Kiyoshi: Space Ninja | game-designer

Introduction

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Kiyoshi: Space Ninja is final semester project created by a group of university students at SAE Qantm, Melbourne over a 13 week period.

Kiyoshi: Space Ninja is a Sc-Fi First-Person Shooter video game that focuses on strategic play to solve puzzles and shies away from the traditional 'shoot first, ask questions later' element that is found in the majority of First-Person Shooter Games.

The game follows the Space Ninja, Kiyoshi, who has accepted a secret mission that takes place in an enemy space station. The only problem is that Kiyoshi has been struck with amnesia and cannot remember anything. Help Kiyoshi navigate the space station, regain his memories and uncover the mysteries!!

Being a long-time HUGE fan of Blizzard Entertainment, I have based Kiyoshi's abilities and design on Genji from the Overwatch franchise.

Design Process

Although Kiyoshi: Space Ninja is a First-Person Shooter video game, the game's design, level design and enemy design force the player to think carefully and intelligently about their choices instead of putting the player in a guns blazing scenario.

The player begins the game without any memories or abilities and slowly regains these as the story progresses. This is intentional as it provides the player with a difficulty and learning curve that does not overwhelm the player from the very beginning.

All of Kiyoshi's abilities allow him traverse terrain and cover distances that normal humans wouldn't be able to. It sounds amazing, but the drawback is that each ability is very limited in terms of a long cooldown or a resource that prevents the player from abusing these abilities. From beginning to end, the player gains these abilities back:

Double Jump

Allows the player to jump twice before touching the ground. Allows the player to reach higher platforms with ease.

Throw Kunai

Allows the player to throw a kunai projectile at the aimed location. This ability allows the player to stun enemy robots and interact with buttons and panels from a long range by hitting it.

The player may only carry a maximum of 5 kunais at once. This was a design choice to give the developers more control over the puzzles because at some points, having a large number of kunais will make it too easy, so restricting the player to 5 at once was much easier for us.

Wall Climb

Allows the player to vertically climb certain surfaces. This is controlled by giving the character a 'GRIP' resource that depletes when the player climbs and wall and returns while their feet are on ground. This prevents the player from climbing an infinite distance.

Dash

Allows the player to gain an instantaneous burst of speed and propel forward in any direction. The player uses a secondary resource when Dash is used and recovers it slowly overtime.

This ability is particularly useful when the player needs to cover a long distance in a short amount of time in order to solve a puzzle.

Force-Field

Allows the player to summon a force field in front of them to reflect back certain enemy projectiles back at the aimed direction. The player uses a secondary resource when Force-Field is used and recovers it slowly overtime.

This ability is particularly useful when the player is low on kunai and needs to shoot an enemy or a button OR when the player is faced against the Defence Type Robot. These robots hold a large protective energy barrier that protects its allies and itself against Kiyoshi's kunais. The only way to bypass the Defence type robot would be to deflect its ally's projectiles back at it (because robot projectiles may bypass these shields) or to reach a position where Kiyoshi may throw a kunai over the shield into the robot.