Zumo - Game
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Zumo is a 3D party game, where players must compete to rule the animal kingdom. Up to 4 players could choose from a roster of six animals – each with different stats and abilities – and battle on six unique boards. The goal is to be the last animal standing, by knocking other players off the edge, using your animal’s unique abilities as well as a variety of pickups. Developed as a final project for advanced game design at Victoria University.
DATE
2016
Game Design, 3D Modelling,
Environmental Art, Sound Design
TASKS
TEAM
Tim Paisley, Jono Mingard, Alexander Cox, David Midgley, Jinpeng Song, Adam Bow
Zumo something, game design mechanics, assigned as an artist but did work as a designer as well,
I designed the levels to have more muted colours to make the character models and power-ups stand out better to players.
I designed the levels to have more muted colours to make the character models and power-ups stand out better to players.
Created some sound effects for the various pickups that were appropriate to the games wacky tone. These effects have unique sound queues so players busy with action elsewhere on the map know what is happening.
What I learnt
My biggest takeaway was:
Sometimes leadership can feel invisible. While I concepted the original design and it was executed almost exactly as envisioned it, often times felt that my job was to be the yes man, my team would often individually come up with good ideas on how to best implement their assigned task and I always loved their takes. My biggest responsibility it felt was tracking down the only musician at the event to score some music for our game.
What I wish I could have done better:
I feel the flapping mechanic was perhaps poorly implemented. Players were required to constantly press the Flap button to remain aloft. While it was a novel gameplay experience it made repeat matches tedious and would severely impact the gameplay experience of anyone with less dexterity using a controller. I did receive some criticism of the mechanic but I felt this was the best system out of the other potential options we explored. The flapping/falling movement was imprecise but this made it entertaining as a party game control, though inconvenient in sustained play.
If we had more time to work on Zumo:
Develop a more robust system for echolocation edge detection. Our system was very basic, objects broken down into multiple pieces, which if touched by a sound wave would immediately become highlighted in that players colour. It allowed us to establish the desired neon aesthetic but meant player positioning was less important, catching the tip of an object accomplished the same as being very close. The sound waves would also penetrate objects and reveal bats or objects on the other side which is something a new system would want to prevent, to make hiding a more appealing tactical decision.