Swordcery

Custom Engine C++
Lead Designer, Programmer, Level Designer

This was my first ever game! I worked with a fantastic team of 5 to create a hack-n-slash adventure where the player would use their sword to cast spells. While the player holds down the right mouse button, time slows down and a grid appears beside them. By moving their mouse cursor through the grid in a straight line, the player could cast 9 different spells! We had originally planned for each spell to have its own unique effect, but that turned out to be out of scope. As it was my first game project, it was only fitting that I planned something that was dramatically out of scope. I learned quite a bit about the limitations of a small game team given the amount of time we had, in addition to my own.

Professor Drilling was actually based off of the professor teaching our project course that semester, Professor Schilling. The final art for the character even featured his signature mustache. He thought it was hilarious and was fully behind the character. If you explored the game world fully, it was possible to find a hidden chamber which contained the journal of Professor Drilling's underling, Bustin Chambers. The adjunct professor for our year was none other than Justin Chambers (who is now a full professor at DigiPen! Hooray!). In the journal, Bustin described the horrible conditions he was being subjected to, how Professor Drilling was a slave-driver, and that Drilling was taking credit for all of Chambers' hard work. We got the idea for the relationship between the two characters from the dynamics of our actual class. Professor Schilling did most of the lecturing, while Professor Chambers did all of the grading. The final entry of the journal detailed Bustin's plan to take down Drilling, but was also spattered with blood.

Our final assignment of the semester (not including the actual turn-in of the game) was to create promotional materials for the game, which I of course decided to take to the next level. I ended up making a few different things, including two faux amiibos. I bought two Super Smash Bros. amiibos, stripped off the original characters, and made polymer clay versions of Globby and Professor Drilling. I took some official box art and Photoshopped in the two characters, remade the boxes, sealed the custom amiibos inside, and gave them as gifts to Professors Schilling and Chambers.