Aztec Game
Title: Aztec Game
Release: July 2018
Original Development Year: 2014
Development Period: 1 Month
Development Status: Completed
Availability: PC
Tagline: Collect and Return More Items Than Your Opponent!
Release: July 2018
Original Development Year: 2014
Development Period: 1 Month
Development Status: Completed
Availability: PC
Tagline: Collect and Return More Items Than Your Opponent!
Oh dear, where to begin with this one. Officially my second game and if you couldn't tell it borrows a lot from my first game Robocolypse; carry overs include menu buttons, the mouse icon (the aiming reticule but colored differently), and even the code for movement were all lifted and reused.
Believe it or not this game was actually made for a class assignment where my group had to create a presentation on the Aztec civilization and we were required to create some sort of activity to demonstrate to the class. Rather than doing some boring trivia game or an utterly droll multiple choice quiz at the end, I offered to do a game for my group. They gave me the green light and the idea for "Aztec Game" was born.
Believe it or not this game was actually made for a class assignment where my group had to create a presentation on the Aztec civilization and we were required to create some sort of activity to demonstrate to the class. Rather than doing some boring trivia game or an utterly droll multiple choice quiz at the end, I offered to do a game for my group. They gave me the green light and the idea for "Aztec Game" was born.
The white ring in the center is the "cursor," which is just a modified version of the reticule from Robocolypse.
The rules are simple: collect items while avoiding the barrage of arrows and bring them back to the altar to earn points. Your basket can only carry a set amount of items of each type and certain items are worth more points than others. If you lose all of your health then you take a point penalty and the game is ended: the winner is whoever at the end has the most points.
The game was straight-forward and I had a lot of fun experimenting with moving the values of variables round between objects and spawning the arrows. Unfortunately I wouldn't learn inheritance until much later so the code wasn't all too efficient, but the game played surprisingly well. The class loved it and got surprisingly competitive about it. For the first time people were genuinely enjoying a game I made and the feeling set me to the moon. They even played it a second time the next day just because they wanted to finish a small tourney they had set up.
If I were to make changes to the game now sound effects would certainly gone a long way in making the gameplay much more tactile, and making the GUI more visual: perhaps a picture of a basket that actually holds all of your items and hearts for each hit-point you have as opposed to just listing numbers. But as the game stands, if you can get a second player maybe you can get a few good rounds out of it. Admittedly I really only think the class just enjoyed the game so much because it was definitely better than another lecture!
01/15/2021 Note: While I haven't actually received any comments about the nature of this game, I did have some reservations about uploading it in the first place back in 2018. I recognize that it is possible for the game to be seen as offensive and I would like to genuinely apologize to anyone that finds it so. If there is push back against it I will take down the game but as of now this page and the game on itch will remain up as it is part of my growth as both a game designer, developer, and person learning to be more conscious about how my actions can affect others unintentionally or not.
The game was straight-forward and I had a lot of fun experimenting with moving the values of variables round between objects and spawning the arrows. Unfortunately I wouldn't learn inheritance until much later so the code wasn't all too efficient, but the game played surprisingly well. The class loved it and got surprisingly competitive about it. For the first time people were genuinely enjoying a game I made and the feeling set me to the moon. They even played it a second time the next day just because they wanted to finish a small tourney they had set up.
If I were to make changes to the game now sound effects would certainly gone a long way in making the gameplay much more tactile, and making the GUI more visual: perhaps a picture of a basket that actually holds all of your items and hearts for each hit-point you have as opposed to just listing numbers. But as the game stands, if you can get a second player maybe you can get a few good rounds out of it. Admittedly I really only think the class just enjoyed the game so much because it was definitely better than another lecture!
01/15/2021 Note: While I haven't actually received any comments about the nature of this game, I did have some reservations about uploading it in the first place back in 2018. I recognize that it is possible for the game to be seen as offensive and I would like to genuinely apologize to anyone that finds it so. If there is push back against it I will take down the game but as of now this page and the game on itch will remain up as it is part of my growth as both a game designer, developer, and person learning to be more conscious about how my actions can affect others unintentionally or not.
Last Update: 01/15/2021