System Overview

Project Abstract

This project will be a multiplayer 2D platforming game with RPG elements made in Unity in which players must work together to beat the game’s main campaign. The players can either join a private lobby or create one themselves. After joining a lobby, players can pick from a variety of different characters to play as, with each character having a distinct set of attacks that comprise their move set. Each character also has different attributes (for example, one character can have a high attack power but low defense, while a different character can have low attack power and high defense). When all players are ready to start, they must use their characters to explore the game’s procedurally-generated world and defeat various enemies along the way.

A mock-up of what the game is planned to look like is shown here:

Figure 1. Concept art of what the finished gameplay will look like The group as a whole has a “level” that starts at 1, but as the players defeat more enemies, they can increase the level, allowing the characters to improve their attributes and learn new attacks that they can add or remove from their move set. Below is an illustration to demonstrate how leveling up works:

Figure 2. Concept art demonstrating what happens when leveling up As depicted in the illustration, a new attack was learned when leveling up. These attacks can be equipped and unequipped in at specific areas of the game's world, like the one illustrated below:

Figure 3. Concept art demonstrating what equipping and dequipping attacks will look like As the group progresses through the game, they gain more levels and become stronger. Overall, the game can be described as a side-scrolling Beat 'Em Up that combines elements from platform fighters like Super Smash Bros. with RPG elements from games like Pokémon.

Conceptual Design

This game will be made with Unity, which mainly uses C# for its programming language. If needed, however, third-party plugins can be used to allow alternative languages like Python to make Unity games, though despite this, it is still likely that C# will be the language used. The game will be developed mainly for popular OS like Windows, Mac, and Linux, with no plans to make a mobile version on iOS or Android.

Background

The inspiration for this game came from the idea of taking games like Super Smash Bros. or Kirby and integrating RPG elements into it. While both games have a wide variety of characters that all have distinct move sets, those move sets are always completely static. The same character will always have the same set of moves. Meanwhile, RPGs like Pokémon or Xenoblade Chronicles allow the player to customize their characters with different attacks the more they level up. While the pace of RPGs is much slower than the pace of 2D platformers, there are games like Super Paper Mario that successfully integrate the mechanics of RPGs in 2D Platformers in a seamless fashion. This game aims to be a unique blend of these two wildly different genres of games that are very popular themselves but are seldom combined.