If you want to go straight to the game zip: You can find it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U1ARlGs2OeKbmSNlSllv24d84gHwJHx2/view?usp=sharing
Inspiration
This game was inspired by this article about dogs being used to sniff out covid. I began thinking These good boys are heroes, and where else do you find heroes? In video games! This is why I thought about making a game about virus sniffing dogs.
What it all about
In the future a new virus is discovered, with no vaccine in sight. Scientists from Doxbridge university are training dogs through the PUPS program. Pups being “Pandemic use of Peripheral scent”. These dogs are deployed to sniff out and eradicate viruses. Pablo can sniff the virus using his "Smellovision". Once a target is located, he can bite and remove the virus from the individual. This is a narrative game with a lot of familiar locations!
How I built it
The game was made in Unity using the Universal Render Pipeline. Models and animations were made by me in blender. I created the music from scratch using Mixcraft 7 I started by making the dog model, getting the core mechanics down. I then went on to working on the cutscenes and intro sequence, before making the rest of the levels and places to visit. Finally, I composed and added all the music into the game
Challenges and innovation
The main challenge I faced was how to display the central mechanic of the game: the "smellovision". The smell had to be visible through walls, and look like a noticeable change from the standard view. I achieved the final iteration by using Camera Layering, and having a secondary camera render an unaltered view of the smell particles over a post-processed layer of the rest of the screen. This was quite difficult to implement but in the end I think I managed to come up with a creative and snazzy looking solution.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I'm proud that unlike my previous game jam attempts, I tried my best to deliver a complete game experience, including some "nice-to-haves" which aren't usually seen in 4-day games. I made a title screen and pause menu all from scratch, with the ability to restart levels and retry them once you've completed. I added a ranking screen which rates how you did in the game (shoutout to all of the "Best Boy" S-ranking players!). I think that especially is important, as I wanted to give a reason for people to come back to the game even though it's a linear and story based experience. I'm also really proud of the story I managed to create. I wanted to have a defined start, middle and end, and I think I achieved this!
What I learned
I learned so much over these past 4 days! In order to implement the camera solution I had to experiment with render textures and scriptable render pipelines, which I didn’t have much experience in previously. I also had to use pathfinding for the humans. I had never tried this before, so it took a lot of trial and error in order to make the humans look… well human! And on the none-programming side, I’d never really been able to make a good looking animal model, so making Pablo was a challenge. This is also the first game jam I ever completed by myself in under a week, so time management was a big problem that I had to overcome.
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