Project Nasu
Project Nasu is an puzzle-action-platforming game that I worked on as part of a team of three in my first year of studies at DigiPen Institute of Technology.
On this project, my responsibilities were:
Creating all of the game’s 16 levels (one tutorial level and 15 main levels)
Working closely with teammates working on the character controller so that specific level elements were sized correctly to ensure a slowly building level of difficulty
Modified levels to accommodate 45 collectible coins throughout the game for the player to collect that reveal the story’s “true ending”
Each of the levels in Project Nasu follows an engagement curve that was carefully planned out before being created.
In each level, I followed the Kishōtenketsu narrative structure, where each level has a setup, development, some kind of twist, and a resolution.
Main Mechanic:
Shooting one way propels Nasu the other way.
Shoot left to go right, shoot right to go left. Shoot down to jump, shoot up to fall faster.
Player can shoot two shots before touching the ground or grabbing a bullet bubble
Collecting a bullet bubble refills both available shots
The first actual level introduces the player to coins. The player also gets an idea of how high they can jump.
Gravity is briefly ignored when the player shoots sideways, so challenges like these can be made.
The level ends with a vertical jump challenge, and the player is rewarded with the last coin.
Level 3 introduces the player to button-deactivated lasers, and bullet bouncers. It's fun to watch bullets bounce around.
Near the end of the level, there’s a small puzzle that involves deactivating a laser before backtracking slightly to grab the coin.
And of course, it's important to not softlock the player behind the laser by giving them an escape route.
Level 4 is all about lasers. The level starts with a reminder of what the button-deactivated laser does.
The next room challenges the player to navigate through some lasers that turn on and off according to a timer.
The very next challenge involves navigating past a sweeping laser, which moves back and forth through a 90-degree arc without turning off.
Then finally, the level ends with another sweeping laser challenge, instead this time, the laser moves up and down. This changes how the player approaches the challenge.
Take a look at Level 6, which focuses on lasers as the primary obstacle. Through evolutions and expansions, each room provides similar but unique challenges for the player.
Level 7 also has a laser focus. This level reintroduces the bullet bouncers, which the player has to use to deactivate the lasers.
This level also begins with a quick dash across a horizontal section where the player needs to be aware that a laser turns on and off.
This section lets the player optionally try to nab a coin, which is hidden behind a button-deactivated laser. The player needs to time everything properly to obtain this coin.
This is another sweeping laser challenge that requires a careful approach.
As a small reward for making it this far, the player gets to enjoy watching a bullet bounce off ten different bullet bouncers before it deactivates the laser blocking their path.
The final section of this level involves a much longer horizontal stretch where the player must dash sideways repeatedly to make it all the way.
Here’s Level 8, which contains many expansive areas that require bullet bubbles to navigate. With spikes lining every surface, the player needs to stay focused throughout each challenge.
Level 10 is all about putting yourself in a dangerous position, then escaping in one fluid motion. Here, the player needs to shoot the button without flinging themself into any spikes.
Here is a development of that same idea; first shoot left to hit the button, then quickly shoot down to propel yourself up to clear the platform when the laser is turned off.
This further development requires two precisely timed downward shots to deactivate each laser in sequence. If one shot is mistimed, the player will be unsuccessful.
The final challenge involves shooting a button in a pit of spikes, then recovering using two full shots from a bullet bubble.
To prove that the player has mastered this concept, they must do it twice consecutively. The second challenge requires leaving the room to the right.
Level 11 requires the player to be comfortable staying in the air for a long time. One challenge requires the player to stall in the air for about 7 seconds before escaping the room.
Level 14 reintroduces moving platforms, which follow visible tracks. The first room also hides the level’s first coin.
The second room requires the player to navigate through a section with two vertically-moving platforms which travel up and down quickly.
The final room twists this idea, where now the player needs to stay on each platform as long as possible before jumping to the next one.