Paul Anton Rae Aguilar: WinterFall

"WinterFall"

A side-scrolling 2D platformer game where you play as Santa Clause. Ventures off the North Pole and its challenging roads in order to retrieve what's been stolen by the red nosed reindeer before Christmas.

Course: N/A

Type: Side Project
Term: First Term, AY. 2014-2015

Genre: 2D Platformer Game
Softwares:
- Unity3D
- Photoshop CC
- Illustrator CC
- Microsoft Visio
- Asana
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- Google Sheets
Team:
- John Alson Entuna: Lead Programmer
- Paul Anton Rae Aguilar: Lead Game Designer, Game Producer
- Natasha Ivanka Ting: Lead Artist, Character Artist
- Justine Maurice Orprecio: Programmer
- Adrian Miguel: Programmer
- Dwayne Austin Maico: Environment Artist
- Alexandra Arcega: UI Artist
- Nickey Ronas: Sound Designer

Actual Contribution:
- High Concept/ Pitch
- Game Design Document
- Level Design
- Project Management
- Minor UI Programming

This project acted as our side project that we tried to juggle along with other academic project. I can say that this attempt was successful as we were able to launch the game on our target date.

Also, this project won an award. 1st Place Microsoft Unity Porting Lab - New Games Category

High Concept • Pitch

My buddy, Alson, and I planned this project to act as a jump start for us, along with out other friends, to explore our fields in game development. As of this period, most of us are somewhat unaware of what we truly need to do in our respective fields. We looked through the net on possible games that we can create. Then, we had an idea of creating a game for Christmas.

WinterFall is game where you play as Santa, trying to reclaim all the gifts stolen by your elves; only to know that they were controlled by your trusted friend, Rudolph. It's a platformer game where you have the opportunity to use different weapons for Santa to avoid or vanquish any obstacles that you will encounter.

Game Design Document • Level Design

This was the first time I attempted to create a game design document for a game. However, we decided that we don't need an extensive GDD for this project, so we had short documents and discussions to discuss the features. Also, I work hands-on with those who are implementing the features to make sure that what was discussed are the ones to be implemented.

On the documentation side, I made sure that we have a guide on how the level should look like. So, I created some docs for them to refer whenever I'm not available.

Also, for the features, the team was able to implement a Shield and a Sword feature to aid Santa as he progress through the level. The shield was mainly created to be able to block snowballs thrown at him. The sword opens new pathways and defeats foes blocking him.

Project Management

For this project, I also acted as the game producer. I keep track on the task backlog for the them. Constant progress check-ups and meetings are held to make sure that everyone is on the right track. We originally used Google Sheets for the monitoring of this project, but we eventually switched to Asana due to team preference. It seems like most like its Interface better.

Minor UI Programming

During one of my stay with the programmers on their development. I was able to help them do other task as we were crunching the game. Specifically, it was on the UI side. I gave the UI for the winning scenario a better feedback. During the recap of the coins and score received, I wrote a script on gradually increasing the number instead of just immediately displaying the value.