Hotshot Playtime / Dragon Slayers / The Next Train Arrives In 2 Minutes

Hotshot Playtime is a simple yet addictive fast-paced competitive party game where up to 4 players will go head-to-head against each other by surviving the mayhem of endless throwing and dodging of things that comes in their way!

In Hotshot Playtime, quick reflexes and sharp instincts are the keys to victory. Players not only rely on their agility but can also cast unique abilities to gain an edge over other players.

Face-off with your friends in this simple yet heart-pounding battle royale to determine who is the ultimate winner!

The stakes? Ultimate bragging rights!

Pick up whatever things you can find around you and throw it at your opponent!

(Psst, you can pick and throw your opponents too)

Not agile with playing games? Fret not!

Anybody can just pick up the controller and get into the action in no time with minimal time needed to learn the game.

Though simple and easy to play, Hotshot Playtime has deep mechanics that encourages trick shots and other strategic planning to maximise damage output done to opponent players.

Hotshot Playtime was developed by me as part of the Game Systems module for a span of 6 weeks.

At the point when I started making this game, I've only been introduced to programming for 6 months. Producing a multiplayer game is something I'm very new to (or any other game, since I would consider myself to be still relatively new to programming), I wanted to put in everything I've learnt so far into this project.

I'm not very confident if I have time to make very polished art/3D assets, so I've opted to make all my assets as simple as possible. The theme I'm going for for this game is toys. So many of the assets you see in this game are based off my childhood objects/toys. At the end of the day, I'm current attending a programming course, so I should focus more on my codes, rather than spending too much time on the assets (though I still try to make my artwork as good as I could).

Being a fan of party games, I've always enjoyed my time with my friends playing chaotic games like TowerFall Ascension. So, I've decided to develop a game based around Unity's physics engine and what better reference than looking at a childhood game of mine: Poy Poy for PS1. I've toyed around the idea with throwing objects around and ended up mixing a few elements from Poy Poy and Bomberman series.

Also, being a huge fan of Overwatch, I've took several references from the game and developed a few abilities based around some of the characters in the game. Below are some of the examples:

The Pico Hammer ability: Reinhardt's Earth Shatter.

Similar to Overwatch Reinhardt's Ultimate Ability, Earth Shatter, this Pico Hammer ability slams the toy hammer onto the ground and stuns any players caught in the impact.

Bubbly ability: Zarya's Particle Barrier

Similar to Overwatch Zarya's Particle Barrier ability, Bubble ability will nullify any incoming damages (up to a certain amount) and convert the damage into healing for the player. The Bubble only last for 2 seconds, so timing is key to this ability!

With some extra time left for the project, I wanted to try something that could push the limit of what I'm capable of doing based on what I've learnt.

I wanted to try making an ultimate ability.

Thus, I've played around with camera rendering layers and some simple animations. This is what I've came up with:

I call this "Ultimate: Picocalypse". Haha.

It's nothing fancy, really. It's just a huge sphere with a hammer in the background.

All in all, I'm really satisfied with what I did so far. However, I know there are still room for improvements. For example, based on the feedback from my peers, I could increase the pace of the game so the matches wouldn't last for more than 4 rounds. Another way to improve is to add more map variety, like some of the maps will have environmental damage, stages where the map will tilt, etc.

Please visit my itch.io page at https://magesinstitute.itch.io/hotshot-playtime if you wish to give this game a try!

Below are 2 other projects that I've developed! All 3 projects showcased here are developed within the span of 6 weeks as part of my school's project.

Set out on an adventure and hunt down the Dragon of Simi... or so the characters in the game thought they were going to do, until something peculiar happened to one of the characters.

Now, you will be helping out Da Ming by switching between yours and Da Ming's perspective to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles in hopes of finding his partner, Ding Ding.

The Adventure Of Dragon Slayers ...Or So The Characters In The Game Thought To Be Because Something Peculiar Happened?! is a comedy 3D platformer (or is it?) where you will be playing as Da Ming through various obstacles and puzzle solving to find his lost partner, Ding Ding.

One day, Da Ming and Ding Ding were summoned by the village chief where they were told to slain Dragon of Simi, which appeared in the forest near their village.

While travelling in the forest, Da Ming realised Ding Ding went missing, which was not according to what was written for the game script. Perplexed yet calm, the professional game actor Da Ming thought Ding Ding only went to the toilet but forgot to inform the crew.

