Features
Up to 4 player local co-op
4 unique characters - with 3 unique abilities each.
Can pick multiple of the same characters, allows for multiple team compositions.
5 Different types of enemies.
1 Boss fight.
Perma-death.
Background
First cross discipline assessment at AIE.
We were put into random groups and given 9 weeks (3 weeks of planning, 6 weeks of production) to create a project.
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My role during this team was as gameplay designer, balancing and UX, with some particle work and a light amount of programming.
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Surveying our playtesters to find the perfect balance numbers ensured this products success.
The game was intentionally made to have a low number of buttons on the users end, this was to amplify the fun party game atmosphere allowing it to be quick to learn to start playing.
Process
After being placed in our randomly assigned groups, I discussed with everyone there favourite types of games and some core features that these games had. I then put all this information into a document for us to look at any similarities and cross over between group members. What we ended with is Jackpot Dungeon.
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A big focus for me this project was wanting to build a co-op game, I had never worked on one before and wanted to see what the process was like. Once we had our game concept I was moved to work on the gameplay loop and developed the characters, enemies and the final boss as well.
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I remember looking at other couch co-op games and trying to find a thread that weaved between them all, what I noticed is that a lot of these games have chaos that the players have to communicate their way through. That was a big reason for the reason I decided for a perma death game with damage being permanent. I found that the character skills also worked really well together and I cannot be happier with the way this project turned out. It was a huge success and even gave us game of the year for the Adelaide AIE campus.