Game Overview
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.
Learning Points
Engineering Tools for designer
In the process of creating this game, I realized that I needed to code in a way that allows the primary designers flexibility in how they wanted to implement their levels without me needing to modify much code.
Roles & Contributions
Solo Programmer & System Engineer
As the sole programmer for this game, I spearheaded the programming and implementation of the datasheets to create both enemy mechanics, as well as level generation, all while working simultaneously on "Timeout!".
I understood that I needed to code in a way that allows the primary designers flexibility in how they wanted to implement their levels, to which I created a sheets-based level crafting system for the designer to utilize.
Notable Contributions
Tile Generator
While working on this game, I created a tile generator for the designers, allowing them to create a level layout of any size in google sheets and exporting the csv into the game for quick and efficient level designing. The excel sheet contains different level data, including tile properties, enemy properties, exits, traps and more. Below is a 1:1 comparison of the level layout and entity sheets. (Click on images to zoom in)
Waypoints and Simple AI
After creating the tile generator, I created the enemy ai's navigation and logic, where the enemy would chase the player if the player approached it at varying distances depending on the enemy. Each enemy would have a drop-off timer that counts down to it losing track of the player's position, to which it would return to its patrolling waypoints.
To ensure that this was seamlessly implemented, I utilized state machines in the enemy ai to have different logic for each different state it was in, allowing me to differentiate and segment the logic according to what kind of state it's currently in.
