Scatterbody is a collaborative 2D Platformer project based around the idea of an
alien whose body is split apart, and then the player must control each body part
and bring them together.
Here I acted as the lead designer and project manager. My role for this project
was mostly game design, but I also learned a great deal about
working together in a team and communicating ideas to other disciplines.
I was fully in charge of all the level design. This was designed as one big ship to traverse through with locked doors between areas. Designed to give each playable body part a time to shine, each section is designed fully around the way that a particular body part plays. These generally would lead to the unlocking of a key which grants access to the section and leads body parts to the assembly room. The player starts as the head, and then after completing the respective section for the head, the player enters the surveillance room where it can control the other body parts. These are designed in a way where the player can choose which order they play them in.
As lead of the team, I was communicating the design of the game to others through informal means due to the small team size. We used Miro for the initial brainstorming phase, and once everyone had decided on our idea, I was then assigning tasks to everyone via Trello. This helped to keep track of the project's progress and ensure everyone had something to work on. There was only one programmer, whom I kept in close communication with regarding the exact nature of the mechanics I wanted.
Each of the body parts is designed to play in very different ways. The player rolls and launches as the head, can climb walls as the hand. Punch and move objects as the torso, and jump as the leg.
I was also responsible for the keys and doors system of the game, which involved some amount of backtracking to reach previously discovered locked doors, however, mostly served the purpose of an item for sections which had to be retrieved before being able to exit.