Unity:
Mauk
Project Snapshot
Mauk is a Unity project built for my final capstone project at the University of Denver. Developed completely alone, the game follows the flight of an albatross over a series of barely inhabited islands as the albatross collects the souls of dead sailors to ferry them to the afterlife. The project is a physics-based, first-person gliding simulator that makes use of the Leap Motion Controller - a hands-free camera device that tracks the movements of the human hand. Data flow from the Leap Motion Controller to Unity was handled through a Cycling 74 Max program I authored.
Engine: Unity, Cycling 74 Max
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Development Time: 10 weeks
Roles and Responsibilities
As the sole developer on the project, I served as the programmer, level designer, game designer, artist, and sound designer on the project. The only work I did not personally perform was modeling - the modeled assets in the game were obtained from the Unity Asset Store.
Art Tasks:
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- 2D storyboards for cutscenes
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- Logo design
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- Texture & flora painting
(landscape)
Design Tasks:
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- World topography design
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- Placement of objectives &
updrafts
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- Environmental storytelling for
each soul objective
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- Difficulty balancing
Programming Tasks:
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- Create Cycling 74 patch to
transmit Leap data to Unity in
usable format
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- Create physics-based gliding
system that includes collision
detection, stalling, and updrafts.
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- Create various UI screens and
sequences for main menu and
cutscenes
Soundtrack
A custom soundtrack for Mauk was also composed in Logic Pro X. This soundtrack was critical for reinforcing the intended tone of the experience, and was my first major project in the software.
Post-Mortem
What Went Well?
What Went Wrong?
What I Learned?
- For a solo project, I'm remarkably impressed with how much of my vision I was able to actualize.
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- The communication between Cycling 74 Max and Unity to facilitate the Leap Motion Controller the way I needed was a ringing success.
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- The pace at which I was able to work was impressive and efficient.
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- The way I prioritized my work to put functionality first meant I was able to dedicate time specifically to game balance and experience improvement.
- Early in the project a significant chunk of time was sunk into investigating Unity-native plugins to work with the Leap controller. This time could have been better spent elsewhere.
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- Due to using disparate asset packs, not all of the assets seem to "go" together.
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- The sense of speed during flight ultimately wasn't as clear as I envisioned it.
- By experiencing a project from every possible angle, I came out more empathetic and understanding of the various roles and disciplines of game development.
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- Significant knowledge in both Unity and Cycling 74 Max was obtained through the research necessary to make this project work.
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- By developing solo and in such a short time frame, I believe I learned my limits, my strengths, and my capabilities more than I would have on a team project with the same concept.
Process Documentation