Raging Fox

 

Raging Fox is the final project(demo version) of Group 18 (Haobin Zhang & Xinran Dongfang) for CMPM80K at UCSC in 2018.

Link to playtest the demo:

https://haobin-zhang.itch.io/raging-fox

Abstract:

• • Raging Fox is the demo of a Platform game. In the game, players will act as a cute fox who is actually a Kungfu master to climb over obstacles in the castle of the Baby Boss, using your kungfu to defeat the Baby Boss and his army. There is only one level with basic functions to the general idea of the game.

 

My role:

• • Programmer：
    • Our course required us to use Construct 3 as the game engine. Though Construct 3 wasn’t as convenient as it is in 2021, it was still pretty easy for me to get started after I understood its inner logic and figured out the operations. I only made a prototype with basic needed functions since I had to develop the demo as well as wrap up everything, including design documents and analysis, all by myself within one week.

• • Level Designer：
    • I designed the entire gameplay and graphical logic of the prototype, including colliders, navigation, Interactions, physics, NPCs, etc.

• • Artist:
    • I drew the temporary background in Photoshop to show the general feeling, the contrast between the somber atmosphere and cute figures, we wanted to create. However, I found that this background perfectly fitted our demo, and Gwen was busy with her other school works. We finally decided to keep and use it.

 

Aesthetics:

• • Challenge:

    • I want to create some difficulties for players in both timing choosing and jumping skills so that they would gain pleasure from gradually mastering the game. To reach the goal, I set some platforms at the limited distance of double jumping, put cults who patrol across each other within a small area, add a delay to the player’s camera to make small blind spot tricks.

• •  Fantasy:

    • I am always willing to give the game background in order to make everything in the game logical and proper. Thus, I wrote the story to clarify the raging fox’s purpose and situation, giving the player a reason to move forward.

 

Concepts:

• • Level design practice:

    • As an assignment of the CMPM 80K course, the demo doesn’t contain any UI or menus but only shows the gameplay part. For me, it’s more like a practice of designing a 2D horizontal side-scroll level.

• • Unexpected elements:

    • I usually prefer to add some surprising elements that could make players feel artful from thinking of them after play when designing games.
    • We all know that in most Platform and Side-scroll games, the player’s avatars would acquire a damage immune buff when they are just born or reborn in the level.

 

Mechanics:

• • Core mechanics:

    • Jumping and running

• • Settings:

    • Avatars – raging fox:*
      • The avatar that is controlled by the player, will die if runs into enemies and be reborn in the last checkpoint.
      • Health: 1 (infinity times)
      • Speed: 20
      • Spell:
        • Foxy knife:
          • Small Foxy knife, never once miss! The raging fox is really good at throwing knives. No one has ever seen how these knives fly out, but only his enemies falling to the ground with knives stuck in their necks. Enemies that are stuck by the knife would be pushed backward subtract 1 health.

• • • Camera:*
      • Tied to the player with a delay.

• • • Brick wall/ground/platform:
      • Solid collider that can not be passed through or destroyed.

• • • Enemies:*
      • Cults:
        • Mobs who patrol within an area
        • Health: 3
        • Speed: 8
      • Baby Boss:
        • The Boss who patrols fast within an area
        • Health: 3
        • Speed: 40
        • Spells: (not included in the demo)
          • Birth Blessing:
            • Because the Baby Boss was just born in 1 …, wait, 100 years, he is blessed with physical damage immune of any kind of attacks.
          • Baby’s Cry:
            • All babies cry to express their emotions, the Baby Boss would cry loudly when he sees strangers. If the Baby Boss goes into (stays in) the range of the player’s camera, he will cry and mess up the player’s controls, randomly confusing the three direction keys, for 2 seconds.
              (e.g.: After the spell cast, “←” might represent moving jump; “→” might represent moving left; “↑” might represent moving right)
            • Cooldown: 15 seconds
          • Baby’s Anger:
            • You can feel how angry the Baby Boss is by simply looking at his flaming hair. The Baby Boss will shake his head and randomly throw out 4-8 fireballs with different angles*. The fireball will explode when hits the ground and keep burning for 1 second.
            • Cooldown: 10 seconds
        • Debuff:
          • Oh! Gross!:
            • The giant Baby Boss hates anyone besides himself to touch him! When the player has a collision with Baby Boss, the Baby Boss subtracts 1 health (it’s the only way to defeat the Baby Boss).

• • • Skeleton light:
      • The checkpoint will be activated when the player passes through it, allowing the player to reborn at its position.

• • • Wood platform:
      • Solid collider that can not be destroyed or fell through from above, but can be jumped through from below.

• • • Tree:
      • Collider that can be destroyed by the player.
      • Health: 5

• • • More traps and obstacles:*
      • Waiting to be added into the game…

• • System:*

    • Spells casting

• • Controls:

    • Movement:
      • Press “←” to move left
      • Press “→” to move right
      • Press “↑” to jump
      • Press “↑” twice to double jump
    • Attack:
      • Press “Space” to throw a Foxy-knife

 

Dynamics:

• • Reaction:

    • No player finds the way how to defeat the Boss until the Boss dies.
    • Most players choose to go the farther way which has no enemy.

• • Conclusion:

    • I should add more kinds of obstacles, traps, and organs to the level to enhance the interaction between the player and the elements in the scene.