Rapid Prototype Reflection: An Hero

This was the first of the challenges for our Rapid Prototyping class, completed in 2 weeks in pairs using DarkBASIC by Games Design Students.

The restrictions on this prototype were

• Vertical Scrolling
• Use of double jump
• Single Button Controls

Being our first prototype, we went in really not knowing much about scope and how much was actually going to be possible. However I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, and for pure personality I think this is my personal favorite of the games we made


The concept was that the player controlled the suicidal Emo Boy, and needed to jump him between platforms to collect tears, which made him fatter. At first he could double jump, but as he became fatter he couldn't jump as far. The higher the distance the player made it before they fell (which was inevitable, the win condition was to die) the higher their An Hero score. The platforms moved automatically from left to right, and would disappear after Emo Boy had jumped off them. We also had a funky camera which zoomed out the higher the player got, which added to the difficulty.

Here is the extremely ugly opening screen

In-game Screen (I had intended for the first teardrop to be right above the player to prompt them to jump, but for some reason they position randomly along the horizontal)

Emo Boy gets chunky and prepares to take a fall.

Emo Boy hits the ground, blood is simulated by a particle effect and his body and head fly apart.

Overall the game may not be amazing, but we had fun with it. Please contact me if you'd like a playable version of the game.

What I learned from this game

• Collision is not as easy as you think; we had major problems getting the platform collision right, so in the final build you could only actually stand on the middle third of the platform. I'd like to think that this is part of the game, and reinforces the idea that life is an illusion. In reality though, it is a major detractor from the playability of the game.