Crook Scooters
Party – 2022 – Unity Engine
Crook Scooters is a multiplayer, competitive endless runner that was made as my entrance assignment to get into the Buas Games design study.
The main focus for this game was the implementation of the multiplayer. The goal is to be the last player remaining by dodging obstacles and jumping on other players to make them crash. The game is playable with one to four players, in singleplayer, the goal is to last as long as possible.
Everything in the game was made by myself, including the models, UI and code.
Throughout the game’s development I kept design documents wherein I detailed my ideas and process, as well as feedback I received from playtesting.
Mechanics
Player Movement
The most important aspect of the game was the way the characters move.
Intentionally, the player has very little control once they jump and leave the ground, this both so that they must look ahead and aim their jumps so that they do not crash into an obstacle, and so that players can move out of the way of getting jumped on without the other player changing directions mid-air and landing on their head anyway.
Joining System
The player joining system is made to be simple and streamlined, while leaning into gameplay seamlessly.
The joining screen lasts for ten seconds, during which, players can press any button to spawn their character and join the game. While they wait for the time to run out, players can jump, lean and taunt so they do not get bored.
Also, when the match has ended, there is a way to quickly restart another match, so that the players do not have to go through the joining screen each time.
Game Tutorial
There is no traditional tutorial in Crook Scooters. There are control hints displayed on the loading screen, but, more importantly, the first couple of generated chunks in each match are always predetermined and made in a way that they teach players the basic controls without being too intrusive.
Through the movements of the camera and showing what’s behind the characters during the player joining screen, the player is also taught the basic story unintrusively.