Swipe Fighter Heroes | Mobile Game
Game splash screen
Game app icon
Play the game HERE!
ABOUT
During my education I was having an internship at a danish mobile game and app development company – Copenhagen Creators. In a coordination with my supervisor Jeppe Kjærsgaard Nielsen (lead designer, COO) and Thor Damsgaard (lead programmer, CTO) I have worked on an update of their mobile game Swipe Fighter Heroes.
After analysing players’ feedback the Swipe Fighter Heroes game, it was clear that some of the game attributes, e.g., such as Items was not congruent enough and confusing for the first time players. It did not add much to the gameplay and the metagame. On the other hand, attributes as, gesture – based controls and heroes themselves were very much entertaining and hooking to play. Therefore for the update, together with the lead designer, we have decided to focus on creating more engaging characters and their special abilities (new fighting moves).
CHARACTER DESIGN
I have created 8 new characters to the already existing ones. When designing a character I have learned the importance of creating a background story for it. This encouraged to incorporate subtitle design details that speak about character’s motivations, add depth to the character and the game itself. Moreover, it can player engagement and make the whole experience truly authentic.
Since the new character design had to follow the already existing game style, I was given an empty character template to work with.
I have used archetypes to determine a loose starting point for my characters’ appearance. Firstly, I created character concepts, and then iterated on each of them multiple times to get the best design result, that would be approved by the lead designer.
I have decided to create such heros as frankenstein, fire, octopus and starfish, viking, dracula, ninja for the hero update.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Next challenge was to create special abilities for each character. Every ability would support their unique characteristics, and tell a story about who the characters are.
Firstly, I’ve started looking for some examples and inspiration, creating a moodboard for each characters’ abilities, brainstorming and sketching ideas. Moreover I was looking into the technicalities of 2D special effects production workflow and analyzing the rules of animation, that would help me create convincing movements. For each character I would produce several animation sketches and then decide which fits the most, usually combining a few ideas into one.
Sprite sheets for the special ability effect animation in Unity:
The example of one of the special abilities can be seen here.