Bugged
Sole Developer
3rd-Person Stealth Game
Sep 2021 - May 2022
Team Size: 1
Bugged is a 3rd-person stealth game that sees the player take control of a computer virus breaching a computer motherboard. They are tasked with avoiding the various anti-virus enemies roaming around and infect firewall nodes to ultimately crash the computer.
I first worked on Bugged in 2020 as the final project for my Level Design II class. The Unity file for this final project is completely separate from the game that is featured on this webpage. Here is the final gameplay demonstration video submission in which I explain some of my design decisions for the 2020 project.
Design Breakdown
Starting From Scratch
During the Fall Semester of my Senior year, I took an Advanced Seminar in World Design class in which I was tasked with developing a game world. Because I liked Bugged's environment so much, I decided to make the game again from scratch and make the game space as polished as possible within a single semester.
Since I unfortunately lost the Level Design II project file, I needed to approach the development of the Bugged remake completely from scratch. In order to help me quickly get started with this new project, I obtained a character movement pack from Unity's asset store. This pack featured a gravity switching mechanic which I found intriguing, deciding to use it as the basis for Bugged's future gameplay. Designing the tutorial, I made use of this mechanic.
Movement Pack Snapshots
Designing Bugged's Tutorial Area
I started developing Bugged by creating the tutorial area, a data warehouse enclosed by fence where the player is introduced to the mechanics of the game.
Trying to figure out a way to properly introduce players to the gravity changing mechanic was one of the first challenges I ran into during development.
Early Tutorial Iteration
To address this challenge, I designed the section where the gravity switch mechanic is introduced to require its use in order to progress further into the level. To do this, I made the forward progression through this area completely blocked off with the exception of a data crate in which the gravity switching asset was placed. Since the player is unable to utilize this gravity switching mechanic without magnetism, I placed a magnetizing diode right next to the crate's entrance to immediately convey to the player that these are important and imperative to gameplay.
Gravity Switch Mechanic Introduction
I went on to use the importance of these diodes to my advantage, using them as breadcrumbs to gently guide the players through the area. Since this proved to be very effective at helping players, that I decided to use this method of guidance ubiquitously throughout the entire game.
Breadcrumb Demonstration
Bugged's Characters
The player model for Bugged's protagonist, the computer virus which the player controls, I sourced from SketchFab. I weight painted and rigged the model using IK contraints, proceeding to make animations and implement them in Unity.
Jumping
Idle
Dancing
Walking
Computer Virus Animations
After the conclusion of the fall semester of my senior year, I decided to continue development on Bugged in my Advanced Seminar in Enemy Design class. While I had created enemies for my World Design class, they ended up being incredibly buggy and dysfunctional. Because of this, and since I quite enjoyed working on Bugged, I decided to continue its development, designing and implementing proper enemies.
Enemy Documentation