With friends like these
The development of With Friends Like These began from wanting to create a co-op game where neither player was more important than the other. Another important goal was to ensure that if players of differing skill levels played together, they were able to help each other rather then become frustrated with the other player.
Designing With Friends like These has been a joy. As the project has continued it has been great seeing my skills as a Designer grow and my ability to go from initial concept to implemented design increase significantly.
Download: Not Available
Platforms: PC & Nintendo Switch
What I’m doing: Design gameplay mechanics, programming, prototyping, Nintendo Switch Development, coordinate playtesting & project management.
Team size: 2 (Myself & Nicole Lawson)
Project length: 5 years, very part-time
Engine tools: Unity, Playmaker, Rewired, ProCamera 2D, Ferr 2D & Animator
Accolades: PAX 10 (2018), TGS Famitsu Indie nominee (2019), TGS 4 Gamer.net Indie nominee (2019), PAX AUS Roadshow at PAX EAST (2018), Indie Megabooth (2018), Indie Arena Booth (2016)
Gameplay
Two players control the same ship, a blue player and a pink player (players are able to select other colour to help with accessibility).
When the pink player is in a pink area they control the ships movement and the blue player shoots blue bullets. When the move into a blue area, the roles switch. The players have to match the bullet colour to the enemy eye colours in order to deal damage.
A colourblindness accessibility option is available. This allows players to choose the player colours that they can best see.
The player abilities never change through out the game. To keep the game feeling fresh, we have designed a series of levels with enemies that force the player to use their one ability in many different ways. With each area a goal was to make sure that both players, while doing separate actions, we focused on assisting each other. When demoing the game at consumer shows it has been a joy to watch children guide their younger siblings who have much less experience playing games. The older of the two is able to dodge the incoming attacks, giving the other as much time as needed to vanquish their foe.
Closing in on Sasquatch on Day 3
Collapsing building prototype. Dynamic difficulty implemented using triggers to increase and decrease building fall speed based on player position. This lead to a more engaging experience that sees the players always on the cusp of disaster.