...where hamster wizards run in a world of hazards.
If you haven't played the game already, click this button!
You're going to need four people total, so grab some friends!
The Game's Vision
Our objective of this game is for it to be a silly, fun cooperation game. This game is about four hamster wizards getting from left to right side of the map while preventing the magical potion from exploding.
Initially, we had not planned to include the potion as the core mechanic. However, as the game's focus is cooperation, we wanted something that will keep all the players together. In most coop games like Left for Dead, Killing Floor, Trine, or Transformice(Our main inspiration), experienced players will always run off ahead and leave their team members behind. At times, players may feel their contribution to the team is irrelevant.
What we ended up doing is to have the potion alternate in between colours randomly so no one knows who will need to pick it up next. This way, no one person will be handling the potion at all times, its a task that everyone needs to be responsible for!
"Its not a personal problem, its OUR problem!"
Clumsy Clumsy Animals!
One of the reasons why people love little animals so much is because they're a little bit dumb. To convey this clumsy behaviour we wanted was very tricky. We want the player to not be in full control of their character while at the same time have smooth controls.
From our playtest data, we found out that players were experiencing difficulty controlling their characters because their teammates were pushing them all over the place. Initially, we removed collision in between the players to resolve that issue, however, we found out that the gameplay experience was a lot less... hysterical.
To have everyone appear as if nobody knows what they're doing, but they still have to somehow work together to get to the end of the map was the essence we needed in order for our game to be silly.
I mean, just try not to laugh when you accidentally push your friend off into deadly spikes.
Bubble spell not included.
Magic! Hamster Magic!
Spells in this game are designed with cooperation in mind. For example, the create-a-box spell requires two hamsters to conjure! Again, we want the players to progress as a team, so we have to be careful when giving players powerful spells to play with.
That being said, the force spell can be cast anytime by a single player. This spell affects everyone but yourself. That means you can not push yourself over a gap, you'll need help from your friends to do that!
Accessibility/Particle Effects
You may have noticed each of our little Hamzards have their own distinctive colour and a shape. When we designed our characters we had also used colour as visual feedback. However, we want to make sure that people who are diagnosed with colour blindness will still be able to figure out what to do.
For each and every visual feedback that involves the four colours : red, blue, purple, and orange, we also made sure their shapes were also visible.
On a personal note, I had a blast creating these particle effects with the colours and the shapes. I think they turned out well.
Coloured platform beta version 4.0
Enough talk! Just watch this video!
