Bobbi Bones
Bobbi Bones is an isometric Metroidvania action game developed as a vertical slice for our 3rd-year major project.
The game follows Bobbi Bones, a skull who is a con artist, after they are thrown into a prison city. While inside they decide they are going to try to become the world's best villain and attempt to do this by defeating all the other villains. However, in doing so, Bobbi Bones starts being called a hero. Frustrated about the moral labels they have been given Bobbi Bones begins to have a crisis about what it means to be good or bad.
Mechanically the game revolves around the idea that you can bite limbs off the enemies in the level and attach them to your own body to gain new abilities.
The game was developed over 12 weeks as part of our degree and was developed strictly as a vertical slice of one of the areas; the magma-infused lair of the Duke of Toads, Beezle Bufo.
Bobbi Bones BTS (by Adrian @funnyaccentguy)
My Role
In this project, I took on the role of a dedicated level designer, entrusted with the exciting responsibility of crafting the climactic last act in the narrative of our vertical slice. My focus extended beyond the mere layout of the level; I meticulously conceived the primary mechanics, ensuring they seamlessly intertwined into a cohesive whole. Harmonizing these mechanics with the core narrative theme was a gratifying challenge that I embraced wholeheartedly. Over the course of approximately 12 weeks dedicated to bringing our game to life, I led the charge in shaping and refining our ideas, guaranteeing that the core narrative unfolded seamlessly within the intricate design of the level.
01
Game Ideation
The game was designed to be three separate parts; we called them Acts. During each Act, a story development point was achieved and there was a specific challenge for the player. Act One was focused on building the narrative of the overall story and revealing the puzzle mechanics of the vertical slice. Act Two was focused on having more arena focused battles giving the player lots of opportunities to try different fighting styles on the various groups of enemies. This is where the main fighting mechanics and abilities of the limbs were showcased; displaying the weaknesses and strengths of each limb. Act Three was going to be a combined effort of these two elements of puzzle and battle. Originally the main focus was to have a boss battle, with the fight being broken up into different stages. To keep the momentum going the boss had to be regularly annoyed by the player. But we decided this broke the pacing of the battle and narrative. Thus the puzzle-orientated mechanics were activated during the phases of the fight meaning they wouldn't halt the fighting experience.
The key idea we wanted to show in the third Act was the feeling of Bufo (the boss) losing control, and then the environment reflecting this.
02
Level Ideation
The design idea for the third Act took a while to decide on. We only settled on the core aim of the level after a while in production. We knew what type of things we wanted to do during the level but struggled to decide on which ideas to focus. We had a multitude of ideas including using different horizontal and vertical layers to fight on; changing the ground available to fight on by changing the height of the lava; enabling the player to use different layers to access mechanics and trigger events; and having the boss spawn enemies for the player to fight. Over the implementation of the ideas there were many changes.
The final design of the level ended up being a mix of the key ideas we had been wanting to implement; starting with having a central island with several rings of platforms surrounding it, which would sink into the lava over time. This would use the layer's idea and reduce the amount of space the player had to fight the boss on.
The boss' fight was divided into three stages, where each new stage was marked by the ground falling into the lava. This was to represent the boss getting angrier while increasingly losing control.
03
Core Level Mechanics
The stages we used to represent the boss's loss of control were prominent in the gameplay and design of the battle.
For a stage to be triggered the player has to damage Bufo until he has lost one third of his health.
Following this, a sequence of events would happen:
1. Bufo would jump to one of two points in the lava.
2. A rock that is placed on a geyser would start shaking and the camera would also start shaking.
3. The player hits the rock and it triggers the next part of the sequence.
4. Enemies drop down from the center of the island to defend Bufo and attack you. Stalactites are spawned above Bufo and fall on him forcing him to jump out of the lava. Rocks would fall from the sky and create cover for the player when they land on the ground. Lastly, the outer layer of the platforms/the ground would sink away into the surrounding lava.
After each stage Bufo's attack patterns become more aggressive and more complex. This, combined with the addition of spawned enemies, which you have to kill to fight Bufo again, makes the fight more complex and challenging.
Another important mechanic was having the platforms, making up the island, fall into the lava as you fight Bufo. The platforms fall as the stages are triggered, they also fall if you attack and do lots of damage to Bufo in a short period of time. This is the biggest visual impact to the environment and therefore level, showing that Bufo loses control.
