Osmina (2013)
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School Project | Supinfogame | PC | Flash
Project description Osmina is a two-player co-op flash puzzle game available on Kongregate. The assignment consisted in making a flash game with a team comprised of game designers only, no game artists this time. It also needed to be a two-player game with an abstract aesthetic. We had five days to finish the game. The goal of the game is to reach the end of a downward-scrolling level. Every level is similar to a maze, and their order is randomly-generated. Each player controls one of the blobs or Osmina with the WASD and arrow keys respectively. If a player touches the bottom of the screen, it’s game over. The blue Osmina is able to move through blue areas without taking damage, whereas moving through the red areas causes him damage which eventually causes him to disappear and lose the game. Yellow areas, however, reverse his controls, meaning that if he wants to move up, he needs to press down on the appropriate key. The same rules apply to the red Osmina or second player: he can move through red, takes damage while going through blue and gets his controls reversed when he passes by green. When blue passes by a green zone or red passes by a yellow zone, nothing happens. Additionally, there will be passages sporting purple which block their passage. In these parts, both players have to make contact with one another and form a big, purple Osmina who is able to go trough this parts. In order to control this new entity, they need to cooperate and move to the same direction at the same time. For example, to go up, both players must press W and the Up arrow at the same time. Finally, there are a certain number of collectibles placed on the level. These are optional and are often difficult to obtain, but they add a layer of challenge to the game. The team We were a team of six game designers. We were three second-years and we worked with three third-years. My role I came up with the initial concept of Osmina and worked with another game designer on the game concept writing. Together with the team, we came up with the core features and the core gameplay. After this, we all started developing levels for the game using the Tield software. I designed ten levels, of which five were integrated into the game. The levels had to be fun to play and had to follow a difficulty curve. Finally, I gave the presentation of the concept to the teachers who evaluated us and uploaded the game into Kongregate. I also helped with the general look of the game, helping the artists by giving feedbacks on the graphics and music. What I would have improved Since I was struggling with level design, much of my levels didn’t work and had to be reworked. I lost a considerable amount of time correcting the levels I designed. This mistake on my part distracted me a lot from other aspects of production. Namely, the “How to Play” section. It was too late when I noticed, but it was badly written by one of the designers. I could have corrected this mishap if I had been more attentive. Also, some of the integrated levels cannot be finished, and it could have been corrected if we had more time to polish the game before publishing it. What I learned
Play The game is available on Kongregate, you can play it by following the link here. |
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