top of page
CritterResort.jpg

Critter Resort

About The Game

In Critter Resort, players manage a resort to ensure animal guests have the perfect vacation! Expand the resort by unlocking new floors in an economy based system and trackcritter's satisfaction by taking care of critter's needs that depends on matching the needs to different rooms. Meeting the needs of the cute animal characters can provoke feelings of satisfaction and relaxation. Furthermore, this game includes two modes, casual mode and crazy mode. Casual mode has multiple levels and is time based where every critter has to be satisfied in a certain amount of time and there is a limited amount of critters but each level has an addition of one new floor and one new need with a total of three levels. Crazy mode is one endless level that has a max time and day count but no limit on how many critters can be satisfied and will show a scoreboard to tell how well the player did at the end. Watch out as if too many critters are unhappy when they checkout, the player will lose the game in both modes!

My Role

As the Lead Programmer in Critter Resort I am responsible for bug testing, core game mechanics, and making sure the game is functional so players can have an enjoyale experience​. I focus on bug testing the game to find problems during playtesting to be able to correct it in the code. In this project I specialized in implementing the core game mechanics and made sure assets were all present. I ensured the entire game was compatible with PC during development stages and phones in alpha stages till release by keeping in mind functionality all had to be compatible with touch based inputs. The early development of this project had some planning through discussions where the entire team had to consider it was going to be published on a phone which meant we had to think slightly differently for both mechanics and fit the levels on a very small screen size. Based on these considerations, we developed in a standard Android phone screen size during the entirety of the project which is why the photos below are vertical and smaller to scale. Considering the small team size I helped in the team as a designer to ensure proper implementation of assets to the levels and UI's too. There is also a more detailed list of my tasks here, and my contributions in this project further down on this page through both text and visual content. If you would like to reach out to me head over to the contact page which is easily accessible through the right button on the header.

​

Tasks (Programming)

  • Stepping up to the challenge of programming a majority of the core mechanics to build up the code of the game. I had to keep in mind it would be converted to a mobile games upon release too so everything needed to function with only touch inputs early on.

  • Implementing the code after it is programmed to ensure the game functions properly.

  • Fixing bugs to ensure players have an enjoyable gaming experience with little that would prevent them from progressing.

  • Implement all of the programming for UI button transitions and determined when certain UI should toggle. This includes UI Design Planning for where to position UI Overlays in-game and what size they need to be.

  • These tasks gave me more experience in a challenging leadership role and I learned how to program many core game mechanics in C# in Unity.

  • I put together many UI components which had to be sized to scale to be compatible with mobile devices as shown above.

  • I helped to implement many of the art assets and built the level layouts as shown above.

Tasks (Design):

  • UI Design Planning and Implementing positions for UI overlays and in-game UI as well as making sure each Canvas is anchored with the proper resolution for every scene.

Critter Resort Details

Team Name: 

Paw Print Productions

Team Size:

7 Person Team

Year Project Began:

Began the project in the Fall of 2024.

Year of Completion:

Released in Dec. of 2024.

Game Genre:

Casual Economy Game

Platform:

Mobile Android Devices

Player Count:

Singleplayer

Engine:

Unity 2022.3.37f1

Prototypes

UI Main Menu Prototype

This is the first UI prototype of the main menu in Critter Resort. The goal was to display the first design of the main menu in the correct Android layout using a 9:16 display format. I made this photo with the help of an artist for the art assets and arranged the photos into the layout here to gain an idea for how to build the final design. This ended up being fairly close to the final design with the only change as a button that went to a level selection menu. The techniques used were arranging the art assets to be accessible in the small menu format on a touch screen. This is the UI menu for Critter Resort in the prototype stage.

CritterResortMainMenuUIPrototypeAlanaA.jpg

Level Design Prototype

This is the first level design prototype that had the most promise for ease of use. The goal of this was to arrange art assets to ensure text can be read, and buttons can be pressed but the player can still play the game. I made this with the help of an artist for the art assets and arranged the assets into the layout here to gain an idea for how to build the final design. This ended up being fairly close to the final design with the only changes being aesthetics and some small mechanic changes per each level. The techniques used were arranging the art assets to be accessible in the small menu format on a touch screen for the levels in Critter Resort.

CritterResortLevel2CasualModeAlanaA.jpg

In-Game Prototype

A small video preview of some of the first in-game functionality of Critter Resort. The goal is to show that core mechanics are functional even if all the art assets were not finished yet. In the game the team planned out two different modes to be implemented called casual and crazy. The casual mode is level based where players unlock floors through satisfying critters and earning money. While the crazy mode is an endless mode until a critter is unsatisfied which then gives a scoreboard. The techniques used were to implement core mechanics while keeping in mind that there would only be touch based inputs. This is the result with the core mechanics showcasing some UI and in-game play.

UI Credits Menu Prototype

This is the first UI Prototype of the Credits Menu. The goal was to make a fairly simple menu for the credits while still giving credit to everyone that contributed. This was updated later by making it slightly smaller, adding a green border with critter ears on top, a button to go back, and a cloud background. There are not many techniques used here for this menu other than widget asset organization and proper alignments. This is also the first credits menu in Critter Resort during early stages of development.

CritterResortCreditsUIAlanaA.jpg

In-Game Showcase

In-Game Trailer

An official in-game trailer from the marketing materials showing clips of in-game play. It also describes details about the game and how to play. The goal of this video is to show this game during gameplay once published to catch interest so people would play the game. This video was made through the techniques of a bit of teamwork and a video editor to compile the footage. The only change is the background audio to match the video and the transitions in the video. This video still showcases final in-game content for Critter Resort.

KeyTakaways

  • I learned how to program core mechanics better and mechanics for this game in Unity.

  • I learned how to locate and fix bugs in Unity better.

  • I learned how to format a game to be compatible with Android devices, specifically taking into consideration the screen size and touch input mechanics.

  • I learned how to build a game in Unity using Android format and how to then download it to play it on an Android device.

  • I learned how to program UI transition better and how to trigger toggling UI effects.

  • I learned how to expose functionality in code for the flexibility to edit it as needed throughout the levels.

  • I learned how to exclude boxes that have exposed functionality so it does not all need to be set to something for play preview to work.

  • ​I learned how to setup a scoreboard and economy system as core features of the game.​

  • I learned how to setup multiple levels fairly quickly and make each one feel different by adjusting exposed functionalities and adding new assets as needed.

  • I learned how to design and setup a ton of UI elements correctly, including adding assets if help in the team was needed.

  • I learned that good teamwork and adapting to struggles to find another way around hardships is more important than what the original view of the game may be.

bottom of page