09 - Vertical Slice: Week 1

As part of my Games Design course, I engaged with a Group Project in which we were tasked with making a vertical slice of a game. A vertical slice is a polished small section of a game - usually only a level long.

The members of my team were Kaylum-Lee Birrell, Michael Roe, Julian Fraile and Pichinat Audesley.

For the first two weeks we had to plan out our game - the setting, the mechanics and especially the schedule before pitching it to our tutors to get it greenlit.

The game we decided to make is called 'Gnomercy' - a 2D Action Shooter Platformer where the main character is a Gnome who must fight hordes of squid-like aliens attacking the Mushroom Forest.

I was in charge of the Mechanics and Level Design as these aspects are the areas in which I am most interested in.

I decided that the movement and combat should be linked to provide satisfying traversal of the level. The Player canh run and jump (and crouch) but by combining these actions together, the Player can perform devestating attacks to the enemies.

So in the first week, I developed the mechanics and made a short showcase: