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Game info
Bolt and Bobby is SGA nominated puzzle 3d game which can be played single player or together with a friend.
You take the roll as Bolt, the electric ball, and/or Bobby, the snowball, and work go together and use each others unique abilities to beat the two levels of the games.
Engine
Genre
Puzzle
Single/Co-op
Team Size
6
Unreal 4
Project info
What we wanted to do of the game is to create a fun puzzle game with 2 characters which can be played by one self or with another players. We had two main aesthetics that we wanted in the game; The feeling that the characters needs to work together and that the game had lightearted tone
We were a team of 6, and we worked on the game for a course at Uppsala University, called Vertical Slice, which a total of six weeks, with the first two weeks being pre-production and the later weeks being actual production.
We had no official specification for what type of designers, but my main contributuion thats in the final product was making the second level of the game, which i designed the main abiility and designed the level around said ability
Working Together
We wanted the player to feel that characters need to work together
Light hearted Tone
We wanted a fun game for all the ages
Designing the Magnetism
Before i could make the level i needed to create a mechancic that the level would be about.
When we started the project we took heavy inspiration from Game Makers toolkits video about puzzle, and When i designed the mechanic i had three questions based from the video: how does the ability Function, how is the Limited by the ability, and most importantly how can the other character create a Solution for the character
So for Magnetism it would look like this:
Function
How does the Ability Function
Limitation
How is the character Limtied by the ability
Solution
How can the other character help
When Bolt takes a electric charge from a generator, the nearby magnetic carts will follow Bolt on the Rails it is on
Bolt will be blocked by the magnetic cart, there for they cant move forward.
Bobby when he is a big snowball can block the magnetic cart, there for Bolt can go to the other side
The mechanic was fun to interact with, and focused After that one needs just to design a whole level after that
Designing the Level
The level went through many different iterations, with the level going through three stages, with each stage taking around a week to do and which each stage had to be approved by the rest of the team.
Early Concept
When i designed the mechanics, made protypes of them using blueprints, and pitchtching the idea for the team
Second Iteration
Which the mechanics where better blueprint by the programmers, and i testing ideas for the different rooms, and worked on finalising the last puzzle
Final Iteration
Where the whole level was polished, playtested and done.
End Product
For the final product, i designed four rooms in total of the level, the three first rooms are the players have to figure out how the mechanic work through setting different obstacles before them.
Room 1
The Player learn the Function
Bolt picks a charge, they become magnetic.
Room 2
The player learn the Limitation and Solution
Bobby can stop the car with their weight
Room 3
The Player can relearn a core part of the funtion
leaving charge at a genertor ends magnetism
The Final room would be the most part be the final puzzle, I wanted try using the three steps which Mark Brown talked about in his video about puzzles; Catch, Assumption and Revelation
And for my puzzle it looks like this:
The Catch
Explore the catch
The Bolt and Bobby comes in the room, the player will se the formation with different buttons on them. The butttons open on the different sides of the gate but they will need a magnetic cart to take one character to the other side.
The Assumption
"Aaaha!" the player think, "there is button too room 1, which i can take a magnetic cart from to solve this"
However they will be shortly stuck as Bobby can't pass through as the magentic cart has moved becasue of Bolt magnetism.
The Revelation
Find the Magnetic Cart
Thinks they have found the solution, but fails
"Aaaah, right, i need to leave the charge at a generator for magnetism to stop, but where can i leave the charge"
They think back to the solution to the abilities limitiation, and they have the tools to figure out the solution, which is that they can use the generator from room 1 to leave the charge.
Actually finds the solution
