Game Design Showcase highlights student-made game

By Stacie Hueter

Bold, adventurous and colorful are three adjectives that could describe this year’s student demo for the Game Design Showcase that took place on Feb. 28. 

It was only one person causing such a commotion: Daniel Bird, sophomore game and interactive media design major, who presented his game, Project Ink.

Students entered room 249 in Fine Arts to playtest it and found themselves immersed in the experience.  

Bird created the game as part of a culminating semester-long project for his 200-level game development course. Even before this class, he had already conceptualized Project Ink in high school with help from his mother. 

“It originally started as a project for a game design high school class that I took before college,” Bird said. “The assignment was to think of a game idea and test it out.” 

But when Bird took a 2D game design class, he found the perfect opportunity to bring his idea to life. His game centers around the protagonist Raffiki, who finds himself stuck in a world without color. As a platformer game, the player must traverse through a forest while dodging obstacles. 

Soft, ambient music contributed to the game’s immersion. Bird composed the soundtrack and learned to make background music through a music theory class he took. 

A unique element of Project Ink is the game mechanic used to “color the world.” Initially, the player must collect black ink, whether by collecting bottles of ink scattered throughout the map or extracting it from enemies they encounter with the pen and spear tool that they have. They could then use the ink to create bridges that can be used to cross gaps or act as shields against bosses. 

This was the most tedious part of the game for Bird. “Each pixel has its own collision system, so it’s just colliding with each other. There were a lot of fixes, but it never really worked … so I had to create my own collision code,” he explained. 

Bird considers Project Ink a puzzle game, in which the students tried their best to figure out how to use game mechanics in order to advance themselves.

One student played through the entire demo, while others watched and provided moral support. Eventually, the hype picked up when they approached the first main boss, a huge monster made entirely out of ink. 

The student struggled to get through, but with some helpful quips from Bird, they discovered that they needed to draw ink above Raffiki to block the crushing monster and drive it to the left side of the screen. After enough rounds, the boss was defeated.

By the end, the player finds a glass bottle full of colors. Then, they are instructed to “color” the world around them, eventually unlocking the “vibrant” version of the world. The trees, water and Raffiki himself became colorful again. 

The most intriguing twist was when this specific playthrough triggered the final cutscenes with Raffiki interacting with unnamed characters, and eventually falling asleep. This unlocked the “Nightmare Ending,” which prompted many surprised gasps from everyone because it left the implication of multiple endings.

For fun, Bird decided to show everybody another ending. He went back toward the start of the level and fell into a secret cave below it. The cave was colored monochromatic gray and held its own mysterious soundtrack.

In the cave, the player finds a glass bottle filled with ink, similar to the main level. However, they quickly discover that it is not the same. 

Running the other way revealed a separate boss, pitting the ink version of Raffiki against his normal self. By this point, everybody had their eyes glued to the screen, absorbed by the intense boss fight. Upon completion, a bonus ending could be discovered if players are ambitious enough. 

Game design professor Matthew DiMatteo, oversees the production of these games from start to finish and reflected on his role throughout the course. 

“In the capstone course, my primary role is to help students stay organized and on schedule, essentially like a project manager,” DiMatteo said.

The students work in groups and are responsible for each part of the project and completing the goals they set out for themselves. DiMatteo feels proud of his students when they finally finish. 

He said, “This is usually a fun moment, as students see their hard work come to fruition.”