In September 2015, I was fortunate enough to be able to join the Video Game Development Club at UCI, despite being an alumnus. I was hoping that by joining the club, I would gain experience using Unity that I would have otherwise missed in my personal projects and even professional life. In addition, I was hoping to get team experience working on a game with other people who shared my passion, and most importantly, to have fun!
The project I am currently working on with a group of students is called Soulstealer. Essentially, it is a fantasy card game based off the Mega Man Battle Network series. The player can walk around an overworld as normal, but when they enter combat it is a completely different scenario. The player spawns on a the friendly half of a grid (usually 3 x 6), while their enemies (or bosses) spawn on the unfriendly side. Before the match, the player can choose their deck based off of cards they have collected by playing through the game. Each turn, they choose 5 cards to put into their “battle queue”, and resume combat. At any time, the player can trigger the next card, which can do damage, debuffing or buffing depending on the way the card interacts with the grid. For example, the player can either play an AOE debuff for all enemies on the grid, or play a lightning bolt that arcs straight down the middle, and more.
Overall, I’m pleased with the experience I have had with the team. The game is progressing along nicely, and I am learning more not just from a development standpoint, but also design and team management perspective. Most importantly, I am having fun working on a project that every member is passionate about. We all like developing games!
Kirsten Kane 