Skyrates
Skyrates is a high-flying action-adventure game in which the player takes on the role of a sky pirate captain. The player is free to explore a world of shooting, looting, and upgrading their ship. All created by a small student team of artists, programmers, and designers.
Time
Feb - May 2018 (3 Months)
Role
Combat & UX Designer
Team
8 Members (Student Project)
Tools
Unity, Adobe Illustrator
Combat Design Challenges: The trouble with steampunk airships in combat is that airships fly. That might sound silly, but when you consider the body and weaponry of a traditional ship are built for moving slowly on a 2D ocean plane... the need for 3D versatile solutions becomes apparent. So, I drew inspiration from aircraft, and worked with the artists to keep the Victorian blackpowder feel.
Game Feel & Feedback: Another major challenge for airborne battle, making it actually feel good to hit things in such an intrinsically floaty space. Armed with information from our QA tests, I worked with our lead programmer to implement visual, haptic, and audio feedback. This not only added weight and satisfying punchiness but also made actually hitting things much easier for players.
Gimbaled Front Cannon for Precise Aiming
Port and Starboard Guns for Rapid Fire
A Bombing Bay for Massive Damage
...and a big stupid ramming pole on the bow because running into people is fun!
UI as a Movement Solution: It wasn't always apparent when your ship was turning or accelerating because of how far apart landmarks are in the sky. To make it more obvious, I wanted something divorced from the gamespace. I designed and worked with artists to create GUI for a turning wheel and throttle. This way the player could keep track of their velocity AND be shown the controls at all times.
The Forward Cannon received an active reload system, and a color-coded reticle to let the player know when they were on target, or if they were angled too far to fire the weapon. This serves as the player's primary poke and chase tool.
The Side Cannons were given a large amount of screen shake, smoke spewing, and a visual cooldown indicator in the form of reddening barrels. They're great for peppering larger ships or dogfighting with many enemies at once.
The Bombing Bay is probably the most visually involved, with UI for the bombs being dropped and aiming diegetically with the bay door itself. Bombing is a great way for players to destroy slow-moving or stationary targets quickly.
The Ram is the up-close-and-personal option. A great follow-up to the forward cannon, or just an opportunity to listen to the satisfying thud and crunch as you collide with another vessel. The player bounces off if the enemy does not die.
UI for Navigation: QA testers reported a lack of direction, trouble keeping track of resources, not knowing exactly how much scrap metal they had collected, and difficulty finding upgrade stations. Others were getting lost on their way to the main objective. I knew we could solve all of these problems with just a little bit of UI/UX thinking.
Drawing inspiration from Ubisoft, I was able to easily solve the issue of locating objectives and upgrade stations. When not on screen, a sprite directing the player towards a given object hovers on the edges of the screen. When it comes into view, this sprite fades out to preserve the aesthetic. Notice how the green balloons of the upgrade station mirror the icon that represents them.
The issue of keeping track of how much scrap the player has?
Solved with a scrap counter in the top right. Sometimes the simple solution is the way to go.
