Vendetta is a 2D pixel art action platformer game.
It follows the story of a hitman hired by a royal family to avenge their son that got murdered by a mafia boss.
Players will be playing as the hitman and their task is to infiltrate an abandoned factory that is also the hideout of the aforementioned mafia group.
This game was made as a school assignment project.
Game Engine: Stencyl
Project duration: 3 - 4 weeks
Solo project
Play The Game Here
Or play it on itch.io
Design Process
This project is the final assignment given to me for my 1st semester of game development degree. This task involves a collaboration between 2 modules: Fundamentals of Game Tech & Fundamentals of Game Art. On the game art side, I'm tasked to create my own 2D pixel art assets such as character sprite sheets and environment tileset. Whereas on the game tech side, I will be tasked to implement my gameplay mechanics, player and enemy behaviors, and as well as level design.
During the briefing of this assignment, we were given the choice to choose between making an interactive side scroller, or an action platformer. I chose the latter because I have more experience in it and personally enjoy playing this genre more than the other.
Concepting
Starting with the overall theme of the game, I was inspired by an action platformer called Katana Zero. It's dystopian metropolis setting combined with the neo-noir color palette sparked the idea of creating a crime noir themed action platformer.
But rather than making a samurai-like character similar to Katana Zero, I wanted to add more of a western twist featuring a hitman going on a covert mission. The hitman would be dressed in a sleek and understated style, where it would portray professionalism and sophistication. Kind of like John Wick, another badass character that I love in from action genre movies.
*Images taken from Steam & Medium
Pre-production
Once I've narrowed down the theme, it came to the mechanics. Since the time given for this task is 4 weeks, I wanted to keep things simple with a 2D movement with Jump, standard shooting and unique interactions which are picking up objects and crouching. These mechanics are for the player specifically.
For the enemy behaviors, here is as short list of what I came up:
Enemy 1: a simple shooting mechanic as it's the easiest enemy.
Enemy 2: it can reflect the player's bullets, making it's own unique way of attacking.
Enemy 3: A melee enemy, has higher health points and deals more damage by charging at you. But lacks range for balancing.
Boss character: inspired by a bullet hell game, this enemy will shoot in certain patterns but cannot move.
One of the task from game art for this game was to create block out for my levels, I used Photoshop to make a simple block out for all my levels and also finding refences for my assets during this pre-production period.
Click on the images to open it in a larger view
Production
This is the stage where I've began my creation process for my art assets and also the coding process in Stencyl. During this time, I also encountered a design oversight with the crouching mechanic. I struggled to find a useful purpose for the mechanic, as the initial idea was to use it to dodge bullets. However, I misjudged the model of the character and could not implement it successfully.
With the deadline coming closer, I decided to just drop the idea replace it with a high jump charge mechanic. By pressing the S button, the character will perform the crouch animation, and releasing it will trigger a high jump.
Crouching character sprite sheet
Mechanics List:
Standard 2D movement
A & D to move left and right, W to Jump
Unique Interactions
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Player Unique Action 1: Shoot
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Simple shooting mechanic, pressing the button E will shoot a bullet, it creates an actor that moves based on the direction the player is facing.
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Player Unique Action 2: Collect
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There are items in the game such as the Med kit, Weapon Upgrade and Key Cards player can collect. By standing next to the item touching the collision box of it, player can press F to collect it.
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Player Unique Action 3: Crouch
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The player can press S to crouch down, and when the button is released, the character will perform a high jump that goes higher than the normal jump. The purpose is to allow the player to get onto much higher platforms that the normal jump cannot get to
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Art Assets & Level Design:
In order to convey the setting being in an abandoned factory, a moody and dark color palette would fit the game perfectly for a crime noir themed action platformer.
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Dull dark greys and blacks for shadows, industrial machinery
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Browns and reds to create rust and weathering, showing that the place has been abandoned for a long time
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Bright yellows and oranges to indicate typical warning signals and signs
Vendetta's environment tileset
Vendetta Props
Vendetta in game background
SFX & Music
I incorporated simple sound effects such as grunting noises and male hurt reaction sounds. Most of these sound effects I used were free and can be found on YouTube. But for for a touch of nostalgia, I used the Glock-18 and P2000 sounds from Counter-Strike for the shooting sound effects, and the item pick up sound from Counter-Strike: Source.
Music wise, I decided to use the sound tracks from Katana Zero as I just thought it fits the game pretty well, and also one sound track from Prey (2017) called “Everything Is Going to Be Ok”. I believed the synthwave/electronic soundtracks from these games really complemented the modern dystopian setting that I aimed to create.
Links to the music and sound effects I used:
Gameplay Visuals
Vendetta Level 1 Full View
Some screenshots of gameplay