CouchUp!
Catch up your Couch running away
9
Apr - May 2025
1st Year Final Project
Unity
Couch Up! was our Final 1st Year Project. It was made with 8 other first year student. 3 game designers, 4 game artists and 2 tech artists. We were given several constraints : 3 keywords that would inspire our concept, the obligation to be a 3D game in 1st person containing 2D assets, and 1 month of production.
Our keywords were Couch, Cerulean, Black hole.
From that, we decided to base our concept on the key word « Black hole » which inspired us with movement parkour mechanics and propulsion mechanics using the attraction of black holes. « Couch » became our mascot and decided on the unwieldy and humorous tone of the concept. Finally « Cerulean » made us think of a blue sky and inspired our environments.
During prototyping, the black hole attraction mechanic proved to be a significant challenge. As we progressed with its implementation, we realized that integrating this mechanic would be more time-consuming than anticipated, so we ultimately decided to cut it to ensure production could finish on time.
During this project :
My contribution:
- I worked with the 2 others GD on the concept and the GameConceptDocument.
- I did the whole Character Script (including every movement capacity, the Animation system, the death and checkpoint system).
- I did every animation and UI using the Unity Animator system (1st Person Character anim, Coin UI/Anim, Death and Respawn UI/Anim , Tutorial UI/Anim, Main Menu Anim, Ending Level Anim).
- I did every VFX (Collecting Coin, Sliding trail of dust, CheckPoint Door…).
- I did the Couch Animation Script.
The constraints encountered:
- 1st cross-sector project: Being the first project in which we worked with the other professions (Game artists & Tech artists), the organization has been more cumbersome and complex to manage.
- Communication and delay: Despite our efforts to communicate as much as possible with the artists, a lack of maturity made us fall behind, and forced us to cut certain parts of the game.
- Project duration: The entire production had to be thought out and adapted for the short duration of the project, which forced us to simplify our concept.
This project teach me a lot about how to communicate and help the differents branches of a production (GameArtiste and TechArtiste).