MAJOR PROJECT 1
MAJOR PROJECT 1
1.INSTRUCTIONS
TThis week, we finalized the game theme. Drawing inspiration from a childhood favorite, "Double Edge Warrior," we were deeply moved by its tragic narrative where two brothers turn on each other after enduring hardships to rescue a princess. We plan to adapt and elevate this storyline, setting our 2D adventure game in an Ancient Greek world. We are currently in the planning phase for the assets, outlining one main character, three enemy types, two bosses, and two NPCs.
Week 2: Documentation & Feedback
We presented the complete Game Design Document (GDD) to Ms. Noranis, along with reference maps and character designs. She approved our general direction and provided valuable feedback, specifically suggesting we study "Hollow Knight" as a benchmark for high-quality 2D action-adventure mechanics.
Week 3: Character Design, Story & Controls (Current)
Characters & Enemies: We finalized the GDD details. The protagonist is a Spartan warrior wielding an axe. Based on Greek mythology, we designed four levels featuring distinct enemies: werewolves, two-headed dogs (Orthrus), and skeletons. The major bosses include a Cyclops and King Minos.
Narrative Theme: The story serves as a satire of modern societal structures. The King sacrifices his soldiers to save his daughter but betrays the surviving hero by breaking his promise of marriage. This allegory highlights the difficulty of overcoming class barriers and exposes the darker realities of social hierarchy.
Controls: We have implemented the initial control scheme:
Movement: W, A, S, D
Melee Attack: J
Skills: K
"This week, I focused on translating the static assets into a playable state. I implemented the character movement logic (using Unity's Rigidbody 2D) to ensure the controls (WASD) felt responsive. I also set up the Animation Controller (Animator) to synchronize the sprite animations with player actions, such as running, jumping, and the attack animation (key 'J'). We encountered some collision issues with the ground, which I resolved by adjusting the physics layers."
Week 5: Enemy AI & Combat System
"I started working on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the standard enemies: the Werewolf and the Skeletons. I wrote scripts to define their behaviors, including patrolling, detecting the player within a certain range, and chasing. Additionally, I refined the combat system by implementing 'Hitboxes' for the Spartan warrior's axe. Now, when the player presses 'K' to use a skill, it correctly triggers damage calculations and plays the corresponding sound effects."
Week 6: Level Design & Environmental Hazards
"We moved on to building the actual game levels. Using the Tilemap system, I constructed the terrain for the first two levels based on our GDD sketches. To increase the gameplay depth, I coded environmental hazards (such as spikes and falling traps) that fit the Ancient Greek theme. I also implemented the checkpoint system, ensuring that if the player dies, they respawn at the nearest safe location rather than the start of the game."
Week 7: Boss AI Architecture & Dialogue System
"This week, as the art team finalized the design for King Minos and the NPC dialog boxes, my focus shifted to implementing the core interaction logic. I developed a flexible Dialogue System that can pause the game state and display narrative text when the player interacts with NPCs.
Simultaneously, I began coding the Boss State Machine for King Minos. I set up the foundation for his attack phases and hit reactions, ensuring the code is modular enough to handle different attack patterns later. This groundwork is crucial for bridging the visual assets with actual gameplay mechanics."
Week 9: UI Functionality & Time Mechanic Implementation
"Following the feedback on our UI design, I spent this week programming the backend functionality for the new interface elements. I implemented the SceneManager logic for the Pause, Settings, and Sound control buttons, ensuring they correctly interrupt and resume the game loop.
A key technical challenge this week was the Time-Switching UI. I wrote a countdown timer script that manages the game's time limit mechanism. This script not only updates the visual timer on the HUD but also triggers specific game states when the time runs out, adding a layer of urgency to the gameplay."
Week 10: The Game Loop: Victory & Defeat States
"With the character assets reaching a satisfactory level, I focused on closing the 'Game Loop'. I implemented the logic for the Death Screen and Game Over states. Now, when the player's health reaches zero, the game correctly halts input, plays the death animation, and displays the UI overlay.
I also coded the functionality for the 'Restart' and 'Return to Main Menu' buttons. This involved ensuring that scene reloading resets all game data (such as enemy positions and player health) correctly, providing a seamless experience for the player to retry levels."
Week 11: Enemy AI Overhaul: The Mage Integration
"We made a significant design decision to replace the 'Two-headed Dog' with a 'Mage' enemy to introduce long-range combat. I wrote a new MageController script to handle this behavior.
The core of this script involves a Projectile Instantiation System. The Mage detects the player within a specific range and instantiates a fireball prefab that travels towards the player's position. I also refined the One-eyed Giant's AI, adjusting its collider boxes to ensure its smash attacks feel impactful and fair."
Week 12: Animation State Machines & Map Extensions
"This week was all about bringing the static drawings to life. I integrated the full animation sets for the Main Character using Unity's Animator Controller. I set up complex transitions using parameters like isWalking (Bool), Attack (Trigger), and Die (Trigger) to ensure the character moves fluidly between states.
Additionally, as the maps were extended with waterfalls and caves, I updated the Tilemap colliders and fixed several bugs where the player could get stuck in the new geometry. The game is now visually consistent and plays much smoother."
