Krypta

Student game at The Game Assembly (2019)
Read more and download for free at itch.io

In this challenging platformer you have to master the blunderbuss recoil jump and dance through the dangers of the underground to retrieve the crown. Combine the power of the recoil with wall-sliding and wall-jumping, and recharge your blunderbuss in the air using the mid-air lanterns.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My contributions: Player concept, Environment graphics, Sound effects, Menus, Logotype, Story, Website design.

Player iterations by me, Henrik Westerlund and Ivar Roxner Kinny.

Player design

The first thing we discussed and decided for the project was that we wanted an unique double jump. After some discussion we ended up with the idea of having a weapon that would recoil the player into a double jump or using your body as a wrecking ball to break obstacles.

Since the animators were going to use Spine, we could try to come up with a design that worked well within those limitations (2D layers with joints). A knight in armour seemed fitting and I did a quick sketch in Photoshop using a few layers with separate body parts on each one, to present to the others how the player could be constructed.

After that, we started designing the look of the character, sending it back and forth between the artists and animators until we reached a design and level of detail that was readable in-game and made sense in the world. One big challenge was to come up with a solution for the weapon itself, since we didn't want the players to think that it was an ordinary gun that you could shoot enemies with. Therefore we ended up with adding a bellow that pumps air into the rifle, building up enough pressure for the player to release double jump-capable puffs of air.

Sound effects

The sounds were important to us in this game, in order to fill the mostly empty crypt with life and give the player the feedback needed to make the movements feel satisfying. We unfortunately didn't have time to record our own sounds from scratch, so I used free sound effects found online and modified them with EQ, reverb and other effects to make them all fit together and sound like they belong in the cold, empty crypt.

Below is a video with gameplay footage where the music has been partially turned down, in order to showcase the sounds.

Menu design

We wanted the main menu to flow into the intro in a good way, so I made a sketch in Photoshop with a composition that works as an overview shot of the environment where the intro sequence takes place. We can see the player sitting by the fire, playing his guitar and preparing himself to enter the crypt and begin his tomb raiding journey...

The story is set in medieval times, so we wanted the rest of the interface and UI to reflect that vibe. I selected some fonts and created a set of ornamented lines that got used tor the different menu screens. I enjoy working with typography and I'm always interested in what the fonts can do to help tell the same story as the rest of the graphics.

Final result
Paintover by Karsten Malmquist, animated fire by Daniella Rolf and cursor by Henrik Westerlund.

Logo illustration by Henrik Westerlund.