Project Overview
DragoNature is a Top-Down Shoot'em Up for PC that was developed for the II Game Jam da Semana da Computação, which had the theme "All men must die".
Game Design
DragoNature is a fast-paced game with all the design revolving around the game jam's theme. The player is a dragon that must protect the forest they live from the men that are trying to burn it. The game's goal is to turn all of the men trying to burn the forest into tree, using the dragon's magic breath, if any of them passes through the player, they lose.
Progression
Because it was developed for a game jam, the game only has one level. There are power-ups throughout the level that empowers the dragon's breath. If the player is hit by an enemy or shot by one, they lose a power-up. This gives an oportunity for the players that mess up to get back in the game, while rewarding those that perform better. If the player is hit at their basic breath or if an enemy pass through the player, they lose the game.
There are 4 kinds of enemy in the game, all of them made reutilizing the same model but with distinct looks and behaviours. The enemies turned into trees give cover to the ones still alive, creating another layer of gameplay.
Level Design
The level was designed with sets of challenges that gradually presents harder enemies or sets of them, giving the player time to understand the different behaviours of new enemies and the increasing power of the dragon's breath provided by the power-ups.
The flow of the level is created having in mind the average lost of power-ups a player would have through a normal gameplay and which moments are more better to provide the player with power-ups.
