Concept Statement
Backslash is an up to 4 Player, fast paced, competitive 2D Action Platformer in which players fight over the control of processor rooms that help them download their individual program faster. The first team to achieve dominance by getting their progress bar to one hundred percent wins. Backslash is a gamified version of the battle between an antivirus program and a virus fighting to infect a computer mainframe. The game features a variety of different game modes for players to play.
Game
In Backslash, players team up in teams of two with one universal goal, eradicate the other team. Backslash features three different game modes. Legacy, the very first game mode we built the game around, the goal of this game mode is for players to take control of processor rooms and hold onto them to increase their progress bar. Capture the Folder, similar to any capture the flag type game mode, injects a twist on legacy. When players capture rooms, after a few seconds a folder will spawn within the room and they must bring that folder back to their spawn point to fill their teams progress bar. The final game mode, Deathmatch requires players to kill players on the other team as they hold down processor rooms (with each room captured acting as a multiplier) to score more points towards their progress bar. Backslash features two different type of rooms that can be captured, platforming rooms, and enemy rooms. In platforming rooms, players must traverse a platforming challenge to get to capture points in order to flip them to their teams color. In enemy rooms, players must evade, intercept, and destroy enemies that roam around the room and protect the capture point. However, taking over the capture point will flip the team the enemies are on and will help defend the point for the rooms defending team from attackers. Backslash features several different player customization options and all three game modes playable on two different maps, The Core, and The Pyramid. Each stage provides interesting engagement options for players as they try to win over their opponent.
My Role
I came onto the Backslash project three weeks into development. My role on the team was to integrate competent AI threats as well as help design and program gameplay. My first task though was to completely redo the user interface in order to help make it readable and engaging while players were either in menus, or in-game.
Post Mortem
Backslash as a project was an interesting but memorable experience as it was the first time I was on-boarded onto another project after my previous team’s project was cut. It was a very valuable experience that taught me a lot and because of it, I grew as a person.
Project Duration and Platform
Windows PC
One Semester (January 2018-April 2018)
Team
Dylan Alter - Designer, AI Design and Programming, UI Design and Programming, Gameplay Programmer, QA
Cyrus Burris - Producer, QA
Aurélie Le Chevalier - Executive Producer
Ben Cortijo - Designer, Level Designer, Gameplay Programmer, QA
Simon Estabrook - Designer, Gamemode Programmer, Gameplay Programmer, QA (Portfolio Link)
Lenny Gingello- Designer, Gamemode Programmer, Gameplay Programmer, QA (Portfolio Link)
Sophia Penna- Title Graphic Design, Team Logo Design
Calum Philips- Programmer
