EchoPolo | Devpost

Gameplay with echolocation activated

Inspiration

Our game was based around the idea of inverting a game mechanic players were comfortable with. One of the things a player takes for granted in platformer games is seeing the platforms; we decided that we would force the player to strategically and precisely react for the privilege of seeing our platforms. We were inspired by horror movies, doodle jump, and the game Stifled by Gattai Games.

What it does

The player is in a dark cave and the surroundings are found by echolocation. Echolocation is activated when the player lands on platforms after jumping. In single-player mode, the goal is to collect candles, avoid falling, and find your way to light. In multiplayer mode, one player is randomly assigned to be the hider; the other, the seeker. The hider must find their way to light while the seeker must find the hider. Both players’ echolocation will be visible to the others in some sense across the shared map, so both players will need to move carefully to achieve their differing goals. The winner of the round is rewarded with candles or power-ups used in other multiplayer games.

How we built it

We built in Unity with C#. Our graphics were created in Piskel and Photoshop.

Challenges we ran into

Designing a game is lot harder we thought it would be, even for a relatively simple game like ours. Implementing the echolocation around the player was our most challenging task, as well as just understanding how Unity works.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to form a team without knowing each other and work efficiently together. We came up with a good gaming concept and made a concrete plan to implement it in stages leading up to final functionality

What I learned

We learned how to work with Unity to control players and create echolocation particle effects. We also learned the basics of pixel animation and importing those into our Unity game.

What's next for EchoPolo

We would like to implement the multiplayer mode mentioned above. The goal of one player, the hider, would be to find their way out of the darkness, while the other, the chaser, would have to catch the first player before they manage to escape. The catch is that players can only locate each other when the other player emits a strong echolocation. Players would need to balance seeing their own locations with hiding their location from the other. We would also implement candle and power-up rewards for the winner of a round. Power-ups would increase or decrease echolocation frequency, forcing the player to balance seeing the platforms more consistently, thus avoiding dying, with being more visible to the other player, or vice-versa. We would also implement a shop, where players could customise their avatar with little add-ons like hats, just for fun.