DonDon Dungeon (2019)
class. GAM 355 (Solo Game Development Project)
assignment. Make a game by yourself!
team. Just me
my role. Everything
time. 8 weeks
engine. Unity
DonDon Dungeon is an innovative platformer that teaches the player the basics of Hiragana, one of the three Japanese alphabets! Take control of a cute little kitty, as you navigate ten different dungeons to defeat the evil Yurei, and the all-knowing ReCap Boss.​
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My Process
I had about five different ideas for my project before I settled on my last resort of an educational game. Since I have a Japaense degree, and since a lot of Game Design students are interested in Japan/Japanese, I figured I'd put my language skills to use.
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I never expected to make a platformer since I had no idea how to design interesting levels and mechanics. Over the quarter, I spent about two weeks just designing and implementing/reiterating levels.
Similar to Cooking with Cat, I made my adorable kitty (Mina) the protagonist of this game. However, I decided to break up the boring elements of platforming, with a little character selection screen! I created nine different cats, each with their own jump, idle, and walk animations. This was my first time making sprite sheet animations in Unity.
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While thinking of an aesthetic, I figured it'd be easiest to go with pixel art. I knew I wanted a dark and creepy dungeon look, so I scoured the internet for some dark dungeon aesthetics and I'm super proud with how my environment turned out.
This whole design process moved a lot faster because I was working alone, meaning I could take the game at my own pace. I worked late into the nights most of the time, just tidying up and perfecting minute details... but I loved doing it! I feel like this became more a passion project instead of an assignment because I just had so much fun creating everything.
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If I had more time, I would have loved to expand the dictionary function, so that I could teach the player even more vocabulary.
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This project was also a chance for me to learn the essentials of Unity Engine, which I now consider myself very proficient in.
