No Excuse for Monster Abuse
In modern-day fantasy platformer NEFMA, Rescue your professor and save the city from monsters as a young team of superheroes learn to control their powers.
No Excuse for Monster Abuse (NEFMA) was my game design capstone at the University of Alberta. I worked in a team of six students to make a feature-complete 2D platformer in Unity within one term. Since our previous projects were dark in tone, we went with an upbeat and positive theme. For the same reason, it was a fun challenge to adapt my writing to this new mood. The game features four player co-op, voice acting, an end boss, and unique hero powers. It includes three levels, three endings, and three monster types. For my part, I wrote the story, dialogue, barks, and game lore. I also designed the levels and helped with coding in between my other duties. We developed NEFMA using Agile methodology with a presentation at the end of every sprint.
NEFMA was available to play at Animethon 2018, and proved a smash hit.
Narrative
Game Design
Narrative Design
For our capstone project, we went with an upbeat, comical feel. I drafted the story in modules, since the length of the game was unknown at the time. Of the four heroes, Agni was popular enough that students made fan art for her, and we received many volunteers for her voice over. It was quite flattering.
The four aspiring heroes are friends. They sit together, they walk to school in a group, and they have powers that can combine to create dynamic play strategies.
In a loving homage to the work of Tim Schaefer, the story deals with the mundane (a normal high school) meeting the bizarre (aspiring superheroes learning to control their powers). Additionally, I worked in a twist to the story and game-play. Despite the traditional trappings of a 2D beat-em-up platformer, killing monsters does not lead to a good ending. Since this game deals with young heroes learning to be heroes and to control their powers, misuse of their powers should be avoided.
Level Design
I designed every level in No Excuse For Monster Abuse. The 2D horizontal maps drive challenge through platforming difficulty and enemy placement. There are two routes through the latter two levels; one along the ground, and one across the rooftops. Players can switch between the two routes to avoid hazards or combine their powers to overcome them. Finally, levels balance both killing monsters and avoiding monsters. Careful use of art assets reduces level repetition.
Originally, levels were to be more complex; for example, heroes also needed to search for and rescue civilians to avoid a bad ending. Likewise, hazards like gushing fire hydrants were intended to damage Agni (as she has fire-based powers). We cut the latter feature as it didn’t feel in spirit with empowering players, and the former was cut due to resource constraints.
NEFMA Screenshots
