Hover Dude

• 

  Hover Dude Logo

• 

  Hover Dude 1

• 

  Hover Dude 2

• 

  Hover Dude Chibi

• 

  Original Concept 1

• 

  Original Concept 2

Inspiration

We were inspired by two different games, Line Rider and TowerFall Ascension. Our present game shares resemblance with both of these games. In "Line Rider" the goal is to draw one or more lines with the mouse on which a boy on a sled can ride after the player presses play. Some simulated physics are involved in this game meaning tracks must be adequately smooth to prevent the character falling off the sled. TowerFall is an archery combat arena game where players kill each other with arrows and head-stomps until only one player remains. Players replenish their arrow supply from those shot about the arena. The players can catch other players' arrows and redeem power-ups. Our game is for 2 players and is played on a computer using Xbox One controllers. Our game resembles Line Rider the most with some elements from TowerFall such as the battle arena.

What it does

Draw your path to victory in this frantic 1v1 battle for survival in the clouds. To win in our game you must outmaneuver your opponent, playing as the titular Hover Dude, or the other guy! First one to hit the enemy with one shot wins, or whoever does not fall and die in the game. Players use the left stick and left bumper keys to draw the line they ride on in the game to prevent falling. Players use the right stick and right bumper to control the shooting mechanism for hitting the enemy.

How we built it

The game was written using c# and the cross platform game engine Unity. The background image was edited using Adobe Photoshop. The Hover Dude character was drawn and edited using Paint Tool Sai.

Challenges we ran into

Team members experienced with "Line Rider" type games were able to play the demo with ease. For most other people there was a steep learning curve to understand and be able to play the game. Considerable effort went into tuning the difficulty to make it feel smooth and intuitive to play. When deciding on a project name, we considered calling it "Learning Curve" due to its difficulty at first.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our project runs smoothly, and is a very interactive and fun game once you learn the controls. Having Xbox One controllers helps people feel comfortable in trying the game. The games are short and the goal is simple.

What we learned

We learned that having many buttons in a game's can be difficult for people to pick up. If we could make a game with only one or two buttons and no joysticks that would facilitate the learning process. At first we opted for realistically-proportioned player models, however it impacted the collision models in some unexpected ways, so we fixed our issues by creating smaller, more evenly proportioned "chibi" characters.

What's next for Hover Dude

We hope to improve the existing multiplayer Hover Dude by adding more features and functions, such as expanded UI and art, a weapon ammo/reload system, and a slower difficulty curve. Another approach would be to recreate Hover Dude as a single player game better and different than Line Rider. We received feedback from mentors that having NPCs fight with could be fun interactive game idea. The strength of this approach is that the game map could be bigger and the in game "camera" could follow players around.

Built With

• c#
• unity