Red: Flame & Fable
Project Type:
2D Sidescrolling Action Adventure Game
Date of Completion:
May 1, 2026
Team Size:
9-13
Location:
Burlington VT
Description:
2D Sidescrolling Adventure game focused on narrative and exploration. Red was a project developed across two semesters (35 weeks), with a team of 9 the first semester, 13 the second. The game was made as a Senior Game Studio Capstone project for Champlain College.
Role:
Front-end Programmer. Handled dialogue system, player controller, combat system, save system, art and sound implementation, Wwise integration, and various QOL.
Character Controller
I handled the creation of Red's character controller, which involved the basic 2D movement necessities, alongside coyote jumping, input buffering, state management, animation implementation, and sound implementation. Her character kit consists of:
- Full HP and death system
- Attacking
- Blocking with Parry Windows
- Rolling/Dashing for IFrames
- A lantern system involving a consumable resource for light alongside the resource giving Red a temporary ability while being used.
- A Shield and Boomerang resource ability.
Combat System
I was assigned on Red's combat system, overseen by our Gameplay Designer, we handled the creation of Red's abilities, any QOL regarding the light system, such as the creation of petals so that the player would be rewarded for combat.
Alongside that I created the AI for multiple of our games enemies. The El Caballo boss fight, a simple 4 phase boss fight with arena traversal and dynamic behaviors based on player location.
- The Rabbit enemy, a basic 'lobber' enemy that threw an arcing projectile at the player's location.
- And the 'Loat' enemy, an enemy that would appear just outside of Red's light, attacking if the lantern wasn't lit for too long. Along with various tweaks to the Fish and Elk enemy.
Dialogue System
I had full oversight on the dialogue system for Red, which was a two part implementation. The system itself is made up two layers of scriptable objects, each 'line' is an object, containing the text, the speaker's character ID and their corresponding emotion. Then the overarching dialogue object which was an array of those lines, while also having the shell for a response system if the dialogue required it.
The second half of implementation was the importer system. Our dialogue was hosted in a Google Sheets document, so I created a .Json importer that would directly bring the dialogue from that sheet into the engine. Overwriting any of the older dialogue sharing the same ID, streamlining the process.
Art and Audio Implementation
I handled a majority of art implementation, and all of the audio implementation for this project. Working directly with the involved artists/sound designer to make sure their work made it into the game in the exact way they wanted.
Art would be handed off to me with a brief description of how they'd want it, or if the system was already in place, no description at all. I'd implement their work, and send back a video for feedback. The process was quick and streamlined.
Audio was handled directly in meetings. The sound designer and I would sit in the sound studio while he was creating the SFX and music for the game, and I'd have Wwise open for direct implementation as the audio was made. Dynamic audio, panning, and transitions were all handled by me, with suggestions and feedback from our Sound Designer.
Save System and Steam Achievements
I created the save system for Red, which auto-saves upon hitting a checkpoint lamppost, creating a small text-file containing all the necessary session info, alongside any tracked information regarding achievements.
I also handled hooking up steam achievements into the game, learning a lot about Steamwork's codebase.
Achievement List on Steamworks
Code for achievements
Script for the Red Save System
Achievement List on Steamworks