Portfolio
Teddy's Adventures
Teddy's Adventures is the base for my first set of Educational Video Tutorials. Which will be hosted both on YouTube, and my own educational platform which is currently in the works as well. Where I will be teaching how to use my current favorite as far as 2D Game Engines go, Construct 3! In this first set of educational videos, I'll be training on designing & developing a platformer game. Where the main protagonist is a Teddy bear aptly named, "Teddy" 🙂
What started out as a game for the Ludum Dare 50. A Game Jam where you have just 72 hours to come up with, and develop a video game from scratch(besides allowable licensed assets). Has turned into a large platforming game, where Teddy has multiple player states, and their corresponding animations and actions to be performed while in those states.
Which includes Running, Gliding, Jetpacks, Wall Sliding & Jumping(Think: Mega Man X), Edge Grabs, Running into a Slide Attack, Combat System, Basic AI, Collectable Power-Ups, and much more. There is also a rolling ability to dodge incoming attacks. Along with various collectable Power-Ups to activate use of the Jetpack ability, where you can fly around and take down enemies using a ranged weapon. An Invincibility power-up to become Super Teddy for a short while, blocking all damage, and mowing down enemies just by running past them.
There are various enemies as well, which will use both close range melee attacks, and long range attacks to try and take out Teddy. There's a lovable Sensei enemy, who will not take any crap from Teddy. He will just stand that and shake his head “no” when you come within range of him.
Here is an official gameplay video. Including some of the current progress of this game on my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaPZZbcb1o0
Keep an eye out for the tutorial series coming soon 😉
Breathing Exercises - DeppWell DTx Game Jam Entry
"Breathing Exercises", is the final result for my entry into the First Annual DeepWell DTx Game Jam. DeepWell is an expanding company/foundation dedicated to using Video Games to help people around the Globe with various forms of Mental Illness. I was fortunate enough to find out about the Game Jam about half way through the time period alloted to work on entries to the competition. The winners will be chosen by the end of the month. Last I read, they are deciding the final top three line-up on June 24th, 2022. If I make it within the top three spots, I'll definitely be making a blog post to share the good news 🙂
I originally began work on a 3D project for my entry, which would have been my first major 3D Game Project. But, after loosing all of my work with only week left until the deadline. I needed to pivot, and began creating something in 2D using assets I already had licensed. Using the game engine I am most comfortable with, and have the most experience in. The final result is a collection of Breathing Games and Exercises, along with some mini-games to practice the breathing exercises taught earlier in the application, while maintaning focus on the game task at hand. The breathing games teach anyone interested, various exercises to calm down, and relax, while practicing stready breathing during the use of the application.
Some of the breathing games use the devices main microphone to track the exhalations. Whether it is played on a desktop computer, or a mobile device. The idea, is to keep the animal icons within a steady size, during each exhalation into the microphone. Other games, teach different breathing exercises that focus on the timing of each breath. Within this collection of games, the animal icons will expand during inhalation, flash while holding the breath, and contract during exhalations. The player simply needs to follow along with the animal icons while steadying their own breath to follow along with the exercise.
Here is an official gameplay video showcasing the final result of this project: https://youtu.be/bYxorxeLTyg
The final result of this project can also be played here: https://brainwavecreations.itch.io/breathing-exercises
Busting Ball
Busting Ball is my second game designed for Mobile Devices, but is also very playable on desktop computers. It's your classic bat & ball style game. Where you keep the main ball in play by using a bat which moves left and right at the bottom of the screen. Doing your best to keep the ball from falling off of the bottom of the screen, and using it to clear out blocks towards the top of the play area. The very first game of it's kind that I can remember, was titled "Arkanoid". I owned a copy of that one for the old 8-Bit Nintendo Entertainment System. After that game, where were numerous "Breakout" style games, with all sorts of various features and power-ups.
For the time being the current version of this game, has the usual bat & ball game mechanics working perfectly. Along with a couple of power-ups implemented. One that makes the bat at the bottom of the screen become wider for a set amount of time. The second power-up, I've named the "Unstoppable Ball" allows the ball to break through any and all blocks it comes into contact with. Rather than bouncing off them in the usual directions, it plows straight through all of those blocks.
I have plans to implement further power-ups. Such as one I call "Ball Cloning", which will spawn multiple balls at once to try and keep in play, without losing any them off of the bottom of the play area. Grab that power-up, along with the "Unbreakable Ball" that destroys any and all bricks, to do some real damage. Trying to clear the area of any remaining blocks in play. Other than that, there are plans to implement various ranged weapons to shoot the bricks with a mouse click/screen tap. Along with ricocheting ammunition, and more 🙂
I'll be honest, and say that it has been a while since I've worked on this project. I'm not sure if I'll get it out as an official release on the Play Store for Android Devices. Or if I will use it as a base for one of my educational series, to teach the ins and outs of creating a game such as this one.
