Hyperlink 2D Game

2D GAME DESIGN // CHARACTER DESIGN // USER INTERFACE DESIGN

Development Time: August - October 2014 (6 Weeks) | Role: Character Design & Animation + User Interface Design
Victoria University of Wellington

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Hyperlink is the game I designed and pitched for my “Introduction to Computer Game Design” class. I was inspired by games such as Megaman and Risk of Rain - this can be shown through the mechanics and art style of the game. My idea was picked to be worked on for the final project with three other designers.

Hyperlink is a 2D adventure platformer. A virus has spread throughout the internet causing websites to go down and digital creatures to become infected. Play as either Chrome, Firefox or Safari to 'surf' the sites and find out what's causing this mess.

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DESIGN PROCESS —

Logo & Typography
I wanted to create a logo that felt very digital and reflected the environment that the player would be exploring in.

Character Design

I designed humanised versions of internet browsers as characters for the game.

GOOGLE CHROME
Easy to use, has many evasive spells to keep the player alive, chrome is very fast, slippery and excellent at manoeuvring through the battlefield.

FIREFOX
Relies on dealing heavy damage from a distance. No abilities - only defence is having long range attacks

INTERNET EXPLORER
Very high damage potential. Most rewarding of the three browsers in the right circumstances, but very limited defensive options makes this browser risk/reward. Made for more experienced players.

Concept sketches I made for the character Chrome. Our team decided to focus on using chrome for the project due to the short time length of the project.

Level Concept
Level concept sketches I originally made with the character Chrome for the original proposal. Our team decided to focus on using chrome for the project due to the short time length of the project.

Character Animations
I animated the character sprites that were created by another fifth member who did not contribute much to the team. Due to that team difficulty, I had to recreate all the sprites/ trace over their ones and animate them from scratch in a really short time.

Enemy Designs

The enemies I concepted for the game were all based on very well known internet things.

GOOGLE CHROME DINOSAUR

The dinosaur that is often found on Google Chrome when you lose connection - I wanted to use as an enemy. These enemies charge at the user and follow it.

TROJAN HORSE

End level Boss inspired by the knight chess piece, It will aggressively follow the player once spotted. It hops, jumping up in the air to crush the player with it's weight.

PLUGIN CRASH

They're often found on the tops of levels and drop onto of the player.

UNAVAILABLE JUMPERS

YouTube inspired enemies which jump high in the air, then after a delay, tries to crush the player with it's weight.

AD SPORES

If a player hits a spore an Ad will appear on the screen. Although the user will still be able to move, the Ad will not disappear from the screen unless the player has exited out of the Ad.

DDOS TOWERS

Towers which are enemies that shoot our bombs like a DDOS attack

User Interface
These are some of the user interface elements I created and animated for Hyperlink.

PLAYER UI

This bar will be located on the top left of the screen and will show the player their health and their cooldown times for each move. Below are the sprite sheets I created for each of the four cooldown times for chrome.

WI-FI HEALTH BARS

I was inspired by using a Wi-Fi signal bar as the basis for the character's health bar. When the internet connection dies, so does the player character.