Grapnel Scamper is an Arcade-style Racing Game where you use your Grappling Hook to fling around tight corners at high speeds without the need to slow down.
Overview
In this project, I faced many exciting challenges and setbacks, which I overcame or found alternatives to solve these problems. In this page, some of the things I talk about are:
-
Scripting Challenges
-
Design Intent - The Grappling Hook
-
Game Feel & Feedback - What I did
-
Dynamic Main Menu - The Reason
-
Cinematics
Overall, I am super proud of this project that was done in just 6 months. Learning many things. - Game design, scripting, sound design, and being a project manager, handling tasks and ensuring that they are done on time and as intended.
Scripting Challenges
One of the main challenges I faced was learning LUA, a language I had never encountered before. I used it to script out various mechanics such as :
-
Player Mechanics (Steering & Boosts)
-
Camera Movement (including main menu & win screens)
-
Main Menu
-
Particle Effects
Despite this, I successfully used it to script most of my contributions mentioned above.
Design Intent - The Grappling Hook
The game started out as an idea to do a simple but thrilling and fun, feel good game. But we felt we needed something extra to make the game more challenging and exciting. - The Grappling Mechanic.
​
A swinging mechanic to pull players around corners to remove the need to brake, making it feel thrilling and high paced with elements of skill mastery.
​
The Set Back
Initial prototypes revealed it was repetitive and boring due to lack of cognitive load and skill mastery. Thus we added an additional mechanic for players to simultaneously perform.
​
We added the Boost Regulator, where players have to time and hold onto another button to charge up their boost as shown below.
Game Feel & Feedback - What I did
As the game was simple, the team had to ensure that the game feels good.
I ensured that the mechanics and visual effects bring out the life in the game and that the player really feel the thrill of speed and skill of a race.
​​
Camera Movement
The camera follows the car dynamically.
-
Higher speeds = camera is zoomed out.
-
Lower speeds = camera is zoomed in.
-
When boosting, the camera gets thrown back further.
These help to create a sense of how fast the player is going.
​
Driving​
Steering, Acceleration, Deceleration, and Grappling was tweaked to feel easy to drive, and in control. The Grappling Hook was configured to feel as if the car was really being tugged.
​
Visual Effects​
Particles effects were used a lot to add the feeling of speed and coolness.
-
Speed lines help to make the player feel fast.
-
The flames on the exhausts grow bigger at higher speeds and changes color when boosting.
-
​When players accurately time the Boost Regulator, the UI has flame particles​​​​​​​​​​​​​
​
Feedback
To include a whimsical touch to the gameplay, I added text and voice-overs as feedback. Encouraging texts appear when boosts are successful.
​
I also proposed the idea of an off-screen "character" that voices the texts and provides snark remarks when crashing.
​
Sound Design
I doubled up as the Sound Design Lead, allowing me to have full control on the SFX, making sure that the exhausts feel powerful, the boosting feel awesome, etc.
Dynamic Main Menu - The Reason
The menu is the first thing players interact with in the game. I wanted to use that opportunity to provide a sense of the game world through environmental storytelling. It also provides an inkling into the type of racing they can expect.
​
Having it in a colosseum style ring, tells a story of an entertainment competition. Crowds are watching, and it belongs in a whimsical world.
Cinematics
I was in charge of the cutscene cinematics in the game. This includes the starting cutscene, and the map showcase before the start of a race.
​
Doing so allowed more environmental storytelling, and the map showcase lets the player know what comes ahead and reveals the thematic of the map.