Development InfoGame: Professor Cadbury and the Candy Castle
Engine: GuildEd Team Size: 5 Genre: 2D Side-Scrolling Platformer Development Time: 8 Weeks |
Game Overview
Overview
Professor Cadbury and the Candy Castle is a 2D, candy themed platformer created using the GuildEd engine. The goal of the game is to move as quickly as possible utilizing the Sugar Rush Meter to collect chocolate coins distributed throughout the levels. At the end of each level, players receive a score of one to three stars. These stars are awarded based on the number of coins collected and the time it took to finish the level. At the end of the final level, the game presents the player with the cumulative score.
Sugar Rush Meter Mechanic
During the game, the player collects blue candy pieces, which increase the Sugar Rush Meter. For every unit added to the Sugar Rush meter, the player moves faster, enabling the player to finish the level more quickly. The meter gradually decreases over time, so the player needs to keep picking up candy. When the player maxes out the Sugar Rush meter, the blue candies turn red. If the player picks up a red piece of candy, the Sugar Rush meter drops to zero, and the player returns to his original speed.
Team Design Goals
My Role as a Designer
I helped develop Professor Cadbury and the Candy Castle's overall concept along with being responsible for the design and construction of the last three levels of the game. These levels were designed to move from medium to hard difficulty. The obstacles included challenging the player with more dangerous jumps and relying more on the Sugar Rush Meter to speed the player up to overcome more treacherous jumps.
Professor Cadbury and the Candy Castle is a 2D, candy themed platformer created using the GuildEd engine. The goal of the game is to move as quickly as possible utilizing the Sugar Rush Meter to collect chocolate coins distributed throughout the levels. At the end of each level, players receive a score of one to three stars. These stars are awarded based on the number of coins collected and the time it took to finish the level. At the end of the final level, the game presents the player with the cumulative score.
Sugar Rush Meter Mechanic
During the game, the player collects blue candy pieces, which increase the Sugar Rush Meter. For every unit added to the Sugar Rush meter, the player moves faster, enabling the player to finish the level more quickly. The meter gradually decreases over time, so the player needs to keep picking up candy. When the player maxes out the Sugar Rush meter, the blue candies turn red. If the player picks up a red piece of candy, the Sugar Rush meter drops to zero, and the player returns to his original speed.
Team Design Goals
- Create a 2D platformer with a primary objective of finishing the level as quickly as possible and a secondary objective of collecting chocolate coins to improve player score.
- Develop complex and challenging levels centered around progressively difficult movement puzzles.
- Design and refine the balance of the Sugar Rush Meter, hazards, and final player scores.
My Role as a Designer
I helped develop Professor Cadbury and the Candy Castle's overall concept along with being responsible for the design and construction of the last three levels of the game. These levels were designed to move from medium to hard difficulty. The obstacles included challenging the player with more dangerous jumps and relying more on the Sugar Rush Meter to speed the player up to overcome more treacherous jumps.
Level 7 Map
In this level, the Sugar Rush Meter is incorporated so that the player learns how far they are able to jump with the blue candy. When a player picks up a red candy with a full Sugar Rush Meter, they lose their speed and their jumps become shorter. The players are not punished for picking up the red candies yet but players feel how much slower they become. The level also has a few sections where the player has the choice of going off of the critical path for risk or reward moments. Finally, this level introduces spikes being along the wall and hinting to the player to be more careful along the walls. To save frustration, there is a save point at the bottom of the gap as well as a candy to give the player momentum to jump.
ProfCCLevel7 from Jackie Huchel on Vimeo.
Level 8 Map
In this level, the punishing candy is repeated from before but the player is not punished by falling into the spikes. The player is only punished because of time. The gold coin arrows act as another risk and reward type of treasure if the player chooses to go back and try to collect all the coins within the arrow. There is also a split pathway at the bottom for players to decide between getting a higher score with coins or based on their completion speed. If players take the upper pathway and fall, they are saved from the spikes by the lower pathway but are not rewarded with any coins. The jumping are towards the end of the level bumps up the difficulty with more spikes along the wall. To help avoid frustration between the two, the save points are placed closer together after each jump.
ProfCCLevel8 from Jackie Huchel on Vimeo.
Level 9 Map
In this final level, the combination of the risk and reward sections as well as the spikes along the wall. The jumps are a bit longer and there is more risk of falling into the spikes. This is also when the marshmallows are used as bouncing fun houses. The marshmallows do not slow the player down if they want to quickly get through the section. The top bounce section has minimal spikes and the player will only hit their head if they hit the single spikes. Later on, spikes are added all around and if the player slows down, they will have a little more difficulty getting through than a player going through without stopping. The Sugar Rush meter punishes the player less often for eating candy because there is both less candy as well the space being more enclosed by spikes.
ProfCCLevel9 from Jackie Huchel on Vimeo.
Postmortem
What Went Well
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