GAME PLAY
This page showcases the final projects from our senior seminar in "Game Design & Development". Each of the games below highlight your engagement with game design principles, such as mechanics, narrative, aesthetics, feedback and reward systems, HUDs, and user experience, as well as your team work in planning, coding, prototyping, and playtesting your game ideas.
As you play, consider yourself an alpha tester who is testing a prototype on behalf of your classmates. So, play around, have fun, and don't forget to leave meaningful feedback to your classmates.
System Requirements
Windows IMPORTANT NOTE: Windows will ask you to make sure you know what you are executing, so please confirm that you want to execute the file anyways. School computers won't allow you to run any program, which is sad.
macOS IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to execute and play the games in macOS (regardless of OS version), you will need to:
- Click and Execute the file: After downloading the game and clicking to execute it, you will have a message similar to this: "Apple could not verify 'GAME' is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy.", click on "Done" or close the message.
- Go to System Settings: After dismissing the message go to
System Settings>Privacy & Securityand scroll all the way down. There will be a section that will have the name of the application you were trying to open. Click "Open Anyway" and input your password (or fingerprint) to execute the game.
Java IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to play "NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER!" (developed in Java), you will probably need to have Java 21 or higher installed in your system.
The Games
Rise and Die
A zombie apocalypse is raging and a lone survivor finds themself trapped, surviving round after round of undead combat.
Rise and Die is a fun, replayable top down zombie shooter, focused on providing players a classic round based zombie experience. Survive as many rounds as possible, don't die!
Genre: Survival • Top down shooter.
Platform: PC.
Target Audience: Fans of round based zombies/top down pixel arcade style games.
Size: 79.2MB (macOS) • 90.1MB (Windows)
The Children Yearn for the Mines
Terra the 15 year-old miner from the city of Aspern is finally allowed to go work in the Umbra-Void Mines and attempt to earn the title of "Master Miner", there she must fight through waves of molemen who harness the spirits of the miners that came before.
Get quests done, get rarest gems, become the Master Miner, liberate souls, mine, become strong, and save the realm.
Genre: Survival • Action • RPG.
Platform: PC.
Target Audience: Adults and older youth.
Size: 395.6MB (Windows)
Evaluate
Form→
Ritual Quest
In an abandoned research institute, the you must uncover how to complete the ritual. By decoding the researchers' unfinished work, you learn the secrets behind the summoning circle, candles, and incantation, and must decide if the ritual should ever be finished.
Your character wants to uncover the secrets of a demon lost to time, and as you play, they can choose whether to summon this demon in the pursuit of knowledge, or to set it loose to wreak havoc.
Genre: Puzzle • Mystery • Exploration.
Platform: PC.
Target Audience: Players who enjoy story-driven environmental puzzle games.
Size: 553.8MB (macOS) • 518.8MB (Windows)
Evaluate
Form→
NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER!
Set in the world of "Dirty Dancing", it is the summer after "Baby" has blown away the judges at the dance showcase. With this new raging buzz, the resort committee has decided to make the showcase into a competition! Interdimensional recognition has been awarded.
You are an upcoming dancer, you have one goal: don't get the corner!
Genre: Strategy • Puzzle.
Platform: Web-based Desktop App.
Target Audience: Strategy and puzzle fans, casual players, and competitive thinkers (all ages).
Size: 121.MB (macOS and Windows)
Beast Rush
An up-and-coming adventurer wants to start their own hero-for-hire company. To get the money, the adventurer has to defeat some monsters for their town, getting paid for every kill.
Beast Rush is a fun arcade game where you have to survive by avoiding obstacles and killing monsters for bonus points. Compete with your friends to see who can get the highest score.
Genre: Arcade.
Platform: PC.
Target Audience: People with little time for breaks but want a quick release or study/work break.
Size: 128.7MB (macOS) • 99.3MB (Windows)
Evaluate
Form→
Creature's Escape
An evil scientist has created a creature and trapped it inside of a cage within his lab. The creature desires freedom, so it escapes the cage, but must make its way out of the lab which has optical distortions where different objects appear different in different lightings.
This is a puzzle game focused on a creature moving through an evil laboratory trying to escape. In order to escape, you must turn the lights on and off to reveal different secrets of the room.
Genre: Platformer • Puzzle.
Platform: PC.
Target Audience: The target audience is people of all ages who enjoy puzzle games.
Size: 56MB (macOS) • 49.3MB (Windows)
Zurvival
Fight zombies, get points, reach the highest score or die trying.
Post-apocalypse. Virus spreads and there are zombies everywhere. Survive.
Genre: Survival • Shooter.
Platform: Mobile • PC.
Target Audience: Young adults and COD zombie fans.
Size: 76.4MB (macOS) • 12.4MB (Windows)
Enjoy Gaming!
Note: After playing each game, please use the evaluation form to score your experience and your classmates' games.
Evaluation
Your classmates will evaluate their gaming experience playing your team's video game using the rubrics below (worth 40 points):
- Mechanics: Were the game mechanics well implemented, balanced, and fun to interact with? This includes how well controls for moving, combat, jumping, solving puzzles, etc. responded and if they were intuitive to use. 5 pts.
- Premise: The game presented you with compelling premise that supported your motivation and connected meaningfully with gameplay. 5 pts.
- Entertaining Value: The game sustained your interest through challenge, novelty, or emotional resonance, demonstrating a thoughtful understanding of the "fun factor". 5 pts.
- Difficulty Curve: Did the game presented you with a balanced progression of challenge? This includes the difficulty increasing appropriately as you gained "mastery", without making you feel frustration. 5 pts.
- Feedback System: Did you receive meaningful rewards, feedback, or reinforcement for actions performed? This includes sounds, alerts, color changes, flashing, updating the HUD, and such. 5 pts.
- Technical Functionality: The game performed smoothly with minimal bugs or glitches. 5 pts.
- Originality and Creativity: Did the game offer you some innovation in its concept, mechanics, or presentation? Or a creative twist on established genres? 5 pts.
- Completeness: Did the game feel finished and cohesive to you? Taking into account the time (8 weeks), were the visuals, audio, menus, and other elements able to form a unified gaming experience? 5 pts.