Use psionic abilities to navigate this unique platformer!
Roles: Game Designer, Level Designer, Programmer, Artist.
Tools used: Unity, Adobe Photoshop.
Solo project.
Psybird is a short game I created late in the Summer between my first and second years at Sheridan College. You play as a mystical avian creature that uses psychic powers to traverse environments by slinging itself through the air or suspending its gravity entirely.
Play it here!
Roles
Game Designer
The initial idea was a platformer where players could freely slingshot themselves through the air. Mid-air suspension was added to give them time to decide where to sling next, with a time limit to keep the pace up. I realized that being able to sling around infinitely would make future level designs extremely difficult, so I added a limit that replenishes when touching the ground. This led to a new problem, as I still wanted moments where players could fly around more freely, which I solved by adding Sling-Spheres that give additional temporary slingshots when touched.
Challenges and Lessons Learned
I struggled balancing the player's freedom of movement in a way that allowed for challenging level design within the project's limited scope. Mechanics like slingshot limits and the Sling-Spheres were my solutions, which I'll keep in mind to inspire new ones for similar design problems in the future.
Programming the slingshot and mid-air suspension was extremely difficult, having little experience with physics-based coding at the time. Around half of the project's time was spent researching how to implement them properly and just testing them. The experience, however, would make me a more capable programmer in future game projects.
