Heir Dash
- Platform: PC
- Engine: Unity
- Development Time: 4 Months
- Team Size: 4
- Developer: Up-B 3 Studios
- My Role: Lead Designer, System Designer, Level Designer
Heir Dash is a vertical sprite-based 2D platformer centered around a powerful air dash ability. Outside of jumping and walking, this is the only ability the player has. Using this extremely limited arsenal of capabilities, players must carefully navigate around obstacles and clear rooms as they ascend a stone tower. This game was made over the course of a single semester at DigiPen Institute of Technology by a team of four designers.
My Contributions to this project include:
- The initial pitch of the game as well as designing and implementing the specific details of how the game’s movement mechanics function.
- Design and implementation of the game’s fifteen levels.
- Overseeing the game’s art direction and providing constant feedback to the designer in charge of sprite art.
Pitching a Project
Heir Dash was not only the first non-solo game development project I worked on, but it was also my first time getting an opportunity to pitch a project and my ideas. While this wasn’t a pitch towards executives or publishers, instead towards my peers for the purpose of recruiting them to the team. As such, regardless of the audience, this was my first opportunity to learn how to fully explain my vision for a project in specific terms, while also making it seem appealing.
Creating an Enjoyable Movement System
As the name suggests, Heir Dash is a fast-paced movement-centric platformer featuring an air dash. As such, ensuring the air dash was satisfying to use was our top priority. I ensured the quality of our movement systems by comparing them to other moment-centric games with air dashing, primarily Celeste. These were games that I not only enjoyed very much but also understood as the standard for air-centric movement. Giving ourselves a baseline to compare to allowed us to have a straightforward way to tell if we were doing a good job.
Another way we made sure the game’s moment was of high enough quality was to frequently run play tests and prioritize asking for feedback on the air dash mechanic.
May W. Games 