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Untitled Birthday Gift Game

Summary

This untitled game was a birthday gift made in secret to a dear friend who turned 30

Development

  • Developed in my free time

  • A personal non-profit gift for a friend, never to be released commercially

  • Combining the genres of the friend's favorite games

  • Built with UE5's World Partition and Blender

About the game

  • Collectathon platformer featuring the birthday boy, Bambi, as the protagonist

  • JRPG turn based combat

  • Story cutscenes and recruitable NPCs

  • 40 handwritten birthday wishes as collectables

BirthdayMap.png
Birthday_Blockout_edited_edited.jpg

World Design

I designed the world in accordance to Kevin Lynch's Image of the City. The land is split up by Districts, Nodes, Landmarks, Edges and Paths to help the player orient themselves.

The world is mostly open in nature, but districts are blocked off by Metroidvania-esque locks and keys.

Hero Design

Laying the groundwork

The first step in this project was for me to make and rig a 3D model of the Hero. I decided to go with a simpler artstyle that others could replicate.

Birthday_Dance.gif

My first model of Bambi, grooving to a Mixamo animation.

Birthday_Abilities.gif

Traversal kit

I made abilities that the player unlocks throughout the game to constantly feel satisfying progression in both their traversal kit and how they interact with the world.

Getting the traversal stood up early

Birthday_LookAt.gif

Game feel

A little bit of polish goes a long way, so I made the Hero turn his head to look at nearby objects, I added some nice particle effects and Squash-n-Stretch to his movements, and of course some Coyote Time to aid in platforming.

Bambi looks at interesting things nearby

Combat Visual Overhaul

Before

After

The combat system and all encounters were set up by Elin Granath and Oscar Maris, but I took it upon myself to do a visual overhaul. The gold standard and main inspiration here was Balatro. I also made the combat transition effect which was inspired by another favorite game of the giftee, Ace Attorney.

Birthday_Backgrounds.gif

Combat Background Materials

I made a trippy material with variables you could tweak to achieve different effects on different combat encounters. We ended up using the simplest version for most encounters and used a creepy one for the final boss.

Development

Making a big game, quick

A game of this scale and scope is not easy to create in a short time, especially when you have a strict deadline of someone's birthday coming up. Here are some ways we saved time:
 

  • No UVs, stick to flat shaded artstyle

  • Add details with Triplanar decals

  • Add details with World Gradient materials

  • Use a Virtual Texture for the foliage to be shaded the same color as the terrain

  • Share the same rig with all NPCs

  • Smart asset reuse

Birthday_Triplanar.gif

Triplanar Decals on flat shaded rocks

Collaborators

Many friends pitched in on this project where they could. Special thanks to:

Markus Molid, Technical Animator, that cleaned up my Hero mesh and made all other NPCs in the game.

Elin Granath and Oscar Maris, who poured a lot of hours into making the battle system and general Game Design.

Albin Wrede, Sound Designer and Composer that made the game come alive.

Petronella Jonasson, Game Art student that made a lot of the props seen in the game.

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Arvid Edström for tackling many bugs.

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Cecilia Öhlund for writing funny dialogue

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