System Features

Our game 'Dreamscapes' meets all minimum specifications for our client, as well as some additional features that improve the functionality of the system. We believe the simplistic and fun-oriented nature of our game is perfect for our client of a twelve year old girl. While keeping many of the fundamental characteristics of The Legend of Zelda, we decided to make our game a platformer with a side-on view. We decided that this style of game was often more fun and addictive, especially for a young client who may not usually be interested in RPG style games. Because of this, we decided to focus more on mechanics and graphics instead of a detailed story line.

When the game is launched, the user is presented with a main menu screen. From here, they can view the controls, previously established high scores, and play the game. We base the high scores on fastest play throughs of the level by default, although they can also be sorted by name or number of deaths by clicking on the respective column headers. As an additional feature, we save the high scores to a file, so even after closing and reopening the program, the high scores are persistent.

After clicking play, our playable protagonist spawns into the first map. The first level is relatively easy and contains no enemies in an effort to get the user comfortable with the movement controls. We decided against a tutorial level as the controls are already simple and intuitive. The second level contains two main types of enemies: flying and walking creatures. There are also two enemy spawners that shoot out walking enemies when the player is in range. When the player attacks an enemy, its health is reduced, and it knocks back and flashes. The same applies to when an enemy attacks a player. When the player dies, the player respawns at the start of the current map, and the entire map is reset to its initial state. Once the player has passed the second level, they are faced with a boss fight. The boss has its own health bar and three different attacks. When the player kills the boss, they have completed the game, and can save their score and return to the main menu.

Our game contains two pickup items: a health restoring potion and double jump boots. The potions are consumable items which restore the player to full health over a three second period when picked up. The double jump boots are equipped to the player when picked up and unlock a new ability to jump a second time while in the air. The boots are visible on the players feet, and an overlay appears on the screen when picked up to inform the player what they are.

We utilized many different animations for both the players and enemies to make the game seem more realistic, as well as providing a clear indication of what is happening. Sound effects were also utilized for a similar purpose. We implemented backgrounds to our levels that use parallax scrolling, to emulate walking in real life. We skinned our platforms and ground blocks with images of realistic textures. This further contributed to the realistic look and feel of our game.