H.A.R. VEST

A 2.5d platformer where you have to min-max your energy while traverse obstacles and solving puzzles to escape and gain the highest rank.

You can download the game right here: https://pokopish.itch.io/har-vest

Introduction

Demo

Summary

H.A.R VEST is a Ludum Dare 52 Entry that I’ve worked a weekend on with a group of friends that consist of programmers, modelers, and sound designers. The theme of the game jam was Harvest. Out of the 1692 submissions, this game got 636th with a score of 3.133 out of 5.

The game is a puzzle platformer where the player must go through different levels and reach the end as fast and with as much as energy as possible. The players starts off with a little bit of energy. At the end of each section, the player gains more energy which allows them to use more attacks and more opportunities to use these attacks. Once passed, the player can’t return to the previous section. The player would have to traverse different kinds of obstacles, such as a big gap that the player needs to air dash over, lasers that would instant kill the player, and walls that stop the player but are thin enough to teleport through. When the player reaches the end, a rank will be given depending on how long it took and how much energy the player has left.

My Contribution

For this project, I was assigned as Lead Level Designer and Lead Programmer. I designed and worked on the level as well with the puzzles and obstacles. I also worked on the player movement, the walking, jumping, and airdashing, the energy machines at the end of each section, and much more. During this project, I’ve learned about creating your own player controller as well as practicing my level design principles and game design principles. I’ve learned terms and concepts such as jump buffering and coyote jumping.

Process

Player Controls

The play has a variety of skills and movements throughout the factory. The player can walk, jump and perform an airdash by pressing space while in the air. These controls were designed to give the players lots of different methods and options to traverse the stage on their way, whether that would be the fastest way or the least energy-consuming way.

Speaking about energy, the player also has a bunch of attacks they can perform. These attacks include a single shot forward, a vertical dual shot that can clip through walls, and a teleportation move that allows the player to appear behind a wall.

Level Design

The level was designed to introduce the player to the mechanics of the game; the first level introduces both the single-shot attack and movement, while the third level introduces lasers, hittable switches, and the dual-shot attack.

After the introduction of the mechanics, levels were designed to play around with the mechanics. Multiple paths were created where you would need to use different mechanics to pass. This way, the player can learn how the mechanics work and give themself the option to choose which path would suit their playstyle.

The last level is a final test where all the mechanics will be tested. To give a “final test” feeling, a switch was placed at the beginning of the level that would open the door at the end of the level. With this, players are tested to see how fast they can traverse this section with their skills and knowledge of the mechanics.