Creature of the Forest

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  Gameplay - Seed Blocks on Screen

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  Gameplay - All 3 Blocks on Screen

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  Gameplay - Monkey Jumping

Inspiration

Growing up, orangutans were my favourite animal and I loved learning about them. Orangutans are a species that is currently critically endangered, and I wanted to create a game to educate players about this species. The name for this game came from the meaning of the name Orangutan which means “man of the forest” in the Malay language [1].

I also took inspiration from the classic platformer games we all know and love, such as Mario, and from Minecraft. Minecraft utilizes a similar system where the player can combine different items together to create new ones.

What it does

"Building" to me means creating new things. In this game the orangutang player must build new resources by collecting blocks. This is a platformer game where the user plays as an orangutan who collects resources and combines them together to create new resources before time runs out. 2 "seed" blocks make 1 "leaf" block and 2 "leaf" blocks make a "heart" block. There is a timer which counts down to 60 seconds, if the player is unable to reset the timer by this point, the game ends. To reset the timer the player must collect 1 "heart" block.

How we built it

This game was built using the Ubisoft's HackersNest API (Base framework for the Ubisoft Toronto Hackathon challenges) and C++. All pixel art was created by me using the online program https://www.pixilart.com/.

Challenges we ran into

There were many challenges faced throughout this project. Firstly, I worked with Ubisoft HackersNest API for the first time ever. I have previous experience with other game engines, however I had never programmed for a purely C++ game, which was a new and exciting experience. Another challenge that I faced was the time constraint to create a game while working alone. I created all the pixel art myself and implemented all the code. Lastly, this was my first time creating sprites to animate for a pure C++ game. This took a while to get used to, however, I am happy with how those animations turned out in the end.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am very proud that I was able to create this game individually including all the pixel art. There were many moments I wanted to give up, however I was able to push through and get the project finished on time.

What we learned

I have never created a pure C++ game before and have always utilized Unity or Unreal Game Engine to help. It was really interesting seeing how C++ can be utilized to create a full game on its own.

What's next for Creature of the Forest

A very important component I want to add in the future is a timer count down so the player is able to see how much time is remaining in the game. I also want to add an inventory component at the top of the screen so the player is able to visually see how many seeds or leafs they have. Some other updates I would like to implement include utilizing sound and having a restart screen instead of manually having to restart the game when the player dies. Furthermore, there are still some bugs in the game involving the player moving off screen. In the future I would like to fix these issues and create larger levels where there are platforms off the screen as well.

Sources

[1] https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/orangutan

Built With

• c++
• ubisofthackersnestapi