PlagueVaders: Developer Diary
This was our first collaborative group project, consisting of a designer, an artist, and several programmers. The brief was to build a simple game that essentially mimicked a classic arcade title, while adding our own creative spin. There were some great titles to choose from, but ultimately we decided on Space Invaders.
The first trimester involved creating a Game Design Document and a paper-based prototype. In the second trimester, we had to develop a vertical slice of the game. I took on the role of project lead, which involved organising group meetings, creating documentation to track game assets and progress, and communicating regularly with the different disciplines. My primary role was game designer, planning and creating all UI elements, programming them within the engine, enhancing the overall user experience, and balancing the progression system and power-ups. I was also heavily involved in playtesting, bug fixing, and assisting with programming some of the more complex mechanics and functionalities.
In PlagueVaders, you step into the boots of Doc, the last remaining Plague Doctor and hope for humanity. Armed only with his scythe and magic staff, you must fend off waves of ghoulish creatures threatening the last remaining survivors.
Critical Bug Fixes
“During development, we encountered a wide range of bugs. Most were relatively easy to fix, but there were three particularly critical, game-breaking bugs that I was determined to resolve.
The most critical bug involved enemy projectiles spawning at the bottom left corner as game play progressed. This completely ruined the experience and remained unresolved for some time. For each programmer, this was our first time working with arrays, and the enemy movement pattern was entirely managed using them. The issue was related to enemy actors being destroyed, which prevented the code from retrieving their position, causing it to default to (0,0) within the level. It took me 7 hours of playtesting and problem-solving to fix this.
The solution was to bypass the usual spawning method and instead get all instances of that enemy class, ensuring that only existing enemies, and not destroyed ones, were targeted.
UI Design Overview
“Adhering closely to the details outlined in the Game Design Document, I maintained a consistent colour palette and theme throughout the UI. The theme features muted greys, purples, blues, and greens that complement a gothic, plague-like aesthetic.
For the main menu, I aimed for a church graveyard-inspired look, designing the UI menu buttons and scenery to resemble just that. The sub-menus follow a similar colour scheme and style, creating a consistent visual theme.
The in-game UI uses a rich purple that contrasts nicely with the blue tiles, energy bar, and green health bar. Everything is designed to be easily readable, with key information standing out clearly for players.”
User Manual and Visual Design
“In previous projects, I opted for a button on the main menu to show the user controls. However, for PlagueVaders, I wanted to go bigger and bolder. Given the retro era of the game, it felt fitting to pay homage to the classic titles by creating a vintage-style physical game manual.
I designed and created the entire manual in Photoshop, incorporating in-game screenshots, game assets, and some fantastic concept artwork provided by our programmer. The core English text was translated into three additional languages, and I added a crinkled page effect to give it the appearance of a well-used manual. It was a highly creative process and a fun way to showcase the game and its controls in a unique, nostalgic manner.”