DRUNK DAN
Drunk Dan was an entry for the Global Game Jam 2020. It is a single-player game where the main character must fix the house appliances while holding his balance and trying to maintain his alcohol level so he does not puke or pass out.
Noticeable features implemented
Balance and falling player character mechanic
Falling camera animation
Beer drinking system and animation
Scripted voice lines based on current objective
HUD and menus programming
Submission for 2020 Global Game Jam
What i did: Designed and implemented player movement and balance mechanic, camera animations, drinking beer functionality. Programmed the HUD and menus. Contributed to the level design and player character voice lines.
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User feedback: The feedback received exceeded the team’s expectations. It won 1st place at the Jam Site. All the users were eager to replay the game as it was a very fun experience due to the game mechanics and voice lines.
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Team size: 6 member
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Project length: 2 days
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Year: 2020
Project goals
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Collaborate with a versatile team to create a fun experience
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Expand on my technical design skills to come up with interesting mechanics and implement them
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Improve my team-working and programming skills
EARLY STAGES
Design goals
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Develop a game that conveys an experience longer than 10 minutes
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Manage to polish the game as much as possible
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Make players laugh by using funny voice-lines and sound effects
The theme for the 2020 Global Game Jam was "Repair". Our core team was formed of 4 game designers, 1 3D artist and 1 graphic designer, all of us being students at the time.
We began by having a brainstorm session, throwing all game ideas and mechanics on a whiteboard. Our core design concept was that the player character must repair something, but managing to do so must represent a fun challenge. As most of us were inclined towards technical and systems design in general, we decided to make a 3D game in which the game mechanics are the main source of engagement.
Eventually, we came up with the idea of a human player character doing simple repair tasks around inside the house while overcoming the challenge of being so drunk that he constantly loses his balance. The player will have to run around the house and interact with certain objects in a very simple way while using the left and right mouse button to make the character lean in the respective direction. This is all done while having to maintain an "alcohol level" meter by grabbing beer bottles that are spawned inside the house and drinking them. The alcohol level acts as an organic timer to the game while also working together with the repair mechanic to incentivize the players to move around. The game should get progressively harder, eventually becoming impossible to maintain the timer and fix all the appliances at the same time. We have also decided to implement a high-score system that motivates the players to replay the game, in order to make it to the leaderboard.
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PROCESS PROBLEMS
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Obstacles
1. The project was slightly overscoped in terms of mechanics complexity and 3D assets
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2. The player did not know where to go around the house as we did not have any guiding system
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Solutions
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1. We had to crunch and work more than intended to finish all the game functionality, eventually deciding to drop some features on the visual side
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2. Came up with the idea to guide the player to specific areas around the house with the help of character voice lines and a visual cue present only on the object that needs to be fixed
We wanted the game to have some features and mechanics that none of the team members had any experience with, such as camera animations when falling, making the character constantly lean and scripting voice-lines based on player position in the level and current objective. Because all the features that we had to implement were crucial to the core loop and were helping the player understand what he has to do, we were unable to abort any of them. As the game's fun was also mostly based on the gameplay, we decided to work the entire night before the submission and also heavily simplify how the environment looks, leaving only some props in the level.
When we began testing halfway through the development process, we noticed that the players easily understood the concept of the game, but did not know where to go and which object needs to be fixed exactly as we did not have a map of the house or strong visual cues. As we did not want to add a minimap, because it would not fit with the game idea, we came up with the idea to use voice lines that would guide the player around the house. For example, if the current objective was to fix the stove in the kitchen, the character would say something like: "Oh man, I forgot to fix the stove!". Even after adding the voice lines, the players would still have some problems detecting the target object in the room, so we added a shader that is in contrast with the other colors and will pulsate for better visibility.
OUTCOME
Project
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Managed to implement all the intended features and submit a polished game
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Won 1st place at the local jam site
User feedback
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A lot of positive feedback was offered on the game mechanics and level of polish
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The playtesters found the voice-lines really helpful and very funny
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Most people played the game at least 3-4 times trying to beat their own score
The project made me understand that a simple but more polished experience is a lot more fun than a complex game with unfinished features. It taught me how to better manage situations under a lot of stress due to time pressure and different opinions of each member in a bigger team.