Alpha Morph
This game was originally a class project. The parameters of the assignment were to, over the course of a semester, write a design document for the game and develop a playable version. The full design document can be found online at the team website: Hatching Disaster I fulfilled the role of Lead Designer, Lead Enemy Ship Modeler, Sound Effect Editor, Webmaster, SVN Controller, Gameplay Programmer, Game Balance Coordinator, and Feedback evaluator. As lead designer, I created substantial portions of the Game Design Document. We officially wrapped up work on the project in late May 2009.
However, we did not actually release the game. Several years later, I picked up the project as a side project. The game was originally built on the XNA 3.1 framework, and in the meantime, XNA had been upgraded to 4.0, and all subsequent submissions were required to be in this version. This necessitated rewriting major portions of the game code, mostly responsible for rendering.
I took this as an opportunity to not only update the code to the newest framework but also add new features and update existing ones. Ultimately, I replaced some of the ship models, swapped out the existing starfield consisting of point sprites for skyboxes, completely revised the heads-up display and modified the way some of the ship systems interact.
Gameplay videos from the original version
Screenshots from the final version (click to enlarge)
Gameplay
The game is a 3d space shooter that can be played from either a third-person perspective or from within the cockpit of the ship. The player ship--the titular Alpha--has four different systems: lasers and missiles for offense, a shield for defense, and thrusters for maneuverability. The Alpha has an energy reserve, which is depleted by taking damage, upgrading ship systems, and using the ship systems. Defeating enemies causes them to release energy.
The purpose of the game is, for each level, to obtain a required number of upgrades which allows transition to the next level. If the Alpha sustains too much damage, one of the ship systems is downgraded and converted back into energy. If this isn't possible, the player transitions to the previous level. However, if this occurs on the first level, a game loss occurs.
Each ship system becomes more powerful as it is upgraded. This allows the player to try out different configurations such as a fragile speedster placing importance on lasers and thrusters, or a sturdy tank focusing on missiles and shields. Each system will be fully upgraded by the completion of the final level, but their priority is up to the player.