Rock Bottom

A platformer game that is centered around the story of a pet rock.

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RockBottom

Created by Hanna Koh, Lucy Hu, Esther Loo, and Alyssa Sfravara for WiCHacks 2022

Rock Bottom is a platformer game that is centered around the story of a pet rock

Description

This is a 2D platformer game that we created with Python, and Python APIs: Pygame, Pygame_Gui, and OpenCV

Inspiration

We knew that we wanted to do a game since when we saw the categories, since it is something that none of us have ever done thoroughly before. We asked our friends for ideas, and we came up with a story of a pet rock that gets dropped into a drain and has to find their way back home to its owner.

The beauty of making games is being able to tell a story in most interactive form. Using our creativity, we wanted to recreate our fond memories of the simple times when all we worried about was taking care of our pet rocks.

What it does

This two-level platformer game is exactly that. The player plays as our main character, a pet rock, as they travel through different ecosystems.

How we built it

We built this entirely in python, using the python games api: pygame. We used the gui framework made for pygame, called pygame_gui, to help us create interactive, responsive buttons that allowed for a simple, but efficent GUI. Finally, we used the movie, or video framework, OpenCV, to help us implement an animated cutscene.

Challenges we ran into

  • Game Physics
    • our limited physics knowledge resulted in problems with:
    • Collision
      • in pygame: can easily tell if it collided but not where exactly
      • had to figure out vertical & horizontal movement and collision
      • many edge cases (ex: corners)
    • Camera Scrolling
      • vertical camera scrolling dealt w/ gravity, acceleration, velocity
  • Limited knowledge of APIs
    • While we have coded in python before, this was our first time using the pygames API.
    • We wanted a more responsive GUI, so we had to find pygames_gui, and then learn to use it

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of being able to complete a whole game in just 24 hours!

  • Playable Game
    • loading map levels
    • event handlers
    • moving, jumping
    • basic collision detection
    • different types of platforms
  • Player animation
    • rock rolling
    • rock standing
  • Sprites
    • art for game assets
  • Game states
    • linking menu with game
    • game over, help, credits, main menu, win

What we learned

We learned about python, using APIs, and we learned a lot about game design.

  • Using python
    • syntax
    • initializing classes and using functions
  • pygame
    • using its built in functions to display and make a game
  • Game Design
    • how to make fun levels and relevant, thematic assets

What's next for Rock Bottom

Hope to implement these in the future:

  • Additional Levels
    • Underwater ocean level
    • Sewer pipes level
  • Moving Platforms
  • Collectibles
    • incentivize player to reach difficult places
    • for completion
    • function as power-up
  • Checkpoints
    • makes dying less frustrating
    • can lengthen the levels
  • Lives
    • 3 Lives
    • lose all three, respawn to checkpoint rather than start

We have a github pages release at: hannacodes.github.io/RockBottom, which rockbottom.tech also redirects to. We registered a Domain Name from domains.com at: rockbottom.tech!

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