Mello Madness

Team Jelly Battlers

Project Description

Mello Madness is a co-op puzzle platformer where 2 Players use the unique abilities of their characters to traverse a series of levels designed to test the Players’ creativity and teamwork. Our team of 4 students built this game as a senior capstone project in the Fall of 2017. We entered into a competition against other senior capstone projects, earning fourth place as well as a perfect score.

What I Contributed

  • Designed and implemented main character mechanics including basic movement and stretching features.
  • Refined main character details like color and behavior of facial features to better reflect in-game mechanics.
  • Guided brainstorming sessions to decide on overall design philosophy for each level.
  • Built critical early levels to teach the Players basic mechanics and devised guidance features based on feedback gathered from regular playtesting.

Details/Features

2D Movement, Jumping, Wall Jumping

Both Players are able to move side-to-side and jump while grounded. They can also wall jump by coming into contact with a wall.

Stretching Mechanics

One Player can stretch their character vertically, forming a wall. The other Player can become a platform by stretching their character horizontally. By holding a direction, the Players can choose where their character will return to their original form, indicated by the position of their character’s faces.

Level 1 Minty Meadows

Minty Meadows introduces basic movement mechanics and common map elements like respawn points, spikes, chocolate, and graham crackers. During this first level, stretching mechanics are disabled to simplify learning as the Players face their first puzzles requiring active teamwork to solve.

Level 2 Gummy Gardens

Gummy Gardens adds in the stretching mechanics, guiding the Players through their first transformations. The first few puzzles show the Players how they can act as pieces of terrain. The last few puzzles teach the Players how to creatively use their stretching mechanics to pass through narrow openings.

Level 3 Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake teaches players to specifically use the stretching mechanics to reach otherwise unreachable terrain elements.

Later Levels

The later levels explore new twists on existing mechanics like moving terrain and map elements, time pressure introduced by moving hazards, non-linear map design, and asymmetric levels of risk between the two Players.