Black Symphony

Character Selection
Multiplayer Lobby (still in development)
Team Logo Splash Screen
Paused Screen
In game/ gameplay screenshot
Title Screen Splash Screen
Menu Options
Angel Mage in multiplayer once killed (can cause positive status effects to remaining teammates)
Demon Mage in multiplayer once killed (can cause negative status effects to opposite team)
Dragon Enemy (also have sprites for body and tail. To chase player in manner similar to old school Nokia snake games
Default Fire Mage
Emerald Sword for Melee Attacks

Inspiration

My project was heavily inspired by game series like Castlevania, Dark Souls, Sekiro, Devil May Cry, Grand II, Among Us, Pokemon, and Dragon Ball Z. Also there are games in the App Store that we wanted to combine all of the best elements from such as Zenonia 5 (10 million downloads), Vampire Survivor (5 million downloads on Android), Brotato (5 million downloads), 20 minutes till Dawn (1 million downloads) Age of Zombies (500,000 downloads on android),

What it does

It is a top down action RPG where the player controls a mage class character to move and interact with 8 different directions. We eventually want to finish the shooting and melee mechanics for all 8 directions in the finalized game.

How we built it

We used React Native for mobile app development. We didn't utilize any existing game engine but coded all of the mechanics from scratch. Amazon Q Developer was a huge help in debugging. We started trying to develop multiplayer with backend logic but still have some bugs with setting up game rooms. For the code that we do have for multiplayer we utilized AWS Lambda, AWS CloudWatch and DynamoDB for the backend database.. We also created our own API Gateway to access the backend logic.

Challenges we ran into

Currently we do not have a working multiplayer or story mode so only the arcade single player is functioning. I was attempting to create rooms for the user to either host or join but I won't be able to fully implement before competition is over. We are also in the process of debugging our shooting and melee mechanics so the current game mode is basically survival where an enemy dragon chases the player and the player has to survive for 3 minutes.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One huge accomplishment We are proud of is the character selection screen. all of the sprites for the game we made from scratch. The video visuals on the menu screen were from Sora (sora.com) and the audio was from a website that generates A.I. audio music (SongGenerator.io). The Level Arcadia logo is the logo we wanted to use for team after competition is over to develop for and eventually publish in App Store.

We recorded a video on Loom that gives a full explanation of our project. There is also a YouTube video snippet below that shows gameplay. link

What we learned

I definitely learn a lot about backend development as well as got better with programming using typescript. I also learned how to draw my own sprites so I can design more characters and levels form scratch.

What's next for Black Symphony

I think we are very close to publishing on the App Store. I drafted the plot for the game so now it's about drawing all of the character sprites and the levels. There are some really cool game mechanics that we didn't get to implement as yet like melee attacks, projectile attacks, and special attacks. We also wanted to implement different games in multiplayer including group boss fights, team fights and free for all mode. Each elemental and character class would have their own special attacks and move sets. I also wanted to all an alliance mechanic for if the player is good aligned in multiplayer or evil aligned (not based on team). good aligned would still be able to be involved int eh match even after dying by using their special attack meter to heal teammates as a ghost. evil aligned would be able to mess with opponents to cast effects like changing their field sprites so enemies look like players and players look like enemies and turning on friendly fire.