Process
Planning
Participating in a Game Jam is a fast-paced endeavour. As the lead for the team I was quick with evenly assigning tasks and directed with a clear and consistent vision. The game evolved from a 2D top-down shooter to a top-down action game with a fantasy aesthetic. The main pull of the game would be the swapping characters so it was important for the artists to make the different characters distinct in appearance and it was up to me and the other programmer that they felt and played distinct from one another.
Iteration
We quickly built the basic movement and attack patterns for the player. Our first priority was building a system that swapped the boss and player around everytime either the player or the boss died. In the end, we had a system where both game objects (the player and the boss) read the same list of animations and sprites and would swap accordingly. The final build had a tag system that defined what type of character the player was. This would give them access to the unique abilities of that character.
Outcome
We finished the game before the Jam's 4 day deadline. The game was complete with 4 playable characters, 1 level, 3 enemy types and an ever-changing boss.
