Oxygen Caliber
A fast-paced, physics-based “planetformer.” Use absurd tools to perform precise maneuvers or reckless stunts.
Oxygen Caliber
is a game that I built for my Game Production class, in collaboration with fellow engineer Robbie Goldberg, and musician Justin Petrovych from Berklee School of Music.
In Oxygen Caliber, you play as a lost astronaut, armed with an oxygen gun and a grappling hook. You need to use the recoil from your gun, and the grappling hook to navigate dangerous environments while being chased by an expanding supernova. Oh, and manage your oxygen so you don’t die from suffocation!
My main contributions:
Ideate the game through brainstorms and fast prototyping
Implement gameplay features such as character movement, the grappling hook, and the oxygen gun.
Design and implement other features such as visuals, camera behavior, background, and background parallax.
Create and edit 2D art assets in Photoshop and Illustrator.
Conduct more than 100 playtests over the development cycle and absorb feedback.
Practice Concentric development, use Perforce Version Control, and Burndown chart.
Collaborate with Berklee musician, Justin, to create dynamic sound track that reacts to gameplay.
Try the game in your browser!
Trailer Footage
Feature Highlights
Grappling hook and Oxygen recoil gun.
The core of our unique gameplay. We wanted some unique movement mechanics in our first brainstorming session, and I said: “how about using the recoil of your gun to move?”. The grappling hook was an inspiration after watching some youtube tutorials.
The Super Nova
The objective of our game is simple, get to the portal at the end of the level. But during early development, we weren’t sure how to motivate the player into moving through the level except for their curiosity. Then I thought, what if we add something equal to the monster chasing you in Temple Run? So I came up with the expanding supernova design.
At the start of a level, the supernova seems small and doesn’t pose much of a threat. But as time goes on and the player moves through the level, it can become this huge spectacle that catches the player off-guard. We have a lot of “Oh s**t” moments during our playtests, and I am really happy with the unique sense of danger and urgency the supernova brings.
Visual and Graphics
The graphics and visual appeal of our game are something we left after our game is feature-complete. Between Alpha and Beta, we started to focus on it alongside tweaking game-feel and adding responsive juice.
Neither I nor Robbie is an artist, but I do know Photoshop and basic graphic design principles. Most of our assets come from packages or the internet, but I made sure that they looked consistent and aesthetically pleasing.
In the case of our planet sprites, they were originally low-res raster images and were never intended to be looked at up close. So I turned them into vector images using Adobe Illustrator. Much better!
Sometimes, that’s game-making for you, patchwork solutions born out of resourcefulness.
Alpha build and before
Beta Build and Release