CLOWN THERAPY
Project Description
"Clown Therapy" is the second game developed with my group of friends, now under the name of RadicalGames™, which grew to 12 people for this game jam, the Global Game Jam 2024. This marked my second approach to Godot, as well as a first to handling a group of so many people for a 48h jam, which taught me a lot.
This game is a 2D Wave-Based Action which is mainly meant as a proof of concept for a combat system that could be later expanded into a roguelite game, accompanied with a good chunk of humour given the "Make Me Laugh" theme of the jam, and the optional requirement of having only voice-made sounds.
In short, the player impersonates a clown in an hospital, who's objective is to make kids laugh. This time however, he got matched with a quite an odd kid, who only laughs when people get hurt. It's up to the clown now to get through as many waves of hospital employees as possible, in order to satisfy the kid's needs.
The main design challenge I faced while building this game, was to have the mechanics of the game properly supporting both the action gameplay and narrative experience mentioned above, aiming at reaching an elegant design, ultimately resulting in designing the "fun gauge" as a core mechanic:
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The fun gauge represents how much fun the kid is having
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Fun depletes over time and fills by a fixed amount everytime anyone gets hurt (player included)
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This enforces a fast-paced aggressive combat style, where the player has to constantly get up and personal to enemies, especially thanks to the gauge being filled even when taking damage
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When fun is over a certain threshold, the player goes in frenzy mode thanks to the kid's laughs, obtaining bonuses to damage and speed
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When fun reaches zero, the kid dies from boredom
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Likewise, when HPs reach zero, the player dies, dictating another gameover
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It's up to the player to carefully balance the two gauges' values
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Generally, we're very happy with how the game turned out to be, and how responsive the combat is, especially thanks to the totally planned ( ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ ✧˖°. ) dash-attack dynamic, which I'll let you figure out on your own.
Role(s) and responsibilities:
Game Designer
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Organised our workflow using Trello, splitting the various tasks between us.
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Drafted a brief single GDD document, containing a general macro design and the detail design of the few mechanics of the game to be implemented.
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Took care of the overall design of the game on-the-go, also offering guidance to a friend who tweaked enemy waves, and taking care of the above-mentioned "fun gauge" that became the keystone of the game.
Other
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Recorded a few sounds, edited all of them to be game ready, and mixed them in engine.
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Acted as a bridge between art and code, giving guidelines and requirements to art, making sure code had every asset readily available and up to standards when needed.
