Rad Rabbit
Rad Rabbit the journey
Rad Rabbit is not technically my first published game as I made a game called RippleSurfer for Android which isn't currently available due to me needing to update it's privacy policy and wanting to make big changes to the game as a whole.
I've also helped make Cupid's Rampage for an Itch.io game jam which I also hope to return to at some point too.
Game development is an ongoing learning experience which I enjoy and so after Cupid's Rampage, I just wanted to make a small game. It wouldn't take long, I thought, maybe like a month. Well, I was wrong about that.
I wanted to make something dynamic which made the player feel quick and powerful, so this game started out as an action platformer.
Ever since I've started Game developement, I've struggled with limiting my scope. I start making a game and get excited by all the possibilities that my game could be, and it quickly becomes too large for me or my small team to handle. So, as an action platformer, the large amount of animations and linking them together (I wouldn't discover Unity's blend trees till I started on my next project), the level design, mechanics and the amount of artwork needed was just too much.
So, I went as simple as I could, an endless runner. I kept the kick which sends enemies flying and the debris they explode into, and with only 3-4 player animations to deal with it was a lot more manageable. I always like being able to express myself in video games so I added cosmetics. I added in trays for a science lab feel and made them slide, and whilst testing I found that I could ride these trays if I pushed them a bit first and it was really fun.
I quickly worked on making the process a lot easier: they became child objects of the player when they landed on one so they wouldn't get consumed by THE ALMIGHTY LEVELGOD which consumes all child objects of levels and so they could inherit the speed of the player on top, robots were getting in the way so I made it 'kick' them out of the way too.
Then scope crept in again, what would be really cool and finish this game off would be an epic boss fight!!! This threw up a bunch more problems. For some reason, instead of keeping the player still, generating the level and moving it right to left, I had decided to move the player left to right and generate the level in front of it. The main problem with this is that Unity starts getting weird too far from the origin, (which hasn't cropped up in any testing so far). It also made the boss fight difficult to implement and animate.
So for now, there is no boss fight in Rad Rabbit, and that's okay as it's allowed me to begin on my next project which has taught me so much more.
Like I said, I'll like to return to my past projects at some point with my additional knowledge and make them even better, so stay tuned.
Simco
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