super stickball
Super Stickball is a third-person arcade pinball game that was in development for mobile devices.
This was a small team project created under my brand company, Epic Tortoise Studios.
I was working as a producer, game Designer, and Level Designer for this project.
My responsibilities have included...
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Game Mechanics
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Level Design
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Saving/Loading Systems
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User Interface Systems
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Shop Systems
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Enemy AI System
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Technical Design
Flipper/Bat Design!
The problem: There was an issue with the flipper/bat to where it would create a new starting hinge location when the player would press the "switch flipper" button with the flipper engaged in the up position. The player swinging animation would also be slightly off when the flipper/bat is pressed.
My solution: Work with other designers to get alternate ideas on how to create a flipper system that would work cohesively with the animation. We decided to disguise the flipper as an invisible collider to prevent any odd occurring collision rotations when attached to the players hand.
Shop System!
The problem: There was a rough idea for an item system to purchase new bats and trails for the balls, players should collect currency that they can spend on these items in the shop menu.
My solution: Create a system, from saving currency count to the UI for purchasing and equipping the items. It's user friendly and functional, designed for customization, and could be scaled for larger shop systems.
This project was an idea that I conceptualized and wanted to bring to reality as I thought the app stores lacked a type of game like this. My main idea was to take two games that I enjoyed growing up and mesh them together and see what would be made. I chose pinball and baseball for those games.
During the course of development on this project, I learned many things about streamlining my code to allow for different variables and inputs in the editor instead of placing hard values in the scripts. This allowed not only myself, but others assisting with the projects to make quick edits to variables for testing and fewer errors in scripting by having to constantly check-in and check out scripts to input a simple variable.
I also learned more about creating a more user-friendly space for level design, as I created a template level that had the basic outline and all the necessary components already in the scenes. This allowed others who were assisting to quickly create levels without generating simple errors for non referenced items.
