About
Keyboard Warrior was made in 1 week for the Berkeley College Game Jam by a team of 6.
I worked on our game design, enemy design, and 3D art.
Media
Play using the entire keyboard.
Improve your typing skills by slaying bloodthirsty creatures.
Use your wits to counter each enemy type.
Don't get overwhelmed!
Process
I'm a big fan of using games to teach, so when I had the chance to pitch a typing game concept to my jam teammates, you can bet I took it!
Basic pathfinding using an A* search algorithm.
It's come quite a ways since then.
GIF of the build we submitted to the jam.
Unfortunately, we had to scrap some systems along the way in order to make the submission deadline. Of our cut content, the big two are definitely the shop and enemies spawning in waves.
Shop concept.
Spawned in waves, similar to Plants vs Zombies.
Thankfully, neither was fundamental to core gameplay. Making the decision to cut a feature is tough, but it's always worth it in my experience. Another casualty was this absolutely legendary piece of concept art, made for the cut "battle chicken" enemy.
Gone, but not forgotten.
RIP, battle chicken. You'll live on in our hearts.
But the enemies that did make it in were all thoroughly vetted, both in the looks and gameplay departments. Of course, I love all my children equally—except the wizard, since they're my favorite.
The squad.
The wizard's ability to block off keys gives Keyboard Warrior's gameplay some much needed depth. My intent was to create scenarios where players have to prioritize certain enemies to survive—if they don't, it's game over!
The og "bird wizard."
More wizard, less bird.
Like a large number of my game concepts, the keyboard warrior herself also started out as an MS Paint concept.
My original concept for the knight.
There were some slight design tweaks during the transition into 3D, but she's still the same ol' knight.
Step 1: model the body.
Step 2: ctrl c + ctrl v + head.
Step 3: sword!
While I originally pushed for simplistic models just to meet the submission deadline, it ended up being a big plus once we got our shader working. Mad props to our programmers.
The knight is missing her ponytail here, so just imagine it's there!
You can download Keyboard Warrior on itch.io.
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