Aria Skies
Aria Skies is a 2.5D non-traditional fighting where players take flight to battle their friends by creating tag teams of their favorite characters. This game is the largest and longest solo project I have worked on so far. It features 6 characters, 5 stages and plenty of game modes to enjoy.
I set out to create a game that would test and showcase my skill in the whole game development process. The game was formed over a long period of iteration and testing. I commissioned musician Gabrimer to create original music for the game, which was a collaborative process.
The game is set to release on Steam as a Free-To-Play game in 2025.This was my first time publishing a game to Steam. I learned how to use their pipeline and how to build a Steam page.
Through working on this project I have learned a great variety of things, from animating and helpful coding tricks to running playtests to even some marketing and publishing.
Aria Skies is coming out on Steam soon!
Main Deliverables:
Technical Design, Combat Design, Graphics, Code
Team Size:
1
Engine:
Unity
Genre:
2.5D Fighting Game
Time:
01-2023 – 02-2025
Highlights
Charging causes a lot of downtime.
The game’s appeal changed over iterations.
Iterative Process
The game went through many cycles of testing and iterating which changed the dynamics of the gameplay.
One notable example of this the “Charge” feature, which allowed players to gain Meter by holding the button. Through testing I found this led to players charging next to each other at the start of a match, not attacking until they both had full meter. This did not align with the more aggressive player experience I wanted for the game. I removed the Charge and replaced it with other methods of gaining Meter that were more aggressive and active with the rest of the game.
Other aspects of the game, such as character balance, visuals or gameplay and menu UI also saw significant changes over development through playtesting.
Modular Plug-and-Play Attack System
The combat system of Aria Skies is designed in such a way that every character can use every attack and skill, including animations and effects. Every attack is also mappable to a different input on the character, making for a very expandable and modular system.
Using Unity’s Scriptable Objects, I was able to make attack data classes that are created in engine and combined with an attack functionality script. Once the Scriptable Object is added to the character, it will automatically instantiate the functionality as an object on play, allowing attacks to have their own monobehavior functionality.
With this implementation it is easy for me to make new attacks and put them on a character. I can now also have attack randomization as an additional game mode without any issues. Truly plug-and-play.