Space Fish in Space

Space Fish in Space is the first game I ever created. It was part of my course work for my first year while studying at Havering Sixth Form College. It is a 2D sidescrolling platformer.

 

The game features Shark Guy as the protagonist, a bandana-loving, AK-47 wielding Shark that can walk on his fins and can explore the Solar System in his SharkShip. Shark Guy was made with killing humans in mind. In this alternate reality in the not so far future, Humanity has fled Earth after the Fish Uprising, it is your job as this genetically engineered shark to travel to known human outposts and end humanity once and for all.

Overview:

 

The engine used to create this game was Stencyl. This engine is pretty limited in what it can achieve and uses block programming. I am very happy with the outcome of this project, especially since it is my first game. As mentioned previously, this game was made as a part of my course in the first year of college, meaning I spent around 9 months on it. I created all of the art myself and did a majority of the programming, as it was a solo project. Some blocks of the programming were used from Stencyl's asset store, however it was just for the walking and shooting mechanics.

 

I wanted to have a different core mechanic at play in each of the different levels, as well as changing gravity depending on what planet/moon you are on. This was to ensure players didn't get bored and always had some new puzzle to figure out/obstacle to overcome as well as to challenge myself in coming up with lots of different mechanics. Some examples of this would be having spikes players must dodge on Luna, fire balls that jump out of lava on Mercury and the gas clouds on Venus. These mechanics also fit the theme of each level which made it fun to come up with ideas.

 

I decided on pixel art for the art direction as I much prefer the programming and gameplay side of development. While I wanted to focus more heavily on the mechanics, I still wanted to create all of the assets myself for two reasons: to challenge myself and to make my game more unique. By making my game pixel art, it meant I could still create my own assets, without them having to be hyper-realistic.