Hat HighRise
2021
Hat HighRise is a casual platformer where you try to collect as many hats as possible on your way to freedom
What Went Right
Came up with a pretty neat pixel detection script for animating the hat stack
Planned ahead on sound, instead of an afterthought
Implemented UI much earlier which saved some panic at the end
Hat system was built off of something very dynamic I was able to tweak from a personal project. Allowed us to iterate quickly on new mechanics and ideas.
An Artist took it upon himself to figure out and setup the 2D lights which made a big difference on the visuals
Addition of last minute comic strip for narrative intro worked well and was easy to implement.
What Went Wrong
Artists first time making a game, spent too much time reformatting deliverables.
Design fell immediately behind and never recovered.
We were encouraged to try an MVC pattern and I over engineered it by expecting I would need to support lots of different enemy types. ( A symptom of poor design)
Lots of level design issues with the hat stack height.
Lots of hacks at the end to make everything come together and meet a deadline.
No one on the team put in over time on the project (my self included, juggling many projects)