Created by Chris Beagle and Kenneth Zuerner.
One-semester, freshman-year game project. Made in Flash.
My contributions to the project included:
- Design of the core gameplay and creation of the concept prototype.
- Design of all aspects of the player, the bosses, the menus, and the aesthetic.
- Implementation of all aspects of the player, the bosses, the menus, and the aesthetic.
Below is the trailer I made for Tessen.
One-semester, freshman-year game project. Made in Flash.
My contributions to the project included:
- Design of the core gameplay and creation of the concept prototype.
- Design of all aspects of the player, the bosses, the menus, and the aesthetic.
- Implementation of all aspects of the player, the bosses, the menus, and the aesthetic.
Below is the trailer I made for Tessen.
Tessen was inspired by the slayer class from TERA, which boasts exceptionally fluid combat - a quality that I attribute to the fact that their abilities tend to include both action and inherent movement. Playing a slayer, despite the violent nature of the game, always felt a bit like dancing to me - that's what I wanted to capture with Tessen.
In Tessen, movement and attacks are completely bound to each other; you cannot move without attacking, nor can you attack without moving. Although the controls are deterministic, the game is designed to be played by feel, all actions being based on movement, but situational. Pressing in a certain direction will always result in moving in that direction, but depending on which way the character is facing to begin with, the attack, and even the nature and timing of the movement itself, will be different. New players can just move in the general direction they want to go and watch their character dance around, not needing to know exactly what will happen; experienced players can dance to a rhythm of their own choosing, creating the steps as they go.
The first boss is extremely slow, but has a large projectile that it swings around itself, lashing out in wider arcs in a predictable manner. The player is forced to move around the screen to avoid getting cornered, and due to how slow the boss is, this ensures that it ends up roughly in the middle of the screen. The boss' projectile sweeps broadly enough that when the boss is relatively centered in the field, the player cannot simply keep their distance to stay safe - this forces the player to weave toward the boss, letting the projectile pass behind them, then back away, letting it next swipe in front of them. Failing this maneuver often results in the player getting hit twice back to back, and dying, but once the player gets it down, it's perhaps one of the most beautiful dance steps in the game, despite its simplicity. Forcing the player to get close to the boss also ensures that the player's whirlwind will collide with the boss' body, causing it to rapidly lose power due to the boss's mass, providing a quick lesson on how the whirlwind works.
The second boss is very simple: it spawns large adds which spawn medium adds which spawn small adds. If the player plays normally, they will get overwhelmed, and eventually the boss will do a nova, killing a large number of the adds and severely damaging the player. This is meant as a hint to the player, to nudge them into using their own nova to deal with the adds. Since this boss is practically unbeatable without using novas, the player will assuredly learn to appreciate the power of this special ability, and will likewise come to realize that in some situations they can essentially use it for free since, although it requires energy, energy is gained from kills - kill enough enemies with a nova, and you have as much energy, if not more, than you started with. This boss' primary function is to serve as a tutorial encounter to teach the player the power and effective use of their nova.
The third boss is relatively simple, and quite lenient as well. It begins as a trio that encircles the player, orbiting, and taking turns firing at the player, two at a time, forcing the player to move at a tangent to avoid damage. The trio fall one at a time, but the fewer there are left, the closer and quicker they orbit, requiring the player to change their pace as well to keep step, until the very last one, which circles so quickly that, to survive, the player finds themselves essentially dancing in circles with it. This encounter is significantly easier if the player uses their ability to control the wind to their advantage, and is intended to incentivize players to do so.
The fourth boss not only doesn't teach the player anything, but actually implies something that isn't the case. Since this boss has a long tail that resembles the player's ribbons, and this tail damages the player, but the player's ribbons don't damage enemies, the fourth boss is somewhat deceptive in terms of player learning. At one point in the development of Tessen, the player's ribbons did damage enemies, however it playtested poorly, and was changed accordingly; that mechanic, however, was tested as a result of this boss - the boss was not a reflection of it. Potential for confusion aside, however, it was this boss that really seemed to impress players, being not only visually interesting, but also behaving unlike anything else in the game. This boss features what is undoubtedly the most elegant AI I've ever written, as it appears complex and intelligent, but is, in truth, extremely simple, and a matter of illusion.
The fifth boss is an enemy version of the player - the exact same attacks, movement, special abilities, and visuals. The only difference is that the player regenerates health by hitting the boss while the boss, though having much more health to start with, has no way of regenerating it. Aside from this difference, the boss could easily be mistaken for another player character, controlled by another player, behaving both naturally and intelligently. In fact, the boss is perhaps a bit too much like another actual player - specifically, too much like another good player. Although this is the final boss, and meant to be difficult, truly challenging the player's ability, it had a difficulty spike severe enough to warrant concern, and could have used more playtesting and tuning. That said, this boss' AI is very likely the second best I've ever done - not elegant and simple, like the fourth boss, but robust, and effective nonetheless.
Originally, Tessen had a rather intrusive HUD which displayed the player's health, the amount of energy they had, the power of their whirlwind, and the global wind speed. My professor, Jen Sward, challenged and encouraged me to find ways to make all this information diegetic - to find a way to get rid of the HUD entirely. Ultimately, I did; I made the player's health indicated by their transparency, their energy measured by the length of their ribbons, and the power of their whirlwind and the global wind speed reflected in their respective particle systems. All the information was still available to the player, and although some precision was lost, visibility was gained, as was an artistic flair that the game would have never achieved were it not for the minimalistic design, sans-HUD.
