Game Design Koa Bunga
Koa Bunga is a 3D puzzle platformer that comes close to DarkSouls 3 in terms of difficulty (according to Mr Marbach). We students, and now alumni of Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, are and were proud of this masterpiece, which was conceived and developed within ONE semester (3 months).
The making-of, consisting of interviews and clips from the development phase, was created by the following students:
Katharina Kasprzak and Young Rok Kim.
We went into the room very often with the animation, 3D or 2D and also engine team to create footage. We were very proud when everyone got to see the making-of and the reactions from everyone at the beta were brilliant.
Time: 09/2016 - 02/2017 (+ 1 Month) - multiple hours per day + crunch time and no sleep
Published at beta 2017 - Game Event in Mittweida @University of applied Sciences Mittweida
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In Koa Bunga you play Koa, an outstanding surfer. But he has a few quirks and wants to impress the women in his tribe by the minute. To do this, he steals a ritual mask. But this mask has a life of its own, magic, which brings them both into the Hawaiian underworld. This is ruled by Hine, who welcomes the change. The mask Henning explains to Koa how he can escape from hell. Henning provides Koa with some crazy abilities. Koa must use these to solve puzzles and escape.
Koa can be controlled with the keyboard or a Steam-compatible controller. The most popular mechanic with testers and the dev team so far is, and has been, the ability to surf for blood. The player has to use the skill smartly and profitably to leave hell with Koa and Henning. For example, even during the first puzzles Koa has to die several times in order to progress. These deaths are documented again and again by Henning. So he blurts out various sayings when Koa dies.
The design of Koa Bunga is in 3D low poly design and has a special comic shader. This design is reminiscent of Disney's Moana. In the interview with our 2D team, a lot of light was shed on this. Joke.
We came up with this design separately and spent 1.5 months developing it. The design was also overturned several times and completely redone. We really didn't make it easy for ourselves.
Many of the team thought we were taking on too much and would never be able to deliver a playable prototype in the end. Especially when you consider that just one weekend before the release, Koa was loaded into the engine as a 3D model and with a rig. The video designers had to work on the very last weekend and together with Justin Zwack, lead game designer, create all the shots within one day and then edit them immediately. It was all pretty tight. But still, this result is something to behold.
Many game developers at Gamescom were impressed. And we got Steam Greenlight. You can find more pictures and footage on Youtube and Steam. We are still working on getting Koa Bunga onto Steam for free. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
