Rescue Matters

Genre: Arcade-style Top-Down Shooter | Role: Designer, Programmer
Engine: Unity | Team Size: 1 | Duration: 7 Days | Platform: PC

Accolades

• Created for GJL Game Parade Spring 2022 Game Jam, recognized for its inventive resource-management mechanics and addictive gameplay loop.

Play the Game

Overview

Rescue Matters redefines the concept of “extra lives,” making them a crucial gameplay resource rather than a simple retry system. Players control a team of soldiers on a high-stakes rescue mission, reviving or deploying units using limited battery charges to combat waves of increasingly aggressive enemies.

The game challenges players to balance survival and efficiency, using risk-reward strategies to decide when to revive fallen soldiers or deploy reinforcements. Victory is achieved by keeping soldiers alive until the evac chopper arrives.

Core Gameplay Features:

• Resource-Based Extra Lives:
  Players must strategically manage battery charges to revive downed soldiers or spawn reinforcements.
• Dynamic Multisoldier Control:
  Players control all soldiers simultaneously, adding complexity to movement and combat mechanics.
• Escalating Difficulty:
  Enemies spawn more frequently as time progresses, forcing players to adapt and make split-second decisions.

Design Process

Theme & Conceptualization:
The jam’s theme, “Every Life Counts,” inspired a literal yet innovative approach: turning “extra lives” into a vital resource. By requiring players to revive their own units or deploy reinforcements to stay in the fight, the game subverts traditional arcade mechanics. To ground the concept, “extra lives” were represented as “battery charges,” adding a loose narrative connection.

Balancing Difficulty:
The design focused on encouraging players to engage with the revive mechanic. To achieve this:

• Players start with two battery charges and one downed soldier, requiring immediate resource use.
• Difficulty scales with time, as enemy spawn rates increase and remaining soldiers are gradually overwhelmed.
• Adjusted variables like enemy speed, spawn frequency, player damage, and battery drop rates to ensure the challenge remained engaging but fair.

Programming Process

Key Systems:

• Multisoldier Control:
  All soldiers are controlled by the same player inputs. Each soldier is attached to a Player Movement script, active only when their “isAlive” boolean is true.
• Revive Mechanic:
  When an alive soldier interacts with a downed soldier, pressing space triggers a revive if a battery charge is available. The revive duration and battery cost are configurable.
• Enemy AI:
  • Standard enemies use the same code as mouse aiming but target a random active soldier instead of the mouse.
  • Tank enemies rotate and move based on randomly assigned variables, creating varied behavior.
• Dynamic Difficulty:
  A float variable tied to the evac timer tracks progression, increasing enemy spawn rates as time runs out. This ensures escalating tension without overwhelming players too early.

Challenges & Solutions

• Balancing Risk and Reward:
  Ensured players were incentivized to use the revive mechanic by increasing enemy aggression and limiting passive survival strategies.
• Difficulty Scaling:
  Used a percentage-based “difficulty float” to adjust spawn rates dynamically, ensuring smooth progression without sudden spikes in challenge.

My Contributions

As the sole creator, I was responsible for:

• Game Design:
  Developed innovative mechanics emphasizing resource management and risk-reward decision-making.
• Programming:
  Implemented core systems, including multisoldier control, enemy AI, and difficulty scaling, using Unity and C#.
• Sound Design:
  Created sound effects using free web tools, adding immersion to the high-stakes gameplay.