WARP'SHOT

PROTOTYPE

ABOUT THE GAME

Warp'Shot is an exploration platformer that takes place in a futuristic world where the player embodies a fugitive who has to escape by transfering in a server. They are helped by W.A.R.P, a slingshot, escaping by teleporting and discover new servers.

The player uses their slingshot to teleport themselves ignoring the gravity.

Warp'Shot is a reboot of an old VR project, WarpShot, that is also a platformer game in a futuristic universe but avoiding some design mistakes we made in the first one. It is presented as a prototype for an admission to be a 6 months project development in our last year of game design studies.

It was made in 2 weeks with the help of Erwann Pottier, Samuel Do Nascimento Gonçalves and Rémi Dumas.

CONTEXT & INTENTIONS

After some feedbacks on some blocking prototypes, I managed to see what would be the constraint in term of construction for the level. After few days, I decided to restart completely on a new base with all the experience acquired. The presented map was made in a week and is a good showcase of what could be an advanced level in the midgame.

For the global intentions, we want to maintain a feeling of being turned upside down. For this, the main inspiration I have is Escher (on the right) with his works on the perspectives that makes lose the notion of up and down.

In this map, my intention was also to allow the player to explore, using different path and make them feel disoriented, forcing them to look everywhere and observe the environment.

MULTIPLE PATH

From the beginning, the players can see the final objective in front of them. They have multiple ways to reach it, each of them proposing a different type of challenge using 2 parameters :

The environment scale and elements (exploration factor);
The number of enemies;

Pathing and Challenges of the level

Depending on the way the players choose to go, it is more or less longer to reach the end.

The longest paths have less enemies than the shortest one and allow a better arrival in the areas where there are enemies, making it safer paths. They are also presented with blue and bright colors, that shows players that it is safer.

The shortest paths have more enemies and need better reflexes to players to overcome them. They are presented with red and dark colors, that show players that it is dangerous.

TESTS & MODIFICATIONS

After more advanced tests and feedbacks from testers, some problems have surfaced:

Difficulties to understand exactly where is the floor;
The path of the Control Room is too short to reach the end of the level;
The challenges linked to the progression in the level are unbalanced.

Solutions to these problems:

Add lots of environmental elements that clarifies the position of the floor, that are more clear for the comprehension of our universe and global comprehension. (ex: tools, scraps, liquid, plinth on the walls, etc).

The path of the Control Room has been cuted. Replace the entrance by a glass to let the player see a possibility to pass by another way.

Therefore, challenges has been changed and rebalanced: