Unity, Visual Studio, Blender, Photoshop, Steam, itch.io
The "Elevator Pitch"
As a physics-based, time-trial-'em-up, pseudo-platformer based around the real-life sport in which the rider tames a single-wheeled vehicle, requiring focus, core strength, and a couple bucketloads of patience. As a challenging, tense exercise in joystick manipulation, UniPsycho!! fulfills that promise (or demand?).
The Whole, like... Deal, Dude (or Dudette)
Imagine you were once a kid with hopes and dreams. Imagine you haven't always been the soulless, money-grubbing mess of broken promises and money-worries that we both know you always have been. Imagine you once had an imagination. You're doing it, Peter! You're... *gasp* IMAGINING!
Now that you're on a roll, imagine being a kid in a big, boring office. Perhaps it is 'take-your-kid-to-work' day; perhaps you got yourself suspended from another school because you just can't learn how to use the toilet the PROPER WAY and now MOMMY HAS TO TAKE YOU TO WORK WITH HER because CHILD CARE IS EXPENSIVE and MONEY DOESN'T GROW ON TREES, YOU LITTLE SH*T, so SHUT UP AND SIT ON YOUR HANDS WHILE MOMMY MAKES A LIVING.
*ahem*
As a kid, I used to love 'driving' my little cars around on tables, walls, desks, chairs... really on any surface with... surface.. area. Wow, this is going off the rails REAL fast.
BEHOLD: THE PREMISE
If I were a kid in an office building, after hours, with a cool little unicycle toy and the strength (and time) to rearrange everything the way I saw fit, in order to create an AWESOME obstacle course for my cool little unicycle toy (did I mention its cool?)... How would that look?
OH, AND...
There will (of course) be more levels in the future, including a huge network of treehouses built from balsa wood, plywood and popsicle sticks, and even a space station level! Or... the MOON! Or... both? Mars? SOMEthing space related, in space... with... space-themed, and, space, with, and...
Stop STARING at me, OKAY? I'm NOT SURE yet.
TESTING OUT THE "QUICK RESTART" FEATURE
I had always assumed that, if you make a video game, you are just naturally going to be good at it. ...not so.
UNRELATED TOPIC: Watch my FRIEND suck at the game! DIFFERENT person from me playing below:
LET'S TALK MECHANICS
Do you have an affordable transmission guy? My stick shift feels like it could fall out any minute.
...RIGHT! The game. Hit me up after this portfolio thing though if you know a mechanic that doesn't charge a fortune.
Do I think that Monday-related humor is trite and pedestrian? GOD no. There is still so much more ground to cover in the sector. What about, like, a grumpy anthropomorphic animal holding a cup of coffee, and something about leaving them alone on a Monday until they've had their coffee? Boom, bumper sticker. Just one example of the untapped goldmine of original ideas in the area of unexplored, never-before-seen Monday-related goofery*.
*Yeah, it's a word. No need to look it up.
CHARGED JUMP
(Charge Jump? Charged Jump?)
Similar to the likes of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, UniPsycho!! has a charged jump mechanic, indicated by the increasing intensity of the seat's glow. The jump also launches the unicycle in the direction of the unicycle's fork, which the player can tilt forward or back, or lean side to side.
CHECKPOINTS? CHECK.
One of the unique aspects of UniPsycho!!, and one of the aspects of the gameplay that I feel will really set it apart from games in other genres that might seem similar (platforming, racing, 'rage' games, etc...) is the checkpoint system. The game will feature a network of checkpoints that unlock as the player progresses through the levels, which are open sandbox-type levels that let the player decide where to go, rather than be funneled down a single path.
For example: The Office Level© (SO glad I jumped on that copyright...) will have three starting Drop Zones (thats what I'm calling the checkpoints that the player has unlocked as a spawn point) available from the get-go.
Each Drop Zone will have three visible Checkpoints from the spawn point, which the player can highlight using the "ping" button on the controller (currently mapped to R3).
Once collected, the Checkpoint becomes a Drop Zone that the player can now select from the pause menu as a spawn point. Here is where the system is a bit different and, frankly, the aspect of the checkpoints that I am excited about:
The player will have a Best Time from Checkpoint A to Checkpoint B. However, they will ALSO have a best time from Checkpoint B to Checkpoint A, AND a best time from Checkpoint F to Checkpoint A, (and vice versa).
All of the sudden, a game with 10 Checkpoints has 90 different Best Times, a huge leaderboard, and (hopefully) a community that sticks around to try to best their own times, as well as their friends'. I assume the speed running community would eat that up! This idea extends the replayability a LOT, since the path from Checkpoint C to A might be descending, while A to C might be ascending. Every "track" would be extremely different, and opens the game up for other modes, such as a daily challenge like "Checkpoint C to F to B," for example.
