Soul Swapper - My Thesis Project
From concept design, character design, and mechanic design, to modeling, rigging, animating, and programming, every part of this game was done by me. (I had some help from my teacher and friends with programming bugs.) Through the making of this game, I got to know the whole process of making an indie game.
For more information please see the thesis paper.
Soul Swapper Game-play video
Soul Swapper Design Document
1 Game Story/Background
The story of the game happens in an ancient Chinese village. The girl with magical powers - the swordswoman character in the game - was burdened with the task of restoring the lost magic stone of the village. So she is now on the way towards the adventures. With her magic powers, she has the help from a soul of the Ninja and a soul of the Cat to get her through difficult situations.
2 Game Objectives
1. Players need to reach the end of the game.
2. Players try to overcome obstacles by swapping between characters and using their special abilities.
3. The levels in this game will be clearly divided into small level chunks. In order to pass through a level chunk, players have to have the whole scene in mind and come up with a series of actions and execute them in perfect timing.
3 Characters
Character Sword
Ability: Melee attack. One attack destroys one enemy.
Character Ninja
Ability: Double jump. Can reach higher ground than other two characters.
Character Cat
Ability: Horizontal dash & much smaller figure. Can go through areas where the other two characters can’t.
4 Mechanics
Controls
A: Move left
D: Move right
Q: Switch character to Sword
W: Switch character to Ninja
E: Switch character to Cat
Shift: Horizontal dash (Only active when the player is using Cat)
Space: Jump (Press twice double jump when the player is using Ninja)
Left mouse button: Melee attack (Only active when the player is using Sword)
5 Enemy and Damage
Enemies have attack range and fixed attack frequency; player needs to observe first, then try to avoid the bullets from the enemies and get close enough to destroy them.
Player has 3 Hearts, each bullet from the enemy will take one Heart. When the player runs out of Hearts, they will respawn to the most recent checkpoint.
Death caused by environments (For example, fall into the river) will cost all of the Hearts and player will respawn immediately.
6 UI
Main Menu:
Appears when player press Esc.
Contains all instructions; an Exit button; and a resume button.
Hearts:
On the top left of the screen, a heart shape image and a number indicate players current Heart number.
Tutorial:
At the beginning of the game, as player proceeds in the level, instructions will show up and help player get familiar with the controls.
Sound feedbacks:
When the player attack with Sword, a sound of sword swooshing in the air will play and let the player know they have attacked.
When the player wants to switch character in places where only Cat can fit in, a sound of error will play to let the player know is action is disabled at this place.
When the player dies, a sound of game ending will play to let the player know the character will be respawning.