Girl vs Bugs: A Hobby Game Project
"Girl vs Bugs" is a personal project i began in 2019. i work on it from time to time. my goal is make a game for my nieces Dahlia (6yr) and Willow (4yr) to play. i hope to have it completed by the time the oldest turns 10 years old.
GAME DESIGN
the core game design is inspired by Blaster Master on the NES. the game's design wants to be straight forward and simple and does not want to frustrate a 10 year old.
the project's biggest design challenge is solving an increasing scale of play spaces. scale 1 fits a cannoneer pilot, scale 2 fits a small tank, scale 3 fits a medium sized tank, scale 4 a large tank. it's intended the smaller play spaces fit functionally inside the larger ones.
a programmer acquaintance had expressed his interest in helping when learning about the project, when game ready assets are complete, i will reach out to see what his schedule has become. once these assets are made ready, i can let him loose to prototype game play and based on his findings, determine the scale of the play spaces to concept the environments around.
CONCEPT ART
the concepts were drawn with a mouse by a hand reaching out from under a blanket coffin. the game will be 3d and the art style is inspired by 3d Mario.
ITEMS
the game uses a simple gate and key design. an item unlocks an area of a level, tank, or ability.
PLAYER TANKS
Karly the cannoneer pilot drives a tank, that drives a bigger tank, that drives an even bigger tank.
BAD BUGS
like the tanks, the bug enemies, get bigger and bigger, requiring bigger and bigger equipment to defeat.
GOOD BUGS
not all bugs are bad, these bugs help draw the player's attention in the right direction.
GAME ASSETS
currently, the task at hand is to create the 3d assets. game ready meshes will be created after a highpoly model pass has been completed.
Replies
GAME ASSETS
PICK UPS
i've blocked out some of the picks up seen here.
KARLY
the player character is based on my sister. her favorite colors helped define the color palette used.
TANK 1 - DAHLIA
this tank was named after my niece. armed with a machine gun, it can dispatch the Emperor Scorpion that blocks the path to zone 2. with the Vector Jets upgrade, it can jump up cliff faces to access new areas and combine with tank 2.
TANK 2 - WILLOW
this tank was named after my second born niece. armed with a cannon, it can dispatch Blister Beetle that blocks the path to zone 3. with the Dozer Blade upgrade, it can move boulders to access new areas and combine with tank 3.
TANK 3 - CANDACE
this tank was named after grandma, my mom. the original concept called for missiles and a larger dozer blade. this will be changed to a laser cannon to dispatch the Centipede and backhoe arm to lift boulders onto cliffs. boulders are used to block burrows the end boss uses to escape and regenerate.
this is a WIP of the backhoe. the dozer is used as its thumb.
that's caught you up with the state of this project and will share more as it develops.