Academy Assault

Project Breakdown

Brief

Academy Assault is an arcade game featuring a boy named Cael who is determined to face off against the strongest girl in his academy. Face off against 9 characters while experiencing over 170+ different dialogue interactions, all designed to motivate you in increasing your reaction speed.

(Link To the Game)

Team

Daniel Fevriere - Solo Dev

Project Goals

During the first sprint, creating a fun solo dev game within 48 hours and winning the Global Game Jam was my initial goal.

During the second sprint, having the game published on multiple websites via GameDistribution.com was my next goal

Design

Strike Mechanic

To win a battle, you must "Strike" at the right time. A text saying "Prepare..." will appear for 3 seconds before disappearing and focusing in. A random wait time between 1 and 3 is chosen before the "STRIKE!" button appears. Your objective is to strike using spacebar at the right moment before your enemy does.

I was inspired off of the mechanic from a Kirby minigame on the DS. Quick, Simple, Engaging, and easy to scale the difficulty. It also meant I could make a lot of production cuts on the art side when time constraints became a huge issue.

Dialogue System

Each of the 9 opponents have 5 different dialogue conversations that happen when you:

Initially talk to them
Lose to them in battle
Win against them in battle
Strike too early in battle

I knew there would be a lot of repetitive winning and losing due to how the system works, so I made sure to contain at least a few different conversations for those who like to read the interactions of Cael and the other students of the academy.

Reaction Time Display

It was important to see how the player measured against their current opponent to see if they were either super close to overcoming the current challenge, or simply far beyond their current skill set, so I made sure the player could witness this after their victory. If they lose however, it shows the enemy reaction time that you need to reach.

Not only was this important feedback, it gave the game that nice "Arcade" feeling.