bit more replayability. Perks and a leveling system were added to keep playthroughs different and allow players to build into certain aspects of gameplay such as speed or grenades.
Polish
Most polish was improving the lighting in most of the rooms along with making sure the enemies didn't get confused while they were running after the player. However, playtesting helped us realize that allowing players to color code what enemies/items could be grown/shrunk helped immensely.
Finalizing
Just before finishing the project, we focused on touching up the remaining feedback from playtests and making some final tweaks to perks, enemy health, and player movement to make things feel as smooth as possible.