CALEB WU

PRAEY: 2D Dungeon Crawler

A 3 week game design and development project diving into the fundementals of OOP

Project Role
Game Developer
Game Designer
Project Duration
3 Weeks
Project Tools
Processing
Adobe Illustrator
Project Teamates
Just me :)
Project Role
Game Developer
Game Designer
Project Duration
3 Weeks
Project Tools
Processing
Adobe Illustrator
Project Teamates
Just me :)

Inspired by dungeon crawlers and rouge-likes, PRAEY was my own take on this popular genre. Playing as an afflicted fallen angel, you’ll navigate 3 levels of dungeons, fighting bosses, discover secret rooms, and hack and slash your way through this bullet hell.

01.

DRAWING INSPERATION

PRAEY’s art style and gameplay was heavily inspired by the roguelike mobile game Soul Knight. Assets were drawn in pixel art to align the art direction with older styles used in older more traditional rouge likes. (This faster form of drawing also helped me make the most of the short 1 week time frame allocated to asset creation).

The Soul Knight Healer
My Adapted Templar
The Less Detailed Backside

LEARNING PIXEL ART

Pixel art sounded like an amazing art style to move forwards with... The only issue was that I had never drawn pixel art ever.Determined to at least give it a shot, I started like any artist would -- finding precedents. First found images that I could place a grid over, then trace. This gave me the confidence and understanding on how to start creating my own creations in pixel art. I used references for certain proportions and inspiration for characters and elements. Creating a custom color pallete and sticking to it helped with consistency. Alot of what I did was improvised, and inspired by precedents that I would find online.


Picking out Precedents

I didn’t randomly select pieces' of art that I thought was cool, I looked for designs that I liked and could be adapted to my style of design. The deal breaker for me was usually finding an element (such as the head, or chest) that I liked.

Oh hey, they have the same head!

I didn’t randomly select pieces' of art that I thought was cool, I looked for designs that I liked and could be adapted to my style of design. The deal breaker for me was usually finding an element (such as the head, or chest) that I liked.

So... where’d the hands go?

Other times I would draw inspiration from art I find online, but heavily modify it in order to fit the theme of my enemies. Removing and dehumanizing my bosses kept the designs gory and captivating.

02.

ASSET SHOWCASE

Annnnnd thats a wrap. After one week, I exhausted. I managed to create ~18 unique assets which I couldn’t wait to bring to life. I drew alot of inspiration from games I used to play such as Stardew Valley, Terraria, and Soul knight.

THE ENEMIES

Inspired by Carrion , the enemies in this game were designed to be gory, unsettling, and pure evil. A Distinctive crimson blood red color scheme helped them, while simultaneously setting them apart from the player. Elements such as blood, tentacles, random hanging segments and glowing cores became consistent elements in their designs.

Anacrux
Floor 2 Boss
Gatekeeper
Floor 3 Boss
F'Pheral
Floor 1 Boss
Husk
Floor 1 Enemy
Monument
Floor 3 Enemy
Llyes
Floor 2 Enemy
Anacrux's Spawner
Enemy
Gatekeeper's Spawner
Enemy
F'Pheral's Spawner
Enemy

THE PLAYER & SUPPORT ITEMS

Supportive items and the player all shared the same color scheme to represent neutrality and purity. The use of a medium stone grey and purple canvas was a stark contrast against the onslaught of red.

Templar
Dash Sprite
Templar
Attack Sprite
Templar
Back Sprite
Shield
Interactive Item
Open Chest
Interactive Item
Closed Chest
Interactive Item
Holy Cross
Interactive Item
Armour Dispenser
Interactive Item
Potion Dispenser
Interactive Item

03.

CODING THE GAME

PRAEY’s art style and gameplay was heavily inspired by the roguelike mobile game Soul Knight. Assets were drawn in pixel art to align the art direction with older styles used in older more traditional rouge likes. (This faster form of drawing also helped me make the most of the short 1 week time frame allocated to asset creation).

Mapping Interactions


During early stages of development, nteractions between classes were mapped and planned using an UML diagram. Narrative was determined by Marc Leblanc’s 8 types of Funs -- Narrative/Discovery.


Definitely too ambitious on my end looking back on it.

Programming the game


Return later.

04.

GAMEPLAY HIGHLIGHTS

Below are clips of both the game assest, and the code used to bring them to life, in action.

The Tutorial

The tutorial teaches the player the basic controls including how to move, attack, and dash. This equips players with an understanding on how to play the game to enhance playability.

Enemy Interactions

Due to how complicated and heavy the sprites were in game, bullets were simple vectors as the game suffered from substantial lag. Enemies get progressively stronger as the player progresses.

Item, Room & Chests

Interactive elements were scattered throughout the game to encourage exploration. Upon clearing a room of enemies, a chest will appear rewarding the player.

Boss Fights

Bosses feature multiple unique attacks that make them more difficult to fight compared to regular enemies. The fights were designed to necessitate progression, as buffs from previous floors were needed to survive boss attacks.

Oh no! You died :(

Upon completion or death, the player will receive a card that contains statics detailing their progression throughout the game, and a prompt to replay the game.

05.

REFLECTION

This project was full of alot of firsts -- the first time using processing, the first time developing a game, the first time drawing with pixel art -- and although daunting, was extremely rewarding.

Consistent, But Compelling.

Learning to leverage consistency with exciting designs pushed me to heavily consider how I could establish elements to unite the sprites. Lots of precedents and references helped shape the final design of all my enemies. Wether I was designing carefully off of an existing reference, or just iterating off my head, I had to ensure that the visuals I created remained consistent with one another.

Learning Where to Stop.

Given the 3 week timeframe dedicated to this project, I had to make executive decisions when developing assets. Despite being cliche, learning when to stop and move onto a design was crucial to ensuring that I could create an adequate amount of assets to decorate the game. Pacing myself, and setting internal timeframes ensured that I wouldn’t get caught up in one design to prevent imbalances in the sprites appearance.

Extending Past Design.

One of the most important factors that I didn’t originally account for was practically applying the sprites I had created to the game. Given that this project was developed in processing, which is not a proper platform for game development meant that I had to keep the scale of the assets in mind. The complexity of the sprites would cause lags in the game, and hurt the players experience. As a result, I had to learn to leverage design with compatibility.

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