Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity's solar system
Astronaut in front of a red planet
Main menu

Inspiration

We were inspired by other co-op games like Peak and REPO, as well as games that play with the gravitational pull of planets like Super Mario Galaxy and Angry Birds Space.

How it works

Escape Velocity is comprised of several planets in a chain, where once a player is close enough to a planet, they get pulled into its gravitational field, then land on the planet. Players get between planets by rapidly spinning and then throwing each other towards the next one. If a player makes it to a planet for the first time in the game, they can place a rope to the previous planet to allow players to quickly traverse between. The ultimate goal of Escape Velocity is to collect the pieces required to repair the crashed spaceship that the players came in. The game is built in Unity with networking built with Netcode for GameObjects and FacePunch.Steamworks. The player models were made, rigged, and animated in Blender.

What challenged us

We had difficulty with creating the models for the players, as no one on the team has much modeling or rigging experience, but the end player character still came out pretty, even though there are some rigging issues. We also struggled to put together a throwing system that felt interactive but still intuitive, leading to us rapidly iterating its design to make it more accurate while maintaining the fun of spinning another player.

What we learned

Overall, this project has been a great learning experience for the team. As previously stated, we had no real experience with Blender, but we still adapted and gained a better understanding of the software. We also had some team members with limited experience in Unity get a lot more comfortable with the engine over the course of the project. The biggest improvement, however, was really our ability to work as a team. Near the end of the project, we found our stride and were moving with much more efficiency than at the start. Everyone knew what they had to, what they needed from each other, and how quickly they could do it, creating a sense of harmony that had yet to bloom in the beginning.

What's next for Escape Velocity

If we had more time, we would've liked to add item pickups that could provide alternatives to throwing the other players, i.e. a cannon or springs. We would also look to add obstacles like asteroids or black holes for players to navigate between planets. On planets we've thought about adding hostile entities or other incentivizes for the players to leave quickly, making game play more varied and exciting.