JADE OASIS
Overview
Jade Oasis is a First Person assassination puzzle game.for PC. Swap position with jade statues to outwit deadly invaders and solve environmental puzzles.
This game project was the final year project where over the course of one year, our team aimed to develop a vertical slice of a shippable game. We decided to create a game based on a Asian theme as there were not many such student games in the market.
Details
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Unity3D Engine
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C# language
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For PC,
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Student Project
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3D printed model, art-book, magazine
Roles & Contribution
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As producer, manage overall team welfare and schedule as well as handle publicity events such as grad show & artbook publication.
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Overall game design, level design and user interface design.
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Contribute in game-play programming, mission scripting and debugging.
Development
Team
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Myself, Producer/Designer/ Programmer
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Sherman Pang, Programmer
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Eileen Liu, Environment Artist
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Lim Hui Shan, Character Artist/2D Artist
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Cheong Ming, 3D Artist/Animator
Jade Oasis was the biggest and longest game project I have undertaken so far. The game went through many art and design iterations, from a cyperpunk night setting to the evening desert you see today.
During this projects, I took on leadership positions as well as multidisciplinary roles. There were many ups and downs during this long project, but I was glad everyone had something meaningful to takeaway from the end of the project.
The game was built around a stealth assassination experience, focused on puzzle solving and careful navigation of the levels.
The 2 mechanics worked hand in hand with each other - turning enemies in to jade statues and teleporting between statues in the level.
There were many level prototypes done, some not making it to the final game despite having interesting gimmicks of their own. This was due to either art assets limitation or narrative cohesion issues.
Nonetheless, each level was crafted to provide the player satisfaction for figuring out the optimal solution through stealth or fast-paced combat.
The city of Jade Oasis was large and connected. From the town, market, mansion, side alleys and castle, each landscape was a beautifully crafted with a oriental theme.
Particle effects, spatial sounds and props also made each area believable and hints at the signs of life before the invasion. Designing all these levels within Unity was a team effort and took many iterations to perfect.
On the programming side, I contributed to the mission scripting for tutorials and boss fights. I also implemented many of the statue related puzzles and pressure plate systems.
Many of the cutscenes and character animation was set-up by me using Unity's amazing timeline and animator tools.
As the lead programmer was also away for a internship opportunity for 3 months, I also assisted with debugging and prototyping much of the game during his absence.
Some of my favourite features that I worked on in the game were the Jade shaders and Jadification effect when killing each enemy.
I also learnt a lot when working with Unity's force and ragdoll physics system to make the combat feel more dynamic.
However, due to the high ambition and drawn out schedule of the projects, conflicts were bound to arise in the team.
Conflicts of idea and poor communication were two major issue that arose during the course of the project. As the producer, these were definitely challenging issues that I faced for the first time in my life.
These experiences were invaluable to me and helped me develop my confidence and communication skills.
Regardless of the ups and downs throughout the project, I was extremely grateful to work with such a dedicated and hardworking team.
This game is a testament of the high quality of work the team strived to achieve, and the result of constant iteration and polish.
The game was eventually showcased at Singapore Polytechnic's Grad Show 2019 and also had its own art book. There was also a mini feature within Singapore Polytechnic's internal magazine that year as well.