At a Glance
At a Glance
Embedded Files
10 Months - Solo Project
A short platformer game where the player repeatedly battles a magically-powered rock golem meant to mimic a werewolf.
I created all art and implemented it in visual code, using Construct 3. Music was created by Brittany Harris, a musician and photographer, and friend, attending the same college.
Werewolf turnaround. Final designs added a glowing yellow-orange aura to him, which assisted to telegraph his actions.
Designing The Werewolf
Designing The Werewolf
Early design iterations aimed to let the player discover that the werewolf they sought was actually a golem. With the limited timeframe, the discovery was less important than the interaction between the "boss" and the player themselves.
However, this inspiration lead to certain design decisions that were made:
Sharply pointed arm mimics claw marks
Howls like a werewolf
Clearly made of rocks, and not a "real" werewolf
In later designs: held together via magic aura
Bringing the Werewolf to Life
Bringing the Werewolf to Life
Howling for Bats
Howling for Bats
The golem lets out a werewolf-like howl, upsetting the forest and stirring up a cloud of bats that swarm the player.
Self-Destruct
Self-Destruct
The golem's aura drops the rocks momentarily to let out an explosive burst of energy
Big Stretchy
Big Stretchy
The golem shoots out his sharply pointed claw toward the player, using his aura to stretch further than imaginable.
Spawn
Spawn
The golem rises from a pile of rocks, taking form and immediately Howling for Bats
Follow
Follow
Basic follow player behavior.
Death
Death
The magic dissipates and the rocks tumble to the ground in a neat little pile.
Animations were created by hand in Adobe Photoshop using Photoshop's animation tooling, and then lined up into sprite sheets.
Retrospective Notes
Retrospective Notes
This project really solidified for me that I wanted to focus more on design than art, though I was relatively proud of how the werewolf themself was designed.
Should've crafted smaller sooner:
The successes I found here came when I cut all the fluff and threw out my expectations for how long and how much detail a game "should have" and just focused on making a really cool boss.
Asymmetric designs in 2D sprites adds a lot of work:
This isn't an inherently good or bad thing, but on reflection, the werewolf's asymmetric "claw vs hand" set up didn't serve a purpose! He could've just as easily had two claws, and then not needed unique left- and right-facing animations, which would've made my life easier. While it was aesthetically appealing, it didn't serve me well when the project was already over-scoped.
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