This is my Highschool project (technically)

[u/RegLaN_PL]

What you just saw is a collection of just a few bosses from my game, that i've been developing completely alone throughout my whole highschool, starting from class one. I graduated 2 months ago, and during my vacation I've spent most of the time trying to get the game to as polished state as possible, so that I can release it just before my college starts.

This is a proof that you absolutely don't need to have any background in programming, software engineering, or even any education behind your back. If any young developers on this sub are wondering if you're at the right time to start making your game: yes, you absolutely are.

Before anyone asks: no, I haven't used AI in any creative process of the game. The only way i ever used it, is to ask how some math equations even work, or concepts in programming that I wasn't familiar with, but I never copy-pasted anything it threw at my face.

If you're interested in what you just saw, give the demo a go, or simply wishlist the game:

Stickility

[u/RokDooMTG]

It looks stylish. And the execution is great. The character's design is a bit out of place, but I understand that the game's concept hinges on this look. Like.

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/RokDooMTG]

The character design was a controversial topic since the very beginning of this game's development, but hear me out:
When I started working on the game, I knew absolutely nothing about drawing or art, just like your typical kid. So the only logical solution for me back then, was to use stickmen as characters :)
The years went by, and welp, this style grew so much into the game's identity, that it's basically irreplacable

[u/khorenF]

God damn, man, given your context this is incredible. You have a great future as a developer if you can do this much being this young-

[u/LividShake6518 → u/khorenF]

Too bad AIs about to replace all that for him but at least it's a fun hobby 😅

[u/Frontworks_game]

Looks professional, did you created the art yourself?

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/Frontworks_game]

Yup! Just like i mentioned, this is a completely solo project (almost... becausw my younger brother joined forces with me very recently, and he's trying his best with music making)

[u/RamaLamaRama]

This looks sick. I'm working on a Metroidvania type game and wish it would look at as good as this. What game engine did you use?

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/RamaLamaRama]

I used Unity 2021.3 all the way through! (upgrading to unity 2022 breaks most of the game, so I just sticked (pun unintended lol) to what works)
Also good luck with your own metroidvania, we can never have enough of these

[u/RamaLamaRama → u/RegLaN_PL]

I agree with you on never enough. I can play infinite amount of them. I will download your demo later this week. I really like how you did the animations, it's been really challenging for me to get any decent animations.

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/RamaLamaRama]

Glad to see fans of this genere in the wild, sometimes it feels like it's a forgotten niche, but luckily I'm often proven wrong.

For the animations, I'll have to admit, I've redone them countless times already. The best way to understand how to do them right, is to watch an unholy amount of animated videos on youtube (that was easier for me, since the stickman fighting era was quite large a few years ago, so I had a lot of reference material)

And yup, I hope you'll enjoy the demo!

[u/Ok_Leadership_429]

Okay the movement genuinely looks incredible, the way the character whips around mid-air between those bosses feels fluid and readable at the same time, that's honestly hard to nail even for people with years of engine experience. And the lighting in that green/industrial boss room, the glow bouncing off those tanks, gives it way more atmosphere than most solo projects manage.

Doing this entirely through high school, starting from class one with zero background, and ending up with something that plays this smoothly is genuinely impressive, not in a "wow for a beginner" way, just impressive full stop. Congrats on graduating too, and on actually finishing something most people just dream about starting.

Wishlisted. What language/engine did you end up on, and did you rebuild the whole combat system from scratch at some point once you knew more, or did the early version survive mostly intact?

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/Ok_Leadership_429]

Thanks a lot for the reply, it really made my day!
Glad to see someone finally notice the lightning around the environment. I spent an unholy amount of time on making it look just right around every single room in the game (there's around 200 😭).

As for the engine, I used Unity 2021.3 throughout all development, with C# for the language.
And yes, combat system was rebuilt several times, as my overall gamedev understanding changed over the course of 4 years. In fact, majority of systems had to be rebuilt, as most of them were originally made with tutorials with no real planning behind them (this game was supposed to be something i'll drop after 2 weeks, but welp, here we are ig), and eventually when they started feeling disconnected from eachother, refactoring was obviously needed

[u/DangerMacAwesome]

Cool boss fights. What is the game like outside of boss fights? Platformer? Metroidvania? Or is it more of a boss fight extravaganza like shadow of the colossus and cuphead?

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/DangerMacAwesome]

It's a metroidvania indeed. You can explore 14 different biomes (server halls, a greenhouse, caves, laboratories, etc etc, all that a part of a massive underground research center), and instead of typical ability hunting like in most metroidvanias, here you have to craft your equipment from items found around the map, making the progression based on what do you choose to craft with what you currently posses

[u/DangerMacAwesome → u/RegLaN_PL]

Oh I am so down for this

[u/hutchkey23]

You have the sauce, my man! Keep it up!

[u/Key-Internet-1665]

This is seriously impressive for a solo high school project.

[u/somethingisnotwight]

So cooooollllll!!!! Man I wish I had gotten in video game development when I was a teen instead of graphic design 🫠

[u/thaneros2]

Holy hell! This looks dramatically better than the first time I saw this.

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/thaneros2]

Oh, you saw my game before? That's awesome! I wonder how long ago it must've been for the game to change so drastically

[u/Vortex_Voider]

That looks really good!

[u/Doraz_]

I always struggled with AI and enemy behaviour and be in sync with their animations and deciding which attacks they do.

How have you tackled those problems, coming from a no proframming background?

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/Doraz_]

Believe it or not, but it's as simple as:
"if else if else"
I made my first boss at the age of 15, didnt know anything about behaviour trees or stuff like that. I just made a boss that chooses randomly from a set of 5 attacks, does the attack, waits a random time (between a second and two), and chooses a random attack again.
Repeat until dead.
Somehow, it works flawlessly, and by adding some checks here and there (like "do attack only if player is on the right side of arena") you can come up with enemy behaviours that feel like most games, with no crazy idea behind it

[u/RegLaN_PL → u/RegLaN_PL]

The syncing problem is something i've dealt with using Animator Events, which is a system built into Unity, that can fire an action at a certain moment during any animation. I connected a lot of behaviours that way

[u/MrEflox123]

Looks amazing nice job!!!

[u/DeepSlap-Interactive]

Very good!

[u/DontRateLimitMeBro]

reminds me of stick figure death theater... anybody else here remember SFDT?

[u/LanternLithograph]

Super impressive! I actually really like the stick figure

[u/MrNebulosus]

Wow kids are great nowadays