Breaking and Entering

Game Design Case Study

Play the game: Breaking & Entering on itch.io

Breaking & Entering is a one level HTML5 computer game where the objective is to get from point A to point B without failure. You are a master thief in training, preparing for your very first mission. In order to prove you are worthy of the greats, you must complete the master thief training course to prove you are worthy. The course takes place at the top secret Alliance of Master Thieves Headquarters, and throughout there are laser fences, and spotlights set up to challenge your patience, stealth, and thieving abilities. Can you conquer the gauntlet and prove you are worthy to take on your first mission?

Inspiration

The main inspiration I used for this project was taken from a nostalgic dive back into my childhood. My favorite game growing up was the Sly Cooper trilogy, a 3D stealth plat-former game for the Play Station 2. In Sly Cooper, you are a master thief who steals from master criminals as sort of a Robin Hood character. You as the player move sly through a hub world filled lasers, guards, loot, traps, etc and attempting your objectives while remaining as stealthy as possible.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (2002) Sly 2 Band of Thieves (2004) Sly 3 Honor Among Theives (2005)

Hiding from a Guard, Sly Cooper (2002)

Sly Maneuvering through the security systems, Sly Cooper (2002)

Sly coming across a laser fence, Sly 2 (2004)

Additionally, one of my favorite games to play growing up was World’s Hardest Game. A simple 2D flash game with multiple levels increasing in difficulty. The objective of which is to simply avoid touching the moving obstacles and reaching the end of the plane in one go. After countless, frustrating attempts, I finally achieved the satisfaction of moving on to the next level, learning a little bit more about how to maneuver through the course with each try. The amount of heartbreak I have felt spending the amount of time advancing, only to be hit my the obstacle and having to restart once again…

World’s Hardest Game (Internet Flashgame)

The obstacle course in World’s Hardest Game, the player must maneuver through the course without touching the blue dots, the blue dots move when playing.

The Making Of

These two childhoods memories led as my primary inspiration and formatting for my HTML5 mini-game. I asked myself the question when starting my Unity project, what would be the most effective way to make a simple, clean, challenging, and most importantly fun game in a short amount of time? My solution was to take the elements of the Sly Cooper trilogy, such as the security systems and guards, but bring them into a 2D universe. This lead to a hybrid between these two games in the perfect mix.

Breaking & Entering Lazer Wall

I began by opening a Unity project and laying the groundwork by creating a simple 2D world by using in game objects and sprites. Once I was able to lay the framework down for the games structure, the bigger picture began to take fold and my goals became clearer.

After creating my two dimensional world, it was time to add the functionality to it and bring the game to life. I began by making game objects and sprites directly in Adobe Illustrator to be implemented into the game world.

Sprites and Objects made in Adobe Illustrator

After creating the necessary visuals for the game itself, I began placing them in the world that I have created. I replaced each of the blocks with a png image exported from illustrator.

The Full Level after bringing in png images into the world.

The Coding Process

Using C# programming language in Visual Code studio, I was able to make the world interactive by adding user controlled player movements, enemy colliders for the obstacles, and animated paths for each of the obstacles in the game. I started by creating movements for the player using the arrow keys ASDW.

void Update()
{
if(Input.GetKey(KeyCode.A)) {
transform.Translate(-speed*Time.deltaTime,0,0);
}
if(Input.GetKey(KeyCode.D)){
transform.Translate(speed*Time.deltaTime,0,0);
}
if(Input.GetKey(KeyCode.W)){
transform.Translate(0,speed*Time.deltaTime,0);
}
if(Input.GetKey(KeyCode.S)){
transform.Translate(0,-speed*Time.deltaTime,0);
}
}

Finishing Touches

After incorporating code and functions into the game, I was able to directly animate the obstacles within the game. I gave every obstacle a different motion depending on the level of difficulty.

Laser Fences

Spotlights

Hiding from the spotlight

Conclusion

After working out some kinks here and there and importing the artwork into the game, I have found my project to be a success. After play testing the game with several users, I was able to receive reactions from several players along the lines of “Addicting” and “Frustrating” or “Heartbreaking” but most importantly the reaction of the player when completing the course has been well received. Overall, my goal was to make something extremely simple yet still fun and challenging, I found that I was able to achieve this through curiosity, enjoyment, and determination. From here, I plan to expand on this project even further by adding more levels, new obstacles, and furthering the story to bring the project to life.

Play the game here: Breaking & Entering on itch.io

This project was completed as a part of the Spring 2021 Creative Coding class at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. For more projects from this class, visit the Creative Coding medium feature page.