Darwin Dash - CSS Game Jam 2020

The game can be accessed here.

Summary: This project was for the 2020 CSS 24 Hour Game Jam. I joined a team of developers, a musician, and an animator to create Darwin Dash: a 2D platformer that put a rhythm-based twist to the 'gravity guy' format. With a custom soundtrack that gradually speeds up, pseudo-random platforms are generated to match the BPM of the soundtrack played. The aim of the game: use the platforms to evolve and reach the final era.

My Contributions: My main contributions were in the creation of the pixel background, platform generation logic, and infinite background animations.

• Pixel Background: 

Adopting a pixel art style, I used Piskel, an open-source sprite editor, to create background art for the game. These spanned 3 eras: prehistoric, the middle-ages, and a 'Cyberpunk-esc' future.

• Platform Generation: 

Using C# scripting, we built a platform generator that pseudo-randomly generated platforms to keep players afloat in the game. As a rhythm-based game, these platforms were generated in time with the BPM of the track. I created a script to read in JSON files that detailed the BPM of certain stages in the track and generate the platforms in sync with the music. The platforms then spawned at pseudo-random 'y' locations for the user to land on.

• Animation Programming: 

Collaborating with an animation specialist, I was able to develop my own practices, learning key aspects of 2D animation development like sprite design.

I also wrote the script that handled the infinite scrolling of the backgrounds. This included the logic behind the speed of the background animation that increased as the BPM of the game increased.

With the aim of the game being to evolve and reach the final era, I also created transition animations to signify moving onto the new stages using traditional 'key-frame' techniques in the Unity Engine.