Last, but not least: the menus. It may seem strange to mention menus not only in my contributions, but even in the trailer, but it's for a reason, that reason being that a considerable amount of time, thought, and effort went into them. Players navigate the menus using the arrow keys - the same keys that control the wind in-game - and particles start moving with the wind as the player presses the appropriate keys, even in the menus. In similar fashion, the controls menu is fully interactive, allowing the player to actually try out their various abilities while in the menu, and even spawn enemies to test their abilities on. The color customization menu is also completely interactive, allowing players to not only change the hue, saturation, and brightness of each individual element of their character, but to control their character within the menu as well, allowing them to see their selections in action.
In Tessen, movement and attacks are completely bound to each other; you cannot move without attacking, nor can you attack without moving. Although the controls are deterministic, the game is designed to be played by feel, all actions being based on movement, but situational. Pressing in a certain direction will always result in moving in that direction, but depending on which way the character is facing to begin with, the attack, and even the nature and timing of the movement itself, will be different. New players can just move in the general direction they want to go and watch their character dance around, not needing to know exactly what will happen; experienced players can dance to a rhythm of their own choosing, creating the steps as they go.
The first boss is extremely slow, but has a large projectile that it swings around itself, lashing out in wider arcs in a predictable manner. The player is forced to move around the screen to avoid getting cornered, and due to how slow the boss is, this ensures that it ends up roughly in the middle of the screen. The boss' projectile sweeps broadly enough that when the boss is relatively centered in the field, the player cannot simply keep their distance to stay safe - this forces the player to weave toward the boss, letting the projectile pass behind them, then back away, letting it next swipe in front of them. Failing this maneuver often results in the player getting hit twice back to back, and dying, but once the player gets it down, it's perhaps one of the most beautiful dance steps in the game, despite its simplicity. Forcing the player to get close to the boss also ensures that the player's whirlwind will collide with the boss' body, causing it to rapidly lose power due to the boss's mass, providing a quick lesson on how the whirlwind works.
The second boss is very simple: it spawns large adds which spawn medium adds which spawn small adds. If the player plays normally, they will get overwhelmed, and eventually the boss will do a nova, killing a large number of the adds and severely damaging the player. This is meant as a hint to the player, to nudge them into using their own nova to deal with the adds. Since this boss is practically unbeatable without using novas, the player will assuredly learn to appreciate the power of this special ability, and will likewise come to realize that in some situations they can essentially use it for free since, although it requires energy, energy is gained from kills - kill enough enemies with a nova, and you have as much energy, if not more, than you started with. This boss' primary function is to serve as a tutorial encounter to teach the player the power and effective use of their nova.
The third boss is relatively simple, and quite lenient as well. It begins as a trio that encircles the player, orbiting, and taking turns firing at the player, two at a time, forcing the player to move at a tangent to avoid damage. The trio fall one at a time, but the fewer there are left, the closer and quicker they orbit, requiring the player to change their pace as well to keep step, until the very last one, which circles so quickly that, to survive, the player finds themselves essentially dancing in circles with it. This encounter is significantly easier if the player uses their ability to control the wind to their advantage, and is intended to incentivize players to do so.
The fourth boss not only doesn't teach the player anything, but actually implies something that isn't the case. Since this boss has a long tail that resembles the player's ribbons, and this tail damages the player, but the player's ribbons don't damage enemies, the fourth boss is somewhat deceptive in terms of player learning. At one point in the development of Tessen, the player's ribbons did damage enemies, however it playtested poorly, and was changed accordingly; that mechanic, however, was tested as a result of this boss - the boss was not a reflection of it. Potential for confusion aside, however, it was this boss that really seemed to impress players, being not only visually interesting, but also behaving unlike anything else in the game. This boss features what is undoubtedly the most elegant AI I've ever written, as it appears complex and intelligent, but is, in truth, extremely simple, and a matter of illusion.
The fifth boss is an enemy version of the player - the exact same attacks, movement, special abilities, and visuals. The only difference is that the player regenerates health by hitting the boss while the boss, though having much more health to start with, has no way of regenerating it. Aside from this difference, the boss could easily be mistaken for another player character, controlled by another player, behaving both naturally and intelligently. In fact, the boss is perhaps a bit too much like another actual player - specifically, too much like another good player. Although this is the final boss, and meant to be difficult, truly challenging the player's ability, it had a difficulty spike severe enough to warrant concern, and could have used more playtesting and tuning. That said, this boss' AI is very likely the second best I've ever done - not elegant and simple, like the fourth boss, but robust, and effective nonetheless.
Originally, Tessen had a rather intrusive HUD which displayed the player's health, the amount of energy they had, the power of their whirlwind, and the global wind speed. My professor, Jen Sward, challenged and encouraged me to find ways to make all this information diegetic - to find a way to get rid of the HUD entirely. Ultimately, I did; I made the player's health indicated by their transparency, their energy measured by the length of their ribbons, and the power of their whirlwind and the global wind speed reflected in their respective particle systems. All the information was still available to the player, and although some precision was lost, visibility was gained, as was an artistic flair that the game would have never achieved were it not for the minimalistic design, sans-HUD.
Last, but not least: the menus. It may seem strange to mention menus not only in my contributions, but even in the trailer, but it's for a reason, that reason being that a considerable amount of time, thought, and effort went into them. Players navigate the menus using the arrow keys - the same keys that control the wind in-game - and particles start moving with the wind as the player presses the appropriate keys, even in the menus. In similar fashion, the controls menu is fully interactive, allowing the player to actually try out their various abilities while in the menu, and even spawn enemies to test their abilities on. The color customization menu is also completely interactive, allowing players to not only change the hue, saturation, and brightness of each individual element of their character, but to control their character within the menu as well, allowing them to see their selections in action.