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RHYTHMPG

VIDEO

OVERVIEW

RhythmPG is a turn-based rhythm game. The player and an enemy take turns in attacking each other to the song's rhythm until either of them fall. Survive and defeat your foes while achieving the highest score possible!

The game features wacky pixel art characters in a Synthwave setting with cheesy dialogues. There are a total of 3 levels and each level becomes progressively harder.

ROLES

Concept Designer
UI Designer
Lead Programmer

DEV TERM

July 2020

TASKS

Design​

  • Discussed and conceptualized gameplay mechanics

  • Designed turn-based battle system, score system, hit combo system and attack multiplier system

  • Designed and implemented User Interface (UI)

  • Performed quality assurance and bug testing

Project Management​

  • Implemented and utilized version control with Github

  • Defined and organized tasks (based on the degree of necessity) with Trello

Programming​

  • Scripted gameplay mechanics and compiled the final game

Project Duration

2
Weeks

Team Size

3

Game Engine

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Platform

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This game is developed for the game jam entitled 'My First Game Jam: Summer 2020'.

Background Credit: Shovel Knight

Icons by @reffpixels

DESIGN PROCESS

CONCEPTING

The team consisted of two other members, SineTwo/Kal (leader) and Irene. During development, my involvement was under an alias called 'DustyDusk'.

The development started with the concept proposed by the leader. The team expanded and refined the concept collaboratively by compiling a game design treatment document with Google Slides. The document contains various development content such as moodboards, concept descriptions and explanations, summaries of game mechanics, game sequence diagrams, pseudocode, concept art and sketches. Fig.1 shows one of the sequence diagrams conceptualized.

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Fig 1. Summary of Game Sequence

PRE-PRODUCTION

During this phase, we identified and decided our roles for the production phase. Thereafter, we joined in a meeting where we discussed and decided the gameplay mechanics that would be implemented in the final product, as well as the game experience it would bring from a visual and technical view. To identify the core assets, we created a list of minimum viable game features. Fig.2 shows such a list.

Fig 2. List of Minimum Viable Game Features

We had also set up a Trello board and a Github repository. The Trello board contains all the potential game features and assets (core and minor) discussed during the meeting. The Trello board would also act as a task list and backlog for all observations, suggestions, criticisms, bugs and glitches we would come across during the production phase. Fig.3 shows a screenshot of the Trello board we used for the game's development.

Fig 3. Trello board Overview

PRODUCTION

During the production phase, we assigned our names to each task presented on the Trello board based on our roles. Progress and suggestions were updated and given respectively through the Trello board and Discord text messages.

 

Game assets and mechanics were implemented individually by team members through the Unity Editor on a base template from its Github repository. Once changes were decided to be final, members' push requests would be merged together into the Update branch as the latest build.

 

Some game features ceased development due to constraints of time and manpower. Ultimately, we implemented the game features listed below in the final product:

  • Battle system​

    • Arrows pointing towards either 4 directions (act as notes) will scroll from the right to the left of the screen. Players have to hit the appropriate arrow keys the moment it enters the aim UI in the middle. The rate of note hits corresponds to the beatmaps made for the music in each stage.

    • Battle phases:

      • Player Phase - Player attacks the enemy and depletes its HP when a note is hit successfully.

      • Enemy Phase - Player blocks enemy attacks when a note is hit successfully. Otherwise, the player will receive damage and their HP will be depleted.

    • HP: Player always starts with 100HP, while enemies have varied HP. To win a battle, deplete the enemy's HP to 0 before the music ends. Failure to do so, or if the player's HP reaches 0, they lose the battle.​

    • Damage multiplier:

      • Player:

        • The player's damage rank increases after all notes in the current phase are hit successfully.

        • Otherwise, the player's damage rank decreases.​

      • Enemy:

        • The enemy's damage rank increases for each note during the Enemy Phase that the player fails to hit.

        • The enemy's damage rank resets to 1 whenever a note in the Enemy Phase is hit successfully.

    • Hit combos:​​

      • This system records the current consecutive number of successful note hits that the player has performed.

  • Level system​

    • There are a total of 3 levels in-game. Each level introduces an enemy with larger HP and a harder beatmap.​

    • Players can only proceed to the next level after they achieve victory on the previous one.

    • After each level, the ranking system will calculate the score and grade of the player's performance. The player's performance is based on the following factors:

      • Total player damage dealt​

      • Total enemy damage received

      • Number of hit combos

  • Dialogue system​

    • The system is implemented in cutscenes that occur before each level to communicate the game's story.​

  • Lightning, animation and VFX system

    • The system is implemented to make sprites look more appealing in-game and incorporate the game's visual identity.​​

    • It also makes the game more visually responsive to the player's actions.

SCREENSHOTS

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Fig 4. Gameplay Controls

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Fig 5. Preview of In-Game Cutscene

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Fig 6. Gameplay Preview

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