My project, Fourward, is a puzzle game that I came to create because of my desire to improve my skill set in coding, level design, as well as 3D character creation and animation for games.
I was able to explore this through my research question; “Through designing a set of 3D characters with unique thematic traits, how can I utilise and implement their individual abilities to work harmoniously as part of game mechanics to provide a diverse puzzle game experience?” which helped steer me through the process of developing this project.
Fourward was an exploration into the puzzle game genre, which is one I hadn’t had much experience with in the past, and pushed me into learning new skills in game development. Throughout setting up my levels and deciding on character abilities I had to keep in mind each character and ensure they had a purpose to fulfill for being directed to certain areas, pushing the player to have to learn to switch between them and move them around as they figured out the best way to figure out the level.
The idea of incorporating multiple characters with varying abilities was a result of me being inspired by games such as Crash Team Racing, Sly Raccoon, Sonic Heroes, etc. where characters have their own strengths that give the players incentive to choose when to use specific ones. This played into the development of my characters and led to me wanting to explore characters that are visually and mechanically interesting.
This project was an amazing experience for me to work on, I learnt so much and developed my abilities in coding, 3D modelling, rigging, animating, and looked into features in game designing that I hadn’t explored much before. Fourward, as it stands, is a prototype that I am proud of having created and has provided me with skills and knowledge that can help me in my future projects.
