Rushing Tide

Rushing Tide is a Rushing Tide is a 2D free-movement game produced by a 12-person team under DigiPen Institute of Technology from Sep 2021 – Apr 2022, of which I served as a Game Designer leading the implementation of gameplay mechanics.

Communicated with interdisciplinary teammates to ensure custom engine could support design directives
Rapid-prototyped 7 character controllers & 5 enemy AI variations
Implemented 3 levels in custom engine

Rushing Tide’s Trailer

Overview

Rushing Tide is a weird one, since we rescoped so many times due to the limited usability of a custom engine and to put less strain on our artists. Fortunately, that gave me a lot to do, since I was primarily in charge of prototyping player and enemy behaviors in Unity. I’m fairly happy with the finished result, though I do wish the game just had more content.

Player Movement

The earliest version of this project had the dolphin going around in a water bubble with momentum akin to Sonic the Hedgehog. Very quickly, that was scrapped in favor of a 2D free-form sidescroller, still with an emphasis on speed, basing it off Ecco the Dolphin (looking back, someone on the team was definitely a Sega fan).

Created 7 versions of the player controller via Unity rapid-prototyping in C#, referencing the game feel of Sonic Mania, Ecco the Dolphin, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Extensively playtested player controllers to decide which to move forward with

Prototype Player Character

Prototype Enemies

Enemy Behaviors

Aside from the player controller, the main thing I focused my time on for this project was creating engaging enemies.

Created 5 enemy types via Unity rapid-prototyping in C#, mostly based on Jetpack Joyride, weirdly enough
Modified enemy types post-implementation basen on playtesting & user feedback

Rushing Tide unfortunately does not have a download, since Google Drive thinks the executable is a virus.