Author: Suning Yao

About

Welcome to "Life", a 2D platformer shooting game where you play as a man and each level represents a different phase of his life. The game takes you on a journey through the ups and downs of growing up, from childhood to old age, where you will encounter a variety of enemies and obstacles that represent the challenges we face in life.

As you progress through each level, you will gain new abilities and weapons that reflect the character's growth and development. You will have to use your skills and wits to overcome each challenge and emerge victorious, just like in real life.

Levels

1. "School Boy Against Bully" (Easy)

You're a student who needs to navigate your school while avoiding a bully who's trying to hurt you. You'll get better at fighting the bully as you progress. 

1. "White-collar Against Evil Boss" (Medium)

At this level, you're working in an office and your boss is mean. You need to do your work while avoiding your boss.

1. "White-collar Against Bill Man" (Medium)

At this level, you're working in an office and you need to pay off your bills. You need to do your work while avoiding the “bill man”.

1. "Elderly Against Death Reaper" (Hard)

At this level, you're an old patient in a hospital and you're sick. You need to get better while avoiding things that could make you sicker to escape from the Death Reaper.

Game Development Process Highlights

a) Collaboration

Our team collaborated well throughout the process, assigning tasks for each level and assigning characters and items to different people. We were able to work on the game simultaneously, with very few conflicts in our code.  

b) Platform Block

One of our main accomplishments was the creation of various platform blocks, including movable blocks, destructible blocks, and blocks that can cause damage. 

c) Enemy

We also added individual attacks and characteristics for different enemies. For example, the Mean Boss will attack with curse words, and when he attacks, a solid curse word will spew out of his mouth. Additionally, we created several "friendly" normal enemies that just wander around the road.

d) Sprite and Sound

We also did almost all of the sprites independently, including all of the characters and props with animations. We also created most of the sound effects, using instrumental simulation, while all of the background music was created by ourselves.

Playtesting

a) Dialogue System

The dialogue system does a good job of showing the tutorial and basic background of the game, making it easy to get started and understand what is required to pass the game. It is very successful in terms of design.

b) Sound Effects

The sound effects allow for quick feedback on the game, thus facilitating a positive cycle of play in the game. For example, the sound effects when jumping, although very insignificant, but the whole game process to enhance a lot. 

c) Special Effects

Special effects: The explosive death effects are very enjoyable and add some witty character to the game.

d) Game Materials

The original artwork and animations are very good.

However, there were areas for improvement identified during playtesting. 

(More in Next Page)

a) UI

The game's resolution and alignment of the dialogue system etc. is problematic on some screens. We have since made adjustments. 

b) Color Scheme

In some levels, our backgrounds overlapped with the colors in the levels, making them a little difficult to distinguish from each other. We have made improvements in the following.

c) Volume

The sound effects when dying are a bit too loud and sound a bit abrupt. We have optimized the sound effects themselves and adjusted the volume in a later version.

d) Physics

Some obstacles may lag under collision due to the physics engine. We have tested and adjusted this in the future.

e) Dialogue System Optimization

Some dialogues may be too long and need to be simplified. Dialogue interaction could be made more intuitive, not just clicking the next button. We followed up with optimizations.

f) Difficulty

In the Beta test, some game features were incomplete, so it was hard to get through the game. In the official version, the difficulty level has been adjusted to the right level.