The Checkpoint "Ping" in all it's glory
Atop The Ladder - Checkpoint
These girders are two stories up, but might as well be a mile for the little unicycle
CONTROLLING THE CONTROLS
The most IMPORTANT part of UniPsycho!! (and, in my opinion, most any platforming game, or a game that centers around skillfully moving a character around a space) is HOW the unicycle FEELS to CONTROL. Hands down.
Luckily for me, thats ALSO the HARDEST PART TO GET RIGHT! YAY!
While many indie devs (or game devs in general) talk about the dangers of Feature Creep, I knew very early that any and all mechanics above and beyond the complicated checkpoint system and tuning the movement system were not even an option until those two were complete.
While I very much commend Miyamoto and his team for running Super Mario 64 around a blank room for months until he felt JUST RIGHT before continuing into level design or anything else, I just had to start building.
HOWEVER, it is still top priority. On the left, you can see the control scheme. The right stick will lean the entire unicycle, 360° , while the left stick will tilt the fork forward and backwards, and turn the unicycle left and right. The "Ping Checkpoint" is missing from this diagram (currently mapped to R3).
THE CONTROLS LAYOUT & PAUSE MENU
GARBAGE DAY!
ITERATION:
THE INTRICATE DANCE OF AN EVOLVING PROJECT AND
THE PLIGHT OF THE OCD GAME DEVELOPER
The original concept
As much as I loved the graffiti / 90's look...
...this is much more readable
CREATING A PLAYABLE MENU
I have always been a huge fan of games that let the player mess around on the main menu. Think pulling on Mario's facial features in Super Mario 64, blasting away at the credits in Smash Bros, or even a Super Mario World style overworld map that the player can walk around on to choose a level.
Although my new concept for the Main Menu will combine a tutorial with the menu, it began as just a wood floor (that really reminded me or a gym floor) with the controls "painted" on, that let the player putz around.
Later, bowling pins were included for... reasons. GOOD reasons, I assure you.
While I do still like the concept and, to a degree, the execution, I felt like it was asking too much of a new player, with no experience in the game, to ride towards the camera from a fixed angle.
LEVEL DESIGN
Along with Player Movement, Level Design is one of the pillars of a fantastic platforming game. For the most part, the office-related assets I used for The Office Level®©™ were downloaded from the Unity Asset Store, via asset packs or individual assets (many of which were free or very cheap).
Thanks to the availability of pre-made assets, I was able to focus on creating a great layout for the level right off the bat. There are many assets in the game that I made myself, and many pre-made assets that I needed to tweak or re-texture, re-work, or create colliders for.
Ground Floor Layout (WIP) - 21.09.30
Copy Area Layout (WIP) - 21.09.30
Coffee Station Layout (WIP) - 21.09.30
DUMB, SARCASTIC HUMOR
The game will feature dumb, sarcastic humor. I'm not sure if this section didn't need a title, or if the title just didn't need an explanation. After contemplation, I would guess the truth is that the game doesn't need the dumb, sarcastic humor. The development team (me) were going for a really cool, sleek, witty type of humor, but after many failed attempts, and a bitter insistence that it was SUPPOSED to be dumb, we (me) are now listing this as a FEATURE, not a SHAMEFUL MISTAKE TOO TIME-INTENSIVE TO REMOVE and a MATTER OF PRIDE TOO STUBBORNLY DEFENDED TO BACKPEDAL ON. (Exhibit B: I realized this was too long to put in all caps, but I'll be damned if I'm going to back down now.)
I just realized that I'm the one who has to go back and proofread this mess. Do you ever wish there was a deeper version of a sigh?
LEFT: Examples of Cheerful Corporate Imagery created for the fictional employees of the fictional office.
ACTUAL PRO-LEVEL GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE OF UniPsycho!!
CREDITS
With the exception of some asset packs, mostly free, but a couple purchased, from the Unity Asset Store (office supplies, furniture, some textures), UniPsycho!! was created, developed, programmed and modeled by me, Zack Daly. Many of the office assets were created by other people, and used to save time.
All of the posters and much of the art is original, but some art created by friends has been included and displayed as a thank you for play testing or other support. Examples include the art and photos in the cubicles. All code, level design, gameplay design, concept, menus, lighting, optimization, prototyping, etc... was done by me, Zack Daly. thank you so much for looking over my portfolio, and feel free to reach out with any questions!
zacksbusinessemailforbusiness@gmail.com
