CAT CHUP
This is a 2D game design project facilitating by the Unity platform. CAT CHUP is a platform-maze experience where you, Ted the cat, use your speed and wit to avoid pesky animals and collect items in time for your date. The main tasks I involved in this project includes project management, video editing, scrum mastering, story telling, and user testing.
Graphic Design by Lola
Game Overview
In this fun, light-hearted platform-maze experience, the player takes on the role of a male cat named Ted who is trying to collect the items he needs for his date Robin before she’s not available anymore. So, the goal of each level is to reach your date before time runs out and you lose the level. And the more items you collect, the better the date will go.
To do this the player must both navigate through a maze with doors and keys, and avoid enemy dogs who do nothing but chase you as you enter a certain distance from them and make you lose items. The ever agile cat Ted avoids them by hiding in bushes or boxes and moving at just the right time, but he also gets distracted and can’t help but play around if he happens to run into an enticing wool ball or fish toy.
As Ted and Robin go on more dates, the standards get higher. So, the mazes become more intricate and complex, and more enemy dogs are placed throughout. The order of the levels is set, and the player simply restarts each level when it is not completed in time. After successfully preparing for all the dates, a successful ending will result in Ted and Robin tying the knot and getting married.
Key Features
Hiding in objects
Hide yourself in bushes or boxes to avoid any dogs, who cannot see into them and will return moving to their initial place as you remain there.
Key and doors
Navigate your way through the maze and avoid obstacles, all while collecting the right keys to corresponding coloured doors to logically find your way through the maze to reach your date in time.
Distracting toys
While you run past certain enemies, be sure to not get accidentally stuck playing with a wool ball or fish toy because those precious few seconds will cost you.
Game Logic
The following is a description of the game logic that the player needs to keep in mind to complete the levels.
Player Attributes
The player moves faster than the enemy dogs, and so needs to strategize how best to use the hiding objects to navigate around the enemy dogs to collect keys and collectable items without getting touched.
Visual Affordances
The player has a fairly limited line of sight, and so needs to be able to navigate efficiently through the maze. This comes mostly into play when figuring out which doors need to be unlocked first and where their corresponding keys are located. As the game is seen from a diagonally positioned 2.5D perspective, walls and objects become semi-transparent when the player comes near walls that block the view, which is where game objects may be found.
Win Lose Conditions
The time limit for each level is 300 seconds, and the player loses whenever the timer is up and they have not reached the date, and wins if they reach their date before the time is up. In addition, for each level the player can earn more bonus stars the more collectable items they get. If players don't get enough stars, they will be unable to unlock next level. The following table indicates how many stars the player can earn relative to how many collectable items are obtained.
Maze navigation and collection
Players need to not only navigate through a traditional maze in a time limit, but also find keys corresponding to same colour doors in the right order in order to reach the goal.
Play testing with paper prototype
