BAFTA/Mathew Rhys Jenkins Slow Moe (Unity) - Mathew Rhys Jenkins (16) Pembrokeshire
“Slow Moe is a fast-paced, simplistic, 2D platformer where using slow motion will allow you to collect power-ups and defeat enemies.”
Slow Moe is an arcade style game where you have to survive infinite amounts of enemies whilst collecting different coloured squares. You will direct Moe, the cute grey square, initially through five tutorial levels and once mastered (and you've watched the celebratory 2D firework show!) through five infinite arenas. Moe will encounter a wide variety of enemy squares that he must defeat in order to gain the highest score possible and survive!
Whilst creating the game I furthered my knowledge in C# code, more specifically: raycasts, audio integration and instantiating. I developed my knowledge of raycasts by trying and successfully using them to detect when there is no longer ground below the enemy and where walls are. I now know how to show the raycasts by using Debug.DrawRay (new Vector 2 ( the location of the ray ) length + the colour ). By doing this it was easier for me to visualise when the enemy would turn and see objects. Before I taught myself how to use this function, I used 'triggers with box colliders' and 'detecting on trigger enters' but I learnt that raycasts work faster and are more cost-efficient when building the game in terms of frames per second.
There were four main problems I had to overcome during game development; slowing down time, creating different functions for the power-ups, raycasts and audio integration. The way I solved these issues was by using the Unity documentation web page, which explained how certain sections of code work inside. This taught me how to use the 'static variable' to gain access to the integers and floats from other scripts, which are the main focus of the game, and allowed me to create various power-ups with different functions.
If I was to develop 'Slow Moe' further, the first thing I would do is create a variety of different weapons that the player could randomly pick up similarly to the current power-ups. This would create another level to the game as certain enemies could only be killed using certain weapons for example.
It is also worth noting that there is a special secret area, hidden in the 'Arena Level Select' section of the main menu, where only the most skilled 'Slow Moe' players will be able to find it!
