Maniac Runner

This is a runner game for Android released in the Google Play Store. The player has to navigate an automatically running character through different 2D levels by combining jumping, rolling and dashing. Everything in the game (i. e. code, graphics, effects, sounds, music and level design) was created by myself mostly in my free time during the examination periods.

Key features of the game are the following.

The following trailer video provides a quick overview.


Goals

The goal of the project was to create a game that is fun to play and to release it on the Google Play Store. I had the idea for this game a long time ago and already had a more simple .NET version running on Windows that ran well. Additionally to porting the game to Android, I wanted to improve it further. I tested a few of similar games in the Google Play Store to see what I liked and what I wanted to do better and came up with the following requirements that I implemented.

  • Good First Impression
    • Good icon, video and screen shots on Android store page
    • Nice title screen design
    • Interesting menu background
    • Good looking buttons and visual effects when pressing
    • Nice smooth screen transitions
  • Good Feeling
    • No visible bugs
    • Particle effects
    • Shader effects
    • Sounds
    • Screen shake
    • Illusion of high speed
  • Simplicity
    • Very easy Controls
    • Fast learning of the controls
    • Fast success
  • Long Term Motivation
    • Easy to learn but hard to master
    • Challenging but doable levels
    • Many levels
    • New obstacles, tiles, power ups and environments every theme
    • Unexpected surprising features and memorable moments
    • Extra hard optional levels
    • Unlockable stuff
    • Possibility to easily add more levels and mechanics
  • Good Graphics and Music
    • Nice authentic graphic style
    • New look and new music in every theme
    • Smooth animations
  • Good Level Design
    • Combination of already known obstacle patterns and new obstacle patterns
    • Fair and visible solutions