PROX
This game was a collaborative 7-person effort created for the 2024 UW-Madison Respawn Game Jam. This project was developed in Godot using GDScript. Like the prior game jam I was involved with, this all took place in a week-long stretch. Our game focused on the relation of a smaller player character and a larger “Queen Crab”. The player must lead enemies away from the Queen, but straying away lowers the player’s health, creating a dependent relationship.
This was my first time using the Godot game engine, and likewise the first time using GDScript. At first, I was a bit uncomfortable using a new language so different to what I normally program in: C# and Java. After understanding the differences and, more importantly, realizing the similarities between C# and Java, things became much easier. I was quickly able to get past the barrier of the new language and contribute my part to the game.
Because our team had 6 programmers, my focus was primarily on the Queen Crab and player’s character. One major challenge was writing code that was able to interact dynamically with the systems that other team members were writing. Godot’s “observer” signals helped standardize the information that had to be transferred to other systems. This was very helpful in limiting the amount of necessary modifications to other’s work, as well as merge conflicts.
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Art Direction
Since our team had a dedicated artist, I did not have to make create the art on my own. That being said, the team as a whole discussed many different art directions and styles. We chose pixel art because if any of the other team members did need to do some side art for the game (which they did) pixel art would be more accesible as it is beginner friendly. The alien/robot sci-fi theme was chosen to add a ‘foreign’ feel to the odd push-and-pull relationship between the player and the Queen.
