Scrapperjack

Third-Person Platformer

Summary:

Scrapperjack is a fast-paced third-person platformer that I worked on with a small team.

I was the sole designer on the team, so systems design, level design, UI and UX design, narrative, control scheme design and the game's core concept were all my areas of responsibility, in addition to being the testing and QA liaison for the team and filling in as a VFX artist.

It was a great opportunity for me to develop my skills at communicating with the other disciplines, namely the artists, sound designers and programmer. The team also only had one programmer, so I had to constrain my designs to things that would not be overly difficult to code.

Scrapperjack's gameplay revolves around the player moving through a level to reach the goal before time runs out. They have a wide suite of movement abilities to use to accomplish this goal, although more powerful moves drain the durability of the player's jetpack. The jetpack can be repaired by pickups, which adds a strategic element to the game of planning a route through the level. Each level is designed to have multiple viable routes to take, with the more difficult routes also being the fastest.

Freedom of playstyle is one of the core pillars of Scrapperjack. From level layout to control scheme, players of any skill level should be able to comfortably play the game. Work I did for this involved a lot of testing and revising of level design, ensuring that each level could be beaten even with only the most basic movement abilities. Each movement ability also needed to be carefully tested, ensuring that it feels both useful and unique enough to warrant its implementation.

I was responsible for designing the control scheme for Scrapperjack, and I wanted the freedom of playstyle engrained into the game to be present in controls options. There are multiple available control schemes, including left-handed controls and controller support, and full key remapping as well.

Reflection:

I am both very happy with and very proud of the work I accomplished on Scrapperjack. It was my first foray into creating platformer games, which was something I wasn't sure if I would be good at building a good game feel for. However, I was able to bring my skills at making different game systems and mechanics overlap and synergize in satisfying ways to the realm of movement. In particular, I am very pleased with the Final Explosion mechanic, allowing players to factor in and utilize their jetpack running out of durability.

Ultimately, while Scrapperjack wound up being a short game that I would have liked to have continued working on and creating levels for, what is currently there is one of the most polished projects I've ever worked on.