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N.U.T.S. Forest FriendZ

Summary :

N.U.T.S. (Never Underestimate Team Synergy)  Forest FriendZ is an isometric 2D four-player ​cooperative class-based brawler where players take control of forest critters defending their home from waves of evil loggers.

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N.U.T.S. was created over two semesters with a team of 5 in DigiPen's Zero Engine.  It features 4 unique playable characters, 5 enemy types with both normal and elite versions, and two epic boss fights.

Role:

Team Size:

Engine:

Development Time:

Genre:

Players:

Controls:

Systems, Content, UX Design

5

DigiPen's Zero Engine

8 Months

Coop Brawler

4

Gamepads

Copyright © 2015 DigiPen (USA) Corp. and its owners. All Rights Reserved.

Personal Contributions:

  • Scripted and designed character functionality and abilities

  • Designed and implemented enemy and enemy and boss functionality, abilities, and state-based AI, including an aggro and elite system

  • Created all in-game menus and wired up their functionality

  • Implemented an action driven tutorial sequence to teach players the fundamentals of the game

  • Used Zero's particle system to enhance the game's visuals and improve feedback

Post Mortem

N.U.T.S. was created out of a desire to strengthen my skills as a programmer and create a game with heavy MOBA influences.  To that end, my partner and I decided to keep the development team small, effectively splitting the programming and design load 50/50.  Both of us also have a large amount of experience playing MOBAs, so it was easy to come up with a design direction that we both found to be exciting while staying true to those inspirations.

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While there are certainly things that could have been improved, I'm overall extremely pleased with how N.U.T.S. turned out. Each of the characters feel unique and are fun to play, the enemies are varied enough by level two to create different kinds of threats that the players have to respond to, and the boss battles are satisfying climactic events to cap off a level.  This project presented a number of interesting challenges, but through overcoming them I feel I've developed into a much more capable and rounded designer.

The Good

The Bad

  • We were able to create a ton of polished content with an extremely small development team

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  • The characters and gameplay met our goal of creating a MOBA-like experience while still carving out a unique niche in the genre

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  • Splitting the dev work among two people allowed us both to gain experience in numerous areas of design

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  • Our game was featured at DigiPen's PAX booth

  • The strain of only having two developers took its toll at times.  We would've benefited from more playtesting, particularly when it comes to balance and pacing. 

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  • The bosses both fell a little flat.  The first has a glaring exploit that guts the challenge if found, and the second doesn't feel like an epic encounter due to its nature as a swarm boss.

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  • The game requires 4 players to be played.  This severely limits the possible player base.

Game Credits

  • Ryan Baker - Systems & UI/UX Design, Gameplay Programming

  • Mickey Cushing - Content Design, VFX, Gameplay Programming

  • Nathan Bernie Hansen - Artist

  • Evan Alderete - Composer

  • Grey Davenport - Sound Designer

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