'Horse Power' Trailer
Play as an unstable horse and race the clock in this wacky physics-based game
Contributions:
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Designed and implemented an unwieldy physics-based movement system that has the player struggling to remain upright.
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Designed an balanced the 2 collectibles, one progressively increasing the players speed with each collected, and the other giving a quick powerful boost
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Blocked, textured, and modeled the winding track with multiple challenge sections (denoted by checkpoints) that provide different types/levels of difficulty
Team Size: 4 Students
(semester project)
Project Overview
'Horse Power' Walkthrough
Play the Game here:
Horse Power Gameplay Design
(project information in this section may be present in others as well if relevant)
Note: Website still under construction. This page will be expanded with more diagrams, gifs, and text
Gameplay Premise:
You play as a tipsy horse navigating a surreal winding racetrack. You must control your momentum and balance to avoid falling over and being reset to the last checkpoint. The goal of the game is to score a new record time, so mastery of the course and your horse are essential.
Movement...
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The horse's movement is slippery with little friction stopping its momentum, so players must manually resist its current velocity by inputting force in the opposite direction.
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The horse is also top-heavy, and can easily fall over if its upper-end tilts too much in any direction. Both avoiding this tilt and righting yourself when it happens is crucial to making progress.
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Power-Ups...
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1. Carrots: Eating carrots will increase your horse's top speed, however your carrot count is reset to 0 when spawning back at a checkpoint
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The faster you become, the more unwieldy the horse's momentum is to control. You may want to avoid collecting more if you're already struggling to handle the current speed
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2. Sugar Cubes: Eating sugar cubes results in a powerful burst of temporary speed. The player must hold Alt while passing through one to consume it
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They can be powerful tools to score a low time, but also take high finesse to use without losing control
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This is why players can't accidentally eat one and must hold Alt to do so. Otherwise, they may have acted more as an obstacle to avoid than a risky advantage
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Checkpoints...
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Checkpoints are located throughout the map, especially after difficult portions of track, and store your progress after passing.
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You can either manually respawn as the last checkpoint with space, or are sent automatically after falling off the track
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manual is useful for fallen players to resort to only after they've given up righting themselves
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Checkpoints create a sense of progression as players often strive only to pass the next one without worrying too much about whether they fall afterward
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This rewards a risky level of speed (from carrots and sugar cubes) so long as the player can quickly pass a/multiple checkpoints before losing this momentum
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