Betty Sue to the Rescue

Design Process

Idea

Gameplay Created

A third person top-down arcade style game where you play as a chicken saving other hens. There are 50 rounds to play with increasing difficulty. The player must collect 5 chicken grit by digging in certain spots. Once they have 5, they are strong enough to break the cage and free the trapped hen. They can then guide the rescued hen to the nest to start the next round. The player is not safe the moment they step off the nest, and they can also retreat to the nest for a moment of reprieve. The players’ lives are represented by eggs, and they can earn them by collecting 7 mealworms or lose them by getting caught. The game and high score can be saved.

Game Mechanics and Implementation

Round Creation

For each round, I created a function check for items to spawns. I have individual functions setup to spawn enemies, glow worms, dig spots, the caged hen, and fences all withing the allotted play space. The spawn function compares the round number and checks for what should spawn using integers inputs for each game element. This was done by spawning actors using “for loops” and updating the final index of that loop.

Enemy AI/ Interactions

The enemies have different behaviors depending on their species:
Foxes directly follow the player and speed up when meal worms are collected.
Wild hogs run from one side of the map to the other back and forth and speed up dramatically if a worm is collected. If the Boar anger meter is full, a random boar will break their pattern and chase down the player before returning to their patrol state.
Wolfs are like foxes in that they just follow the player, but they are much faster and much larger. They also speed up for meal worms, and howl to summon another wolf.
Bears are special because they are every 10 rounds and considered a boss. The bear will stay in place and throws logs at the player and if a meal worm is collected, they will chase them briefly. For this setup, the bear is center and in front of a tree. There are 2 roots on either side of the tree. Dig spot spawn like normal, but there is no cage. Once the player gets 5 grit the roots turn gold like the cage would. If the player does this twice and breaks both roots, the tree falls on the bear, killing it and revealing the trapped hen.

Player Interactions/ Score System

Players can be harmed by any animal colliding with them, or a log thrown by a bear. Players can collect meal worms to increase their egg value. Players can dig in any spot by clicking, but grit can only be found in the dark circle spots. Grit has only an 80% chance to spot after digging. The hole will reset after a few seconds to allow for continuous digging. The player can crash through the hen cage one they have full grit.
Score is rewarded for collecting meal worms, digging, collecting grit, collecting a lucky egg, defeating the bears, and completing a round. Score is saved automatically after each round but can be saved manually at anytime on the pause screen. The score that gets saved is the one from the round prior, the player will start with the exact stats (round #, meal worm progress, score and lives) they had at the start of the saved round.

Choices made for Players

Designer Choices/ Notes

When starting, there is a 3D cutscene to introduce the concept of the game to the player and motivate them to save the other hen.
Score system to encourage strategic play while climbing rounds.
Random fences to allow for player to jump and buy some time/ separate from enemies
Created meal worms that boost lives and score, but they also have a negative impact by taunting the enemies. This stops the player from just running around and repeatedly collecting worms with no consequence. Meal worms spawn somewhere randomly on the map 7 seconds after being collected.
The nest is a haven to retreat from the enemies by keeping the player from dying.
Turning the cage gold, playing a hen sound and showing a UI to say break the cage encourage the player to go to the cage even if they are not sure they can break it. After the hen is rescued the nest glows gold and signals to the player to head back. The same for the roots in the bear fight, this visual consistency allows for players to read the situation without being told.
Boar and bears were given completely different behaviors to allow for fresh gameplay and keeping the player engaged until the final round 50.
Give the player a feeling of lucky possibilities by adding 1% chance to collect a “lucky egg” or life when digging for grit- this also awards 100 points to score.