Zonghao Wu
Gameplay & Level Designer
About the game
Platformer
Dynamic Level
Puzzle-solving
Eightbot is a 3D platformer where the player plays as a robot, exploring a deserted, intricate space station filled with monsters and hazards and trying to find the way out.
Design & Development process
Gameplay
This project was made for an assignment that we were tasked to make a 3D platformer in Unity. This is also the first game I made with Unity and C#. Due to my lack of platformer experience back then, I bought and played through Astro Bot to gain inspiration and reference from it.
I was inspired by the dynamic, diverse, and rhythmic levels made of various traps and mechanics in Astro Bot, and decided to build a similar gameplay experience in my game.
(my main inspiration)
I started with developing the 3C. Since I made the player character in Astro Bot to be clumsy in movement, I wanted the player character in my game to be more agile and flexible, so I decided to implement double jump and dash ability for the player character. With this level of flexibility, I can also make the level more challenging.
(player character able to move around platforms of different height easily)
(player controller codes)
After I polished the player character controls to be smooth and responsive enough, I started to make the prefabs needed for building the level later. Inspired by the dynamic platforms in Mario Odyssey and Astro Bot, the first prefab I made is a platform that would flip itself 180 degrees every 2 seconds. This prefab was later further iterated into one side with spikes that would damage the player or one side with loots. Players need to learn the pattern and find the right window to jump on the right side.
(prefab of rotating platforms with spikes on one side, made with timeline animation and simple state machnie)
After I made enough prefabs and mechanics to formulate the level, I started to work on the enemies. I made two types of enemies in the game: Skeleton and Slime. Skeleton is a typical melee-type enemy, and the player can kill it by stepping on its head. The Slime is a special enemy that can't be killed by stepping and can damage the player on contact, and the player needs to utilize the environmental hazards in the surrounding to defeat it.
(Skeleton enemy)
(Slime enemy, the player uses saw trap to destroy it)
(Enemy controller code)