Monkey See Monkey Doom – Unity

Development Time

28 Weeks ~ Aprox. 300 hours

Team size

Individual

Technology

Unreal Tournament Editor

synopsis

Monkey See Monkey Doom is a bullet hell game in which each round the players actions are recorded and repeated by a new enemy on the next round at the same time scale. By round 20 there are 19 monkeys reenacting the movement and shots of the player whose bullets can now hurt the zookeeper.

In game screenshots

design

  • Designed the central replay system and worked to balance it in each of the game’s levels
  • Prototyped various enemies that play with the core replay system in unique ways
    • Example: Monkey that plays through he player’s actions at half speed
  • Prototyped enemy combinations that give levels a unique pace

Programming

  • Architected the core recording and replay system the enemies use
  • Programmed and iterated the enemy types AI and offensive capabilities
  • Programmed the HUD and UI for each menu

art

  • Sketched and illustrated distinct character designs
  • Illustrated 5 animations between the player and the enemies
  • Illustrated all UI elements,
  • Designed and Illustrated conveyance for 15 distinct enemy types

Post Mortem

What went well

  • Character designs and animations ended up clean and polished. The character animation and hat design are one of the more successful pieces of the final project
  • Recording and playback functionality could support a large number of copies and allowed for a lot of replayability. This idea of fighting one’s past selves stayed consistent throughout the project and worked well even if it wasn’t communicated well.

what went wrong

  • Too many unnecessary enemies types that didn’t properly support the core, instead of diluting the experience for most players
  • I kept adding features and items instead of ensuring the ones I already had were engaging
  • The central gimmick of the game was not made clear enough to players who skipped the tutorial
  • The mental load of the game was too high for most players to really strategize within.

even better if

  • More organized task planning with a self-imposed milestone schedule would have helped me understand what the actual engaging part of the game was sooner
  • I thought that the more elements in the game the better but really I ought to have cut enemy types that were never really understood or utilized by the player
  • I should have spent a lot more time on the conveyance of the core mechanic.
  • More rigorous playtesting for in-game UI would have helped me see how much more work was needed to make the HUD useful to the player.

Additional Images