MetaBall
A single player action/puzzle TC for UT2004.
2003 - 2004
When the Make Something Unreal contest was announced, one of my colleagues and I decided to enter.
(Eventually we were 2nd in Phase 4 and 5th in the Grand Finals.)
We did some brainstorming, and started to prototype MetaBall. At the early stage of development, the main concept was a small, simple game where the player could control a ball, and solve puzzles. It seemed a good way to start, and to get to know the engine, before we moved on to a more serious project.
Further on, we learned that there were wide range of possibilities both on the engine side as well as in the base idea. We started to add features, and as a result the finished game ended up quite different from the first prototype.
We managed to include three different gametypes, a handful of balltypes with different properties, and interactive level elements, using the built in Karma physics. The enemies also using a complex physics system helped to create emergent gameplay.
I made the artwork for MetaBall, the level and game design, and I also spent some time looking around the house for appropriate sounds.
A two man team was not enough to make all the content for this game, so a friend helped us out with the animations and character design, and the music was composed by a professional studio.
Fortunately we had time for a thorough beta testing, which was quite enlightening. We learned many things from player feedback.
If you would like to know more about the development please read the PostMortem of MetaBall and visit the official homepage at www.metaball.org.
