Freedom Bound is a system-driven 2D escape-bullet hell where you follow the story of Milk and Tea being stuck on a distant planet. The objective is to help Milk escape the clutches of the glitching planet and head back to the station where Tea is. Similar to "Timeout!", this game project utilized information compiled in google sheets / excel to run the game.
In terms of contribution to this project, I spearheaded the programming and implementation of the datasheets to create both enemy mechanics, as well as level generation.
Since I was not the primary designer in this project, I needed a way to allow the designers to have proper control of the level such that they can make changes easily without obstructing my workflow.
That was when I decided that I would look into creating a tile-based excel sheet grid system. This datasheet will contain the level data such as tile properties, enemy properties, etc. Since I was merely a supporting programmer to this project, I am unable to provide complete google sheets view access. However, I am able to showcase small snippets of the excel to showcase how features are implemented.
Referencing below, these values are input into the excel sheet, which are then translated into the project to provide the map that the player stands on. W would indicate "Wall" which identifies the bounds of the map, while "1" represents the tile in the first level. This process is also repeated for subsequent levels such as level 2 and level 3.
The entities present in the scene are also translated into the project by the same method. Features like the stars, the lock traps, and the player / enemy spawn positions are imported in the same manner. They are layered on top of the map and spawned in after the map successfully spawns in.
After working on tile generation, I worked on simple enemy way-pointing mechanics between different points, as well as their different agitated states transition, out of range and return states. This way, players are still able to escape from the enemies while they are being attacked in different attack patterns. The way this was implemented was simple as all I needed to do was have the enemies spawn in and reference a set of waypoints to patrol between.
After working on tile generation, I touched up on the remaining mechanics, working on simple enemy way-pointing mechanics between different points, as well as their different agitated states transition, out of range and return states. This way, players are still able to escape from the enemies while they are being attacked in different attack patterns. The way this was implemented was simple as all I needed to do was have the enemies spawn in and reference a set of waypoints to patrol between.
After the mechanics were implemented, I handed the project over to the designers to take control and create the game to their design! Thank you for reading and remember to check out some of my other projects in the project tab!