Microscopic Mike (2020)
Team project (2 designers)
Impact Game/Top Down Shooter
Time: 2 months
OVERVIEW
As the legendary scientist Microscopic Mike, travel through the body of a person infected by Covid-19 taking the idea of the phrase ‘go fight someone your own size’ to a new level. You must defeat the dreaded coronavirus by using the various weapons of the pandemic; masks and social distancing are your friends and activating the white blood cells is your mission. Along the way you shall meet infected cells going through the various stages of infection, natural traps that the body uses to defend itself as well as misguided white blood cells, plagued by the sins of humanity.
GAMEPLAY
Loop through the same levels with a different weapon each time as you help Microscopic Mike defeat the Covid-19 pandemic by using the weapons of mass prevention against the infected cells of the human body. Each Loop consists of 12 levels each, so the environment and enemies remain the same each time, however, a new weapon is presented to the player at the start of each level. Each weapon completely changes the gameplay experience and strategy, where each time the player will have an 'aha' moment when they figure out a new cool way of beating something they've previously encountered. You can read more about the weapons and level design below, or watch the gameplay preview to get a quick idea of how everything works or you can even play the game HERE
MY ROLE
Game Design
Being a two-man army of designers, we had to limit ourselves to something achievable. That meant most of the crazier ideas had to be scrapped so as to simplify the overall art and programming-based production value. We limited ourselves to 4 enemies, 3 weapons and 12 levels (that would be replayed x3 times based on the weapons of course). Besides that, to add some flair, we introduced the 7 deadly WBCs, each following their trope of being based on the deadly sins. However, each cell would also be an actual type of WBC, since there are so many different types and we tend to group them all together during general discussions, this would add an additional layer of knowledge and humor.
Since each weapon would need to be unique and build upon the next, we thought it might be fun to base them on the prevention methods that have risen to prominence during this pandemic. That way you would literally be fighting the disease (by using the very methods that have become a part of daily life) with the eventual goal of activating the immune system.
Level Design
From the start we knew that the level design would be the most challenging aspect of this project as we would need to have each level not only balanced and fun to go through multiple times, but also open to various solutions in how a player may tackle them, during each run. For this we had to make sure that nothing was locked to a particular playstyle, i.e. avoiding single solution-based gameplay that plagues most puzzle games and instead allowing for multiple creative solutions to the various encounters. For example – the Bull enemy type, can be stopped with the Social Distance Gun mid charge if the player is skilled enough. But it can also be, very simply, baited into a hole or even used to defeat other enemies in the stage as its path for charging targets the player. This way you’re indirectly helping the WBC Bull do its job.
Looking at each weapon, the Mask Launcher shoots out…masks, which neutralize an enemy. Being the first weapon acquired, it is simple to use and familiar to players that come from most other top down shooter games. It helps the player get acclimated to the enemies and the environment on their first run. However, the stronger enemies take more hits as well as might have smaller hitboxes and that’s where the difficulty rises.
The Social Distance Gun can push most enemies away (except the WBC Bulls, which it only stops). It
was designed to be harder to use, yet more powerful since a single blast can take out a group of
enemies. The rise in difficulty comes from skilfully and creatively using it along with the environment
to pass a level.
And finally, the Vaccine. It is the most powerful weapon in the game. However, it is a melee weapon
and forces the player to get in range of the enemies which is rather difficult. It takes advantage of
the fact that players have beaten these levels multiple times and know spawn patterns and enemy
behaviour.
Art, Animation & Particle Effects
The pixel-based art was a completely new experience for me, as my previous foray into art had been limited to vector-based illustrations either for graphic design and/or UI based systems. For the backgrounds I tried to create a rectangular room-based structure with a clear wall. Clarity was prioritized as a lot of stuff happening on screen was expected and hence the simpler the environment the better. However, I did still try to throw in Rorschach style blots in the background.
And of course, each background was based on an actual part of the respiratory system, starting from the nasal cavity and ending with the alveoli sacs in the lungs.The characters were simple enough since I knew they would need to be animated. We stuck with small and chibi-style characters as they needed to be easily maneuverable within the room. I tried to make them cute but also deadly and stay in sharp contrast with the environment so as to be easily readable. The WBCs are also partly translucent to create this surreal effect as they perform their silly little tasks. All hazards in the game were represented with green or yellow, with green being the color of infection and caution and yellow being the color of the virus i.e. the antigen as well as the instant death sneeze goo. Blue and cyan were used to depict the antibodies as well as the friendly NPCs.
I also had to make sure all the animations and particle effects were smooth and juicy while being achievable. Special care was taken to make each of the enemies feel unique with different build up phases with an animation for each that telegraphed their next move. I also spent a decent amount of time on the lighting within Unity.
