'Bodiless Dragon' is a short unfair 2D platformer with a little hint of challenge. You are in a slippery pickle where you have to navigate your missing body with your head. Hopping your way through the forest, cave, dungeon, and lava coop; searching for your body.

Genre: Unfair Flash 2D Platformer

Platform: Windows PC/ MAC

Engine: Unity2D

Tools Used: Visual Studios, Pixel Studios, Procreate, C#, itch.io

Team Size: Me :)

Role: Game Design, Concept Artist, Level Design, Character Design, Programmer, UI Design

Link to Play!: Bodiless Dragon by y_benjamin (itch.io)

Goals and Restrictions

My goals within this project are:

- Learning and practicing the basic of C#, Unity2D and it's UI

- Practicing my level designing pipelines, design, and planning

- Pixel art and pixel animation

- Wanting to make an inspiration successor to the 2D unfair platform genre

- Rapid prototyping and enemy AI

I wanted to give myself restrictions for this project because:

- I don't want to be ambitious within this project to meet deadlines and not to confuse the player

- Only focusing on limited player movements such as run, jump, and wall glide

Development Process

Concept/Character Designs

For my first rendition of the progatonist, I went for a more serious looking but cartoon-ish dragon as the same time. Since this game is an unfair platformer, I think it wouldn't make sense for the dragon to look like a serious design. Another reason why I scrapped this design because I believed that this wouldn't fit the tone of the overall design of the game. I don't want the player to look at the dragon believing it to be the antagonist.

This first design of the sketch was inspired from 'Spyro' from Spyro the Dragon and Smaug from the 'The Hobbit'. A mix being cartoony and detailed fictional dragon characters with also my design style.

- Concept Design Pencil Artwork

- Colored Pixel Design Artwork

I wanted to change the dragon design to look more cartoony and sillier to fit the overall design of the game. I believed that this would fit the tone of the unfair genre. More cartoony characters tend to attract the consumer to try and play the game. I like the final designs more than the concepts.

- Pixel Inspirational Moodboard for Dragon

- Marker Concept Artwork

- Final Digital Design Expressions Sheet of Dragon

Level Design and Mapping Process

Step 1: Research

Before I started my project, I researched and played any unfair genre games to help my process for Bodiless Dragon; such as Unfair Platformer, Unfair Sonic, Cat Mario and etc. After my first playtest of these games, I took notes about how these games make the player uneasy and allows them to take break for certain periods of time on a certain part of each level.

- Unfair Platformer

- Unfair Sonic

- Unfair Mario

Step 2: Diffuculty and Player's Learning

During my level design process, I wanted to study each game I've playtest and how each one uniquely designed their levels with their own mechanics. These are the main four questions I ask myself for each level and their designs:

- How each level is different than each other?

- What would make each level fair to complete but not rage inducing?

- How not to make the player frustrated but not quit playing the game?

- How each obstacles and enemies are different in placement and mechanics while not making the game confusing?

- Level 1

- Level 3

- Level 2

- Level 4

I wanted the designs to be related with fantasy. These backgrounds design to create a lava, village, cave, and dungeon settings for each level. I incorporated some environmental storytelling by added items such as windows, candles, doors, barrels, carriages, firecamps, statues, particle effects, and etc..

Step 3: 2D Mapping and Coding

My process for my level design is that I wanted each level to ramp up in difficulty. For example, Level 1 is easy, Level 2 is medium, Level 3 is hard, Level 4 is hardest. I usually brainstorm and create random design levels based on what the player can jump or dodge from the environment first. Then after the level planning, I add the obstacles and enemy placement to for higher difficulty. They are certain points in each level where the player can sit and breath without being pressured. After everything is sketch, I do go back, change and/or put something in new and make sure does the level is balanced well with time and difficulty.

Before I add a checkpoint to each level, I ask myself; Is the first part of the level have enough content but also having enough time and balance for the level not be quick to complete? My first problem was that I was adding more unnecessary enemies to the beginning of Level 1 and 2 and not thinking about environmental obstacles as well. It would have been boring if the player is just avoiding a few enemies over and over again without any different challenges. I also don't want too much enemies with different mechanics because I would be too much for the player to learn in an unfair platformer. So I just stuck with a few.

Coding wasn't too difficult for the basic of the game like the player movements. I did have a couple of pop up glitches. Usually, I tried to find any point to where these glitches are causing other glitches to happen or what code is causing something to not happen. The help I get for glitch issues or if I wanted to add something new to the game; I search for online tutorials, forums where people have the same issues as I, or my colleagues that understands code better.

For example, I was having trouble having a respawn void code for a dragon to respawn in a certain point where the player progress. I didn't want a lot of respawn points everywhere under the level or a respawn point directly under the player.

The problem would be is when the player jumps and falls, they would collide with the respawn point before the touch the level's floor. Breaking the illusion of the player falling of the level from their mistake.

To fix this I made a code of one long respawn point is under the level instead of the player; but the point is following the player underneath as well. This make it if the player falls of the level, that respawn point will catch the player and take them to where they progressed.

Step 4: Reference and Inspirations

The two mains unfair games that I took inspirations and 'lessons' from is Default Dan and Cat Mario. I wanted my game to have a sense of skills the player can achieve while also having a trolling style of gameplay such as coins killing you and falling platforms.

Like Default Dan, I also wanted my game to at least have a small story plot behind it. I felt that it would be confusing to have a random dragon head hopping through danger level to level.

Scrapped and Unused Ideas

These are the scrapped ideas I didn't put in the game due to lack of time and deadlines:

Speed running and the death counter was my first idea put input into the game. I wanted this feature added after I coded the necessary attacks and enemies. After I scrap it, I thought that there were already apps for speed running popular and indie games record time if people wanted to for Bodiless Dragon. For the death counter, I was having a little trouble with the coding for it and thought of coming back to implementing it; but since the deadline was almost near, I decided to scrap it entirely.

The dragon's fire attack was originally planned to be in the game. But since the dragon's head is severed from the body, it again wouldn't make sense design wise to breathe fire balls without a source of fire. The final boss was a last decision after Level 4. When the player obtains the dragon's body, a final boss stage would ensue and will be able to fight the witch.

I was really pressed for time to make my own backgrounds. My resort was using free use asset from itch.io. Since this was a solo project, I used free music assets; I try and precisely pick music out that I would think it would fit each stage. Don't worry; I credit each background artists and musician in the game's credits.

Launch Day of Bodiless Dragon

I was able to showcase my game day on launch on May 4, 2023 and have my own table display. I really wanted to make my own merchandise to marketing the game during the gameshow event I made a few t-shirts, buttons, and a lot of stickers. I also made a challenge for people to play; where if they complete Level 1 in under a 1 minute and 15 seconds, they will win a goodie bag with each merchandise with different types of candies.

- Sticker Design

- Button Design

- T-shirt Design

Fun fact about the t-shirt design. It was heavily inspired of the generic t-shirt design of the three wolves howling at the moon design. I decided to have the dragon in three different scared expressions near the coin next to them, since the coin in the game kills the dragon.