Summary

Blast Bot is a 2D platformer where the player’s only method of traversing is to rocket jump. This game is about a self-conscious robot who has been thrown into the trash. It is still somewhat functional, while it still has power and it’s system is still working it lost both its legs. Although it doesn't have legs anymore it never gave up on trying to escape. It wasn’t able to find any way to get out until one day a rocket launcher was thrown into the trash. Then the robot picks up the rocket and tries to use it to help itself escape from the lab.

Role

Length

Tool

Project Lead

System Designer

Rocket Jumping

Air Control

Enemy AI

UI Design / Enginee

Programmer

Level Design

6 Week

Unity

Team Size

Controls

Rocket Jump

Rocket jumping is the only method that allows the player to traverse around in this game. Aiming of the rocket is controlled with the mouse. The goal here is to make the explosion push to a direction that makes sense to the player. While also making it not too difficult for the player to traverse. In order to balance the two it requires some faking to the physics. To make it both reasonable and easy to control, the game will track the angle of the explosion and see if the player’s goal is to gain vertical height or horizontal distance. If the player is trying to gain vertical height it will give an extra boost on the height. Other than that the game also handles the wall jumping slightly differently. While the player is wall jumping it’s designed to make it slightly easier to gain vertical height. It also tracks the angle of the explosion, if the angle is not too steep it will add an extra boost to the height of the jump to make it feels more comfortable for the player.

Explosion Force

The rocket has two explosion forces. When the player presses the left mouse button the rocket launcher will begin to charge up. Upon releasing the mouse button the rocket will be fired out and the force of explosion will also be decided. If the player release the mouse button at any point before the charge bar is filled it will be firing the rocket with a weaker explosion force. If the player releases the mouse button after the charge bar is filled, it will fire the rocket with a stronger explosion force.

Not Fully Charged

Fully Charged

On Cooldown

These two forces both have their own uses. While the weaker charge doesn't give as much distance to the player it has a lower downtime then the stronger charge. Therefore the weaker charge is more suitable for situations where you want multiple weak explosions. While the stronger charges are more suitable when you want to cover more distance.

Air Control

While rocket jumping is the only way to traverse in the game. This air control system allows the player to make minor movements on the ground and help the player get a more precise landing. Air control is controlled by holding the A or D key on the keyboard. The strength of the air control is left unchanged if it’s used to push the player forward. If the player is using the air control to slow down, the strength will change based on the speed of the player. The faster the player is moving the stronger the break will be. This is to help the player feel incontrol while using this system.

Challenges

There are two major challenges during this project. First one being the rocket jumping. The system itself went through many versions. While all of them are trying to make it reasonable to the player and somewhat easy to control. Different methods of approach achieve similar results but provide a very different experience to the player. The major difficulty here is to find a method that works for the majority of the player. Another difficulty in making this system is getting the right information and analyzing them correctly from playtesting.