Week 13: Crisis Management & System Recovery
"This was the most challenging week of the project. We experienced a critical system crash that resulted in the loss of the latest Level 3 project files. I had to perform an emergency code reconstruction.
I worked overtime to rewrite the Level 3 interaction logic from scratch. During this reconstruction, I also fixed a persistent physics bug where the Spartan Boss was too easily knocked back by the player. I solved this by significantly increasing the Rigidbody2D Mass (to 10,000) and Linear Drag, making the boss feel heavy and imposing. I also implemented invisible 'Air Walls' at the map boundaries to prevent physics glitches. The project is now fully restored and more stable than before."
Week 14: Final Boss Mechanics & The "Giant Mode"
"For the final week, I focused on the Level 4 Arena and the Final Boss script. I implemented a unique 'Giant Mode' mechanic where the player can press 'I' to increase their scale and stats. This required a complex fix for the Camera Follow script to dynamically switch targets between the normal player and the giant form.
I also polished the narrative experience by coding an Automated Cutscene System. This system freezes the Boss logic during the intro dialogue and triggers a victory sequence that automatically returns the player to the Homepage after the ending dialogue, creating a cinematic conclusion to our game."
feedback
week1
Ms. Noranis thought the game was great and asked us to create a game GDD and look for some references, so as to ensure that the preparatory work for the initial stage was well done.
week2
This week, we presented the complete GDD to Ms. Noranis and identified some maps and characters for reference. Ms. Noranis approved some of it and showed us some excellent examples from the market, enabling us to learn more about Hollow Knight.
week3
Ms. Noranis thought the drawing was excellent. She hopes that the character designs in the future can all maintain this style. The quality of a game is most directly reflected in its art style. This is what can most attract players. You must create something different from other games.
week4
Ms. Noranis examined it and thought the cover design was good. However, to give a more comprehensive evaluation, she needed to incorporate the UI elements into it.
week5
Ms. Noranis thinks the map is okay, but there are too many black areas for the obstructive parts below. It would be better to delete some. Also, it shouldn't just be a single map being repeatedly copied; there needs to be more variety.
week6
This week, after Ms. Noranis viewed the two monsters I drew, she thought the styles were not consistent. The head of the skeleton was too small, while the head of the warrior was too large. One looked like a comic book style and the other like a cartoon style. I need to adjust the size of the heads of the two characters. I agree to the style.
week7
Ms. Noranis' feedback was that there were no major issues with the entire map, but it needed more diversity. Repetition should not be the only approach. Additionally, she felt that the art styles of Spartan warriors and the boss, King Minos, were somewhat inconsistent.
The part of the dialog box needs to be modified. The character's portrait and the background of the dialog box are indistinguishable.
week8
no have
week9
After the mid-term presentation last time, our game revealed many issues. Ms. NORANIS felt that the UI and the game were not unified, and the style was inconsistent. The map background and roads were not aligned either, and the background should take up a larger proportion in the game screen rather than having the obstructive elements taking up more space. Add the time switching UI
week10
Ms. Noranis believes that the game characters are already satisfactory. She hopes that we can later convert the actions into animations and show them to her, as this would be more intuitive. She also wants to see more works related to UI.
week11
Ms. Noranis believes that the game characters are already satisfactory. She hopes that we can later convert the actions into animations and show them to her, as this would be more intuitive. She also wants to see more works related to UI.
Mr. RAZIF believes that the game artist has already achieved perfection. At present, being able to create such a work is already quite good. However, we need to consider whether the existence of the two-headed dog is reasonable, because it is mechanical in style and can be replaced.
week12
Ms. Noranis believes that the gameplay of our game might not be particularly unique. Some skills or other gameplay elements could be added. Moreover, the cover and logo do not match. The UI of the cover and the logo design are rather dull and need to be improved.
week13
here was no feedback during this week's Christmas holiday.
week14
This week was the last week. We attended Ms. NORANIS's face-to-face consultation class and received feedback on 11 in-depth issues. We also asked about our planning for Major Project 2. The questions were as follows:
REFLECTION
Throughout this semester, working on "Spartan: Oath of the Throne" has been a transformative learning experience that extended far beyond technical coding skills. While my primary role was programming, I learned that successful game development is fundamentally about interdisciplinary collaboration and resilience. Working closely with Fang Yaoyue (Art) and Zhang Hanyuan (UI) taught me how to bridge the gap between creative vision and technical implementation; I realized that a programmer must not just write code, but also communicate constraints and possibilities effectively to ensure the team's artistic ideas are realizable. The most significant lesson came during Week 13, when we faced a critical data loss incident. This crisis taught me the vital importance of risk management and professional discipline regarding version control. Instead of panicking, I learned to maintain composure under pressure, turning a disastrous situation into an opportunity to rebuild and optimize the game's core logic, which significantly improved my problem-solving mindset. Furthermore, implementing mechanics like the "Giant Mode" and the cinematic endings helped me shift my perspective from a developer's logic to a player-centric experience, understanding that good code is meaningless unless it serves the narrative and gameplay enjoyment. This semester has evolved me from a simple coder into a more holistic game developer, ready to tackle the complexities of Major Project II with better planning and communication skills.
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