Up Next

They call the big one "Cynthia"...

In Up Next you are a sharpshooter in a Space Colosseum, fighting against a horde of horrific and terrifying creatures. Run and jump around the arena with a variety of weapons, and hope to survive. Shoot your enemies as their strength grows with numbers; from their fallen corpses use their once life-energy to fuel yourself, and arm yourself with the weapons they drop.

The aspect of internet culture that we are simulating through this game is the negative, life-sucking energy possessed by the many trolls of cyberspace. The mean and degrading comments that are displayed once you destroy an enemy represent the frequent negativity you will receive towards the goals you accomplish in games and other venues. What is interesting about how we implemented this idea is through the representation of those trolls--one is small and weak on its own but with others is a deadly force, and the other is a two-legged monstrosity that embodies the pure forces of evil, wishing to end your very life with one fell comment. We hope this isn't too much of an exaggeration.

Process:

We clearly over-scoped the project. A mutation system on top of a first-person shooter was a lot to bite off with only six weeks; this led to many of our plans being scrapped. The hardest part for us was switching our focus from building mutations to making the game feel good to play. Tuning the movement and shooting mechanics consumed more time than we planned for. Working with Git became harder once we started building our scenes and trying to fix bugs. Building the UI system turned out to be easier than we expected. The Unity systems we relied on frequently were the animator and the Physics system.

Team:

Cameron Hