GOATS ON A BRIDGE
Jul 2014-Aug 2014
​Goats On A Bridge was developed in a team of 3 using Unity as part of IGMC(Indie Game Maker Contest) in 2014 held by Degica. The game is a 3D platformer where players would have to control 2 characters at once to reach the end
The game went on to win the IGMC 2014 - Judge's Choice award and was published on Steam the following year. Goats On A Bridge was developed in Unity and revolves around the tale of The Billy Goats Gruff.
I was in charge of coding the gameplay, UI, audio, animations, the shop and equipment system and ensuring the assets were usable in Unity for the duration of the contest.
REVIEWS
The biggest strength of Goats on a Bridge is that it uses a combination of short levels and adorable presentation to remain thoroughly fun and accessible despite a frustratingly high difficulty
IGMC Judge Nick Palmer
Dark Souls converted into cutesy and fluffiness. Breaking your keyboard never felt so cute. :3 Fun, original, good looking and crazy hard - despite constantly rising murderous intent, totally love it!
Andrius Karavaitis
This game. It is basically a hell spawn of fun + frustration together. Funstration.
Ryouven
STORY
Goats on a Bridge adapts the classic Norwegian fairy tale, Three Billy Goats Gruff, as an inventive new platformer that has players controlling not one, but two goats at the same time. That’s twice the capra-control of Goat Simulator! Sadly, this has the makings of a tragic tale.
Tempo and Chubbs’ poor brother, Tiny, has been abducted by an evil troll, and it’s down to you to direct the pair as they jump, dodge and roll their way across a series of hazardous bridges to track down their lost sibling.
DEVELOPMENT
GOAB was developed on Unity 4.0 with dual controls and platforming as the main mechanics.
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Throughout the contest, I experimented and went through multiple iterations of different systems and features to make it feel and play right. This included things such as the movement system to the cosmetics and collectibles of the game.
GAMEPLAY
As GOAB is a platformer, getting the movement mechanics right was important. I created my own rigidbody character controller to create a tight and responsive movement system.
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When the movement was done, I began working on the jumping and sliding mechanics. From adjusting the aerial drag of the jump to the friction and speed adjustment for the sliding, I found the perfect balance such that the flow of movement wasn't disrupted when the action was performed.
SHOP AND COSMETICS
To give the game some replay value, a shop and cosmetic system was made so players could spend coins collected in game.
The shops allows player to buy accessories/equipment to the character's head, body, feet and even changing the skin of the character. There were also different themes that could be bought and applied to the endless mode.
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I created an inventory system that would save the items bought by the user and keep track of the current item equipped by each character.
ENDLESS MODE
I created an endless mode where players could challenge themselves. The mode would continuously generate random paths as the player advances.
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I also created a grid system and instantiated the tiles in random cells. I would then check all the tiles' position and ensure that all tiles have at least 1 adjacent tile to ensure a proper path.
However, every time the player reached the end of a generated segment, there would be a noticeable screen freeze as the system generated the next segment of tiles.
I tried reducing the size of each segment and to increase the frequency and object pooling but the issue still persisted. In the end, due to time constraints, the team opted to pool multiple instances of pre-defined segments of levels which solved the problem and created a smooth experience.