Here is a video of the current state of game play on my YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/9ddpQuplFc8
Space Wars - First Google Play Store Release
This is my first full production project that I released onto the Google Play Store. It's a never ending, vertical scrolling SHMUP game. Where you collect items along the way, such as ammo, rockets, fuel, and health to keep you going in the Space Wars! It is completely free, and supported through advertisements. I’ve purposefully designed the game to limit the amount on ads each player is displayed. That way you will not be bombarded with advertisements 😉
This was a great test run, of getting a simple game put together, and up on the Play Store. There is a lot more involved, in getting Advertisements integrated into a mobile game, and actually getting it uploaded and reviewed for download on the Google Play Store, than I had originally thought. This project has been a great learning lesson, through trial and error, how to create and publish a free game for mobile devices :).
As with everything, there will be road blocks, and obstacles along the way. The most important part, is never giving up! Having the mindset of making it happen, hell or high water, will get you through anything. You can learn anything you would like to learn to turn your dreams into a reality. I am always here to show you that. Keep on going, and never give up on your dreams!
Here is an official gameplay video on my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCNY9db8xHA
You can download and play the game for free here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.colinlitchfield.spacewars
Alien Abduction - OperaGX Game Jam Entry
This game project, was an entry to the OperaGX Game Jam Entry, https://gamejolt.com/c/gamemaker/ogxgj
Everyone who took part in the game jam for the OperaGX browser, had two weeks to design, and develop a HTML5 game using GameMaker Studio, within a two week time period. The theme was a mystery, until they dropped the theme "UFO" on Thursday July 29th. The game required to have an "endless" gameplay aspect. Similar to endless runners, jumpers, etc(i.e., "Jetpack Joyride", "Beat Jumper", "Endless Jumper"). A few more requirements were, multi-player mode, all controls on keyboard, increasing difficulty overtime, and all art needed to be created during the development time(two weeks)
I quickly got down to work, and came up with a dozen different ideas for what my game for the entry could be. I settled on one style, which would be a UFO the player could control to abduct civilians spawning along the bottom of the screen, while also dodging projectiles from turrents from the bottom of the screen, and airplanes that come in from either side of the game screen later on into the game. Everything slowly ramps up over time. The turrets shoot speed gets faster(the projectiles movement gets faster, and time inverval between shots gets shorter), airplane flight speeds get faster.
That very night, I threw together a quick mock-up of the game I had envisioned. You can check out the video I uploaded here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1JZTuge0hs . I used that video to find myself a decent pixel art(something I am advancing in every weekend these days), at the time my art was rudimentary at best XD. I just happened to find a great artist who did the work for a great price, and did it within 3 days time! We became friends, and still talk to this day, and plan on working on future projects together as well. This was only one of the relationships taking part in the Game Jam created, both friends, and colleagues.
Unfortunately the game did not make it into the top 100, or even the top 8 in the contest. There wound up being a huge turn out, and over 900 entries had been made to the contest! The game came out exactly as I had envisioned it from the start, and it was a huge motivational push to get me to learn GameMakerStudio(this was my first project in a couple decades). That was enough for me, I am satisfied with the way it came out :), and that's what matters. I was shooting for a game that slowly ramped up difficulty over time, had that retro pixel art vibe, suitable for all age ranges, and included all the elements I had envisioned. It was also the push I needed to take game design more seriously, and begin working on my passion full time, and make it my life!
Here is a video to the final product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yOOCEgjh7g
You can play my entry over at GameJolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/ufo_abductions/638754
Prototyping Video Games
Sometimes the best way to learn a new game engine/creation tool, is to prototype as many games as you can in the fastest amount of time possible. This will help you learn how to do many different things within that application you are adding to your game design/development toolbox. I've moved over to another engine after using GMS for some time. I find it is much more intuitive for me to use, implement, and prototype any type of game I'd like to create.
My first week with the new(to me) game engine, I prototyped as many games as I could, to learn as much as I could about the engine, it's capabilities, and how things work within the engine. I'm still learning a lot for it. But the week of prototyping various styles of games, was a great learning experience, and it taught me a lot about the application. I don't have any playable versions of these unfortunately. I could compile some(I have them all archived on my hard drive). But, it seems like a bit of a waste, as they are very small games, and will not provide much gameplay for you.
So, for this post, you can watch the video(s) I've uploaded to Youtube. Here is a link to a video, I've uploaded that includes clips from 9 of the games prototyped that week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqmciJertfg