The Concept

The concept for this game was very simple. As it was for an exhibition, we decided to create a small polished games that could be fully developed within the given time of roughly 1.5 months. The idea was for the game to be a fun, silly, arena based, local mutiplayer, skill-based, hack & slash game, where you have to battle with against up to 3 other players to have the most kills, when time runs out.

Custom Levels

I communicated to the team that each arena needed to be iconic within the game and I came up with the idea of each arena revolving around a single theme, mechanic and or feature. For the levels in the game, these would be spike pillars, with a spike pit for the colesseum level and teleporters for the temple level.

As I wasn't the level desinger on this project, due to needing to take other roles due to being more experienced with programming and mechanics design, I still wanted to show some of my level design skills off for this project. So I created some extra levels that would fit within the game.

Each of my levels revolve around a theme and mechanic/feature.

BOAT LEVEL

Based around a large ship, sailing through the ocean, I pictured this map to be humorous and iconic. I wanted people to feel as though the canons were as much a threat as other players, and to win they must take the role of a seafaring captain and use the canons to their advantage.

BATTLE CHAMPS

Take on your friends in this fast-paced arena battler. Equip your abilities and go into battle against other players!

Team / Duration: 3 / 7 Weeks
Genre: Top-down, local multiplayer, Arena battler
Focus: Design and produce a small complete polished game
My Role: Game & UI Designer, Programmer (C#)
Engine: Unity
Purpose: University MA Project (2022) - Exhibition Project

Software Used: Unity Engine / Adobe Illustrator / Git Hub (Source Control)

Design & Mechanics

To make the game fairer, the game can only be played using gamepads. The "skill-based" aspects of the game come from the players mechanics, games similar to Battle Champs commonly seemed to feature ability spam with little room for player skill to come into play. To ensure this I added a 'parry' feature to the weapons, where a well-timed block would result in the attacking player becoming stunned for a short period, therefore opening them up to be freely damaged. Additionally, the player can 'cancel / feint' attacks in order to quickly shield, not only can this be used to decieve enemy players and open up more skill based gameplay, it allows for a much more reactive and inuitive feel to the gameplay.

SYSTEMS CREATED:

Ability System (Modular ability system using scriptable objects)
Customisable Game Modes
Customisable Characters
Team Selection
Scoreboard

VOLCANO LEVEL

Based around floating islands in a pit of lava. I wanted the gameplay to feel unsafe in this level. With the fast paced, chaotic gameplay Battle Champs has, this level would give players a lot of enjoyment and laughter as they try to avoid being knocked off, whilst also trying to knock others into the lava for an easy kill.