Suddenly, Da Ming received a text message from Ding Ding that he was captured by a strange person. Now sensing something was amiss, Da Ming acquired assistance from you as a player, and quickly set off to search for Ding Ding.

- Switch between perspectives to overcome obstacles which otherwise wouldn't be possible if you were to view it from Da Ming's perspective.

- With your help, assist Da Ming in simplifying the complexity of the platforming aspect, so that he can find his lost partner (without sacrificing his life)!

- All characters in the games are only actors earning the minimum wages (that includes the monsters as well). However, they were controlled by the game bug, and you'll have to defeat them so that you will be able to reach the goal!

What started with the idea of having a forced-perspective game is when we were told that this project has to be a 3D platformer, I secretly wanted to do a 2D platformer instead. So, an idea came into my mind: "Why not have both?", and thus, The Adventure of Dragon Slayers... were born.

Because then, this is only the second project for the school, so I wasn't very confident with my coding skills. To check if my idea was feasible, I quickly prototyped the idea using very simple shapes and tried out the force-perspective mechanics. The first 2 images above are the beginning of the idea where I tried playing with using only silhouettes. It looked nice, but I felt that this game idea wouldn't fit the art style well. So, I opted to use a cel-shaded effect instead.

The logic behind the force-perspective effect isn't that complicated. Basically, I just stretched the collider of the platforms whenever the player switch to 2D mode, so the character will collide with it when the player jumps. I've also implemented some quality-of-life changes where if the player switches back to 3D mode while standing on a platform, the character will automatically teleport to the center of the platform. This way, the character will not fall unintentionally when the player switches back to 3D while standing on a platform which they weren't originally at.

Please visit my itch.io page at https://magesinstitute.itch.io/adventure-of-dragon-slayers if you wish to give this game a try!

A boy was caught in an explosion in a station, only to find out that he's trapped in a time loop. Solve the mysteries surrounding this explosion in order to help the boy escape the time loop!

Using the power of words, navigate through different sections of the train station to discover objects of interest, and use it to conduct interviews with various subjects to acquire clues on the appearance and whereabout of the culprit.

The Next Train Arrives In 2 Minutes is a text-based game where basic interactions are done by using text inputs. Mix and match various keywords to gather clues and take down the culprit behind the explosion incident!

This is my first ever game developed at the start of my coding journey with MAGES Institute.

Since it's been very long (about 5 years?) since I've practiced my drawings, I wanted to take this opportunity to brush up and recap on some of my drawing skills.

All the background, character, as well as UI assets are hand drawn using iPad OS Procreate.

Being a huge fan of MapleStory since young, I've decided to take inspiration from MapleStory, as well as merging the sketchy aesthetics of children book illustrations to come up with the art style for this game.

I've started the project by first doing a mock-up on how the final game will look like, so I could plan the elements needed in the game, as well as having a rough estimation on what assets are needed.

Above image is the mock-up, versus the final look.

As you can see, certain aspect from the original concept was kept, mainly how the main character looks like, the UI elements, and how the TV screen is used to let players know how much time is left.

It was honestly quite interesting to have to swap between my coding side of brain and the artistic side of my brain while doing this project. I think I'm very lucky to be able to handle both side of the things because I get to take a break in between coding and focus on the art, at the same time I'm able to take a break from the art and do the coding for the things I've drawn.

Within a span of 2 weeks, I was able to finish all the background assets because all the artwork was done in modular format. I've drawn the background artwork as individual props and then piece them together in Photoshop, and that's why I was able to produce 5 maps within such a short period of time.

The assets were then pieced together in Photoshop, then light effects were added to make the lighting affect the background, which made the entire artwork more cohesive.

Character art was a bit of a challenge because of the time I had left before the next presentation milestone. It's also a challenge to think of many character designs so all the NPCs would look normal like a commuter we see in the train station everyday.

Anyway, when I'm done with the small version of the NPCs, I then move on to the artwork of how the NPCs would look like when having conversation. I kinda hid some reference to the culture in Singapore. For example, the Gym Bro NPC is wearing the OCS army singlet.

Though everything was quite chaotic during the period of developing this project, I'm glad I've decided to take this route of producing my own assets. Not only I get to practice on my drawing skills, I think I've also learnt a lot during this time.

Please give this game a try at https://magesinstitute.itch.io/the-next-train-arrives-in-2-minutes!

Also, visit my social media page to see any new updates on my coding journey!