Post #6: Game Prototype

This week, we finished our prototypes of our games. My group’s game, Morton Antivirus, is now actually playable. This game’s incredibly charming art direction was designed by Krystal, and was programmed by me, Jacob. The level music was commissioned by local digital music artist and friend, Jacob Dadd.

First, to play the game, you click through on the play button on the main menu. Then, push the buttons that progress to the next cutscene as you learn the story. A person has gotten a bunch of awful viruses on his Generic brand PC. This person needs a heroic antivirus software to come to their rescue. Never fear, Morton Antivirus is here!

Then it puts you into the only level. You press the “a” key to move Morton to the left, the “d” key to move Morton to the right, spacebar to jump, and the “j” key to shoot lethal paper balls from his recycle bin.

The goal is to find the green file (system 32), and save the day. On the way, Morton collects other files to increase the score, and encounters dangerous viruses that kill him on contact. It is your job to bring Morton to system 32 while collecting as many files and killing as many dangerous viruses as you can along the way. Once you touch system 32, the game ends and returns to the main menu.

There are a few known bugs. Morton sticks to the walls and platforms if you hold the left or right button, which makes a couple of the jumps trickier than they would otherwise be. The buttons to progress the cutscenes can end up hidden behind the borders of the screen if the screen being used is in a small resolution size, which is common on some Macbooks. The score also keeps going up with each play through and never resets. Which is either a bug or a feature, depending on how you look at it.

As it exists now, the game is a proof of concept. It is charming, it can be completed, it has a cutscene, bullets hurt enemies, if the player character dies, you can restart without going back to the main menu. This translates to a complete and mildly fun experience with some very minor snags, even if it is short.

Without any new features being added to it, the game can have multiple levels with different shapes to make more of a “game” than a single level experience. Different weaponry and enemy shooting would be nice as well and add variety and danger. The most unique thing that I see this turning into is in the realm of bosses. I think a weapon that allows the mouse to close the windows and delete the platforms would be really interesting as an ability in a boss battle. It’s all there though, the whole framework is there, it can absolutely be added onto.