SUMMARY
Fields of Sacrifice is a 2d endless brawler game, originally developed in 72 hours for the Ludum Dare 44 game jam and then refined for display at the Alberta University of the Arts 2020 Horse Show exhibition.
ROLE
Visual design, animation, user interface and experience design, system design.
TEAM
Iavor Ivanov
Hannah Zaitlin
CONCEPT
framing
As part of Ludum Dare 44, my team worked to create a game from scratch within a 72 hour period to fit the theme of “your life is currency”. We chose to interpret this through upgrade systems that came with downsides or costs. This led us to the concept of making a “deal with the devil” by exchanging body parts for offensive power to fight enemies.
We were inspired by top down action-adventure games such as Enter the Gungeon and The Binding of Isaac, which captured the fast paced, challenging, and chaotic style of gameplay we were looking for, as well as involving upgrades that came with downsides.
Screenshots from The Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon.
One of my first concept sketches for the game.
visual development
I began to consider the visual design of the game. We wanted to set our game in hell, and wanted a style that would lend itself to 2d sprite animation and a limited color palette. I was inspired by medieval woodcuts, as their designs were recognizable while also being stylized in a flat 2d perspective. The subject matter also lent itself to our game, as it often dealt with devils, demons, hand to hand combat, and magic.
Part of a moodboard I created as visual inspiration.
We initially considered having several player classes that used different types of weapons. In later iterations, we narrowed our scope to a single player character that could choose between weapons over the course of the game.
DEVELOPMENT
animation
In order to animate our player and enemies, I used the Duik Bassel rigging tool for Adobe After Effects. This allowed me to break the character model up into rigid sections that would be rigged for streamlined animations. During this time, my team also refined the scope of weapons and actions that the player would be able to use.
I then used the character rig to animate the walk cycle, death animation, and various attack animations that would be used in the game. I focused on providing clear visual feedback through the animations to show when an attack was in progress or when the player was invulnerable. I repeated this process for the two enemy types, exported all animations into Unity as sprite sheets, and manually set the hit boxes for each attack.
interface
While my teammate worked on implementing the visuals into gameplay, I began work on the user experience and interface. Because the game uses a relatively complex upgrade system, it was important to focus on creating menus that were clear without overwhelming the player with information. I began by deciding on a structure for the menu system and how the player would move between screens.
I then worked to incorporate the UI into the visual design of the game by creating stylized icons and short text descriptions. By keeping icons representing upgrades and downgrades on screen, the player would be able to easily remember their abilities without being overwhelmed with text.
refinement
Once all of the art, animations, and UI assets were implemented, the final stage was playtesting to ensure that each wave of enemies would become progressively more challenging and that all of the upgrade systems were easy to understand. After 72 hours, the final game was submitted to Ludum Dare for judging.
An initial sketch of the “Wave complete” menu compared to the final version.
REFLECTION
Fields of Sacrifice came in 705th overall and 147th in the graphics category out of 2538 total submissions. The game received positive feedback from players and was praised for the unique and expressive art style.
My team continued to refine the game, making improvements that we were unable to address during the Jam due to time restraints. This included adding visual feedback to enemies taking damage, UI improvements for display on various screen sizes, and bug fixes. This improved version was accepted into the March 2020 Horse Show at the Alberta University of the Arts for a week-long public exhibition.
reflection
Given more time, I would love to add additional animations to the game to add visual clarity when enemies are invulnerable, as well as visual changes to the player sprite when sacrifices are made. Adding detail to the game environment would also help the player to orient themselves in the game arena and add more visual interest.
This was the smallest game development team I have ever worked on, which meant I was taking on many roles and was involved in all stages of the development process. It was also my first time working with 2d rigged animation rather than individually drawn sprites, which greatly sped up my workflow. Taking inspiration from medieval woodcuts also taught me that an unique concept can be carried through all aspects of game development, from visual design to gameplay, allowing the game to feel unified and unique.