Mayhem defence shooter
Description:
Mayhem defense shooter is a hybrid tower defense shooter mobile game in which players must defend their king from hords of enemies by shooting them and by building defense towers.
*The game served as a prototype to be tested by Voodoo.
Project details:
Language: C#
Engine: Unity
Genre: hybrid, shooter, tower defense
Developer: Sanity Illicit
Platforms: Android & IOS
Team size: 2
Development time: 2.5 months
Roles and contributions
Gameplay design
Level design
AI design
Programming
Gameplay design
I was the dedicated gameplay designer, responsible for designing and implementing the core design.
Core gameplay:
Player must defend the king in each section from a hord of enemies that spawn in the bottom-left corner of the map. The player defends the king by building towers that shoot the enemies and the player shoot them as well using a pistol/rifle.
The king moves from one section to another every 10 waves and the player gains access to the new section as well. This gameplay loops until the king reaches the final section and when the player fixes the escape vehicle and all waves are survived.
Design goals
Create a simple clear gameplay objective for the player that can be understood by people of all ages.
Teach/guide the player the mechanics and features.
Create a satisfying gameplay experience to insure player retention.
Create a loop that ensures that the player has to replay the same level multiple times in order to complete it.
Mechanics and features
Shooting: The main mechanic of the game is to collide two dice of the same numeral value which merges them into a singular dice with a numeral value greater by 1.
Tower building: Build towers using in game currency. These towers have 3 different types and their purpose is to eliminate enemies.
Restricted areas: These areas can only be accessed after certain waves are survived. There are key items that need to be collected inside these areas in order to fix the escape vehicle and complete the level.
Shooting-pistol
Shooting-rifle
Building tower
Level design
Design goals
Player must replay the same level multiple times in order to complete it.
Level difficulty gradually becomes too difficult that the player would not be able to defend the king against the enemies. This means the player restarts the level but with all the upgrades acquired from the previous run.
Introduce new features and enemies progressively.
Connect the restricted sections together.
Gameplay time must last at least 1h to complete the level.
Difficulty progression:
Enemies become strong each wave (50 waves in total).
Enemies have buffed variants that are introduced after wave 10.
New enemy is introduced after wave 20.
Weapons shop is unlocked after gaining access to section B.
Unlock new automatic weapon
Upgrade pistol and automatic rifle (10 upgrades each).
Each section has towers to build to help defeat all the enemies.
Towers can be upgraded (10 upgrades)
Level layout
The level is divided into multiple sections. Each section is accessible after the player survives 10 waves. Example section B is open after wave 10 is survived (see figure 1).
In each section there are restricted areas that can be opened when the player has certain items and reached a certain wave. Inside these areas are rewards and key items that allow the player to access other resitricted areas (see figures 2-4).
*Restricted areas are necessary to complete in order to attain all key items needed to fix the escape vehicle (bus) in section E and complete the level.
Fig 1: New section opening
Gameplay video
Fig 2: Collecting key item
Fig 3: Using key item
Fig 4: Opening restricted area
Tower design
Towers can be bought using coins and can be uprades using gears (two in game currencies).
There are 3 types of towers:
Tower 1: Regular tower
Shoots a regular bullet that damages a single enemies.
Tower 2: Electric tower
Shoots an electric bullet that damages a single enemy and slows them down temporarily.
Tower 3: Rocket tower
Shoots a rocket that damages multiple enemies in an area.
All three tower types
Regular tower
Electric tower
Rocket tower
AI design
There are 2 enemy types in the game with a variant to each.
Type 1: Grunt enemy
Has no special abilities. Attacks the king with a melee atatck.
Variant: Bigger HP, faster movement, bigger size.
Type 2: Magic enemy
Creates a shield around near by enemies that protects them from player/tower bullets for a temporary amount of time.
Variant: Bigger HP, faster movement, bigger size.
Magic enemy
Grunt enemy in action
Grunt enemy
Magic enemy in action
