Garbage Soul Reaper is a graduation project for the “Serious Games” course. It’s a 2D platform game and a hint of puzzle-game.
We were a team of 4, called the Team Raptor. I was assigned the collision detection system, the management of waste and bins, and programming the conditions for victory. Each team member also had to test an existing game close to the subject in order to write the Game Design Document.
Environment
- Windows
- Visual Studio C#
- FmodEx with SDL.NET
- Photoshop / Paint
- Samplitude / Sony SoundForge
Story
Garbage Soul Reaper is set in an apocalyptic future where the Earth is greatly damaged due to the lack of recycling. Because of pollution, some areas have become unbreathable, covered by toxic fog. Waste has mutated and spawned monsters that have eradicated much of the human species. The few survivors have left the planet to a space station on the Moon. We control a Soul Collector, tasked with destroying the monsters, calming their spirits. By doing so, they return to their original form and can be sorted properly. If a piece of garbage is badly sorted, its soul finds no rest and becomes a waste-monster again. There are also radioactive monsters that are invincible and aggressive.
This fictional scenario highlights the effects of recycling on our planet and the danger of the most polluting waste, including radioactive waste. As a matter of fact, it is not enough to just throw away the trash to solve the problem. They must be properly sorted for it to truly help save our planet so that it does not become like Garbage Soul Reaper.
Visual and sound indications
The interface displays three important pieces of information for the survival of our collector:
- the red bar is the health, the life of the character. No item can restore health. When this is empty, the character dies.
- the blue bar is the oxygen that is used in excessively polluted areas. When empty, the music changes and the health bar decreases until the character dies or reaches a refill zone.
- the one-item inventory. Either it is empty, orcontains the first waste encountered. You cannot carry more than one item at a time, and you cannot exchange the item in the inventory for another. The only way to empty the inventory is to put the collected waste in a trash can.
Gameplay
Features
The realization of a project of this magnitude required the selection and establishment of structures related to the project management:
- Scrum method for team management and communication
- Writing the Game Design Document
- Versioning (Google Code)
- Programming charter
My favorite feature about this game is the level management. They are built on a grid from text files. We intended to add a level manager so the players can design their levels. We didn’t do it but it was really interesting to think outside the box of the course.