We did also change the way the magnetical orb works, as it would initially only be attachable to objects in the level, but by changing it so that players could attach themselves anywhere fixed the problem as then players could instead focus on having fun instead of struggling
Boop
Game Project at Futuregames
Summary Boop
Genre
Party Game
Fighting Game
Platform
PC
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Time
2 weeks (2019)
Team Size
7
My Roles
Product Owner
Gameplay Designer
Narrative Designer
Level Desginer
Game Overview Intro
Game Concept
Boop is a PvP, local multiplayer platformer for up to 4 players where you battle against other robots and boop them into the dangerous hazards while surviving them yourself to become the last player standing!
The game is gravity-based and provides each player with abilities such as a grabbing hook and a knockback ability
REQUIREMENT
COMPETITIVE LOCAL MULTIPLAYER
Design Pillars Key Features
Multiple Character Parts
The playable robots consist of more than one way of controlling the movement – in this case, the hook!
Competitive
Fight off the other players and get out on top by being the last robot alive!
Bizzar Challanges
Find yourself in a factory filled with dangerous hazzards and traps!
My Contribution Content
Game Design
Narrative Design
Level Design
Project Management Scrum
Scrum Methodology
Every morning we would have a daily stand-up meeting where everyone got to tell the rest of their team what they been doing, what they will do and raise if they got any concerns or need help
Product Owner
As the product owner, I support the team by helping everyone stay on track with our game vision by looking over finished content to make sure it stays coherent and suitable for the final product
Our post-it window as we finished all our tasks
Design Details Deep Dive
Gameplay Design
Players start out on different spawn locations on the map with a total of 5 lives each. Their goal is to boop the other players into the traps by using their shockwave ability which disables the other player's abilities for a short moment and knocks the opponent away
Shockwave Mechanic – The Boop
Players can execute their shockwave ability, which has a cooldown of about 2 seconds, which causes the other players to get knocked back and their grabbing mechanic gets temporarily disabled
Grabbing Mechanic
Above the head of the robot sits their magnetical orb which they use to lock themselves in place with. It helps a player to reposition and can be used to launch the player in a new direction if timed correctly
We did also change the way the magnetical orb works, as it would initially only be attachable to objects in the level, but by changing it so that players could attach themselves anywhere fixed the problem as then players could instead focus on having fun instead of struggling
Playtesting Sessions
Our game was pretty much unplayable for a while as we were trying to figure out how the movement should work and before adding the hazards the playtesters were confused about the objectives of the game
But after getting down our core components the game became so much more fun and enjoyable for the players as the controls were smooth, and no longer hard to learn
During our final playtest we got the feedback that it would have been nice if each player could see the cooldown of their own shockwave ability – this was great feedback which we would have liked to implement with more time
UI & UX
There is a small amount of show UI during gameplay, which shows the players which color they are and how many lives they currently have left – quick and easy to glance over
I also implemented the character select system
World Design
All we get to know of the world of Boop is that in a very dangerous factory, the robot's fate is to fight till their death
In this world of goofiness and bizarre factories, we also find the high-level technology which allows the robots to use their magnetic gravity powers just anywhere in the world
Character Design
The playable character is a small little robot that has rather happy and friendly-looking eyes, this adds to the fact that despite the fighting, it's still a fun party game
Each robot has a unique color to stand out and help each player to identify their robots placement in the level
Level Blockout
Initially, we had this big, over-scoped plan of making 4 different levels, but as we only had 2 weeks of working on this project we quickly realized that we would have to rethink and settle with one of our level ideas as a starter
By rapidly prototyping and blocking out our level ideas in the engine we could test different layouts and placements for the platforms and hazards that was implemented
Concepting & brainstorming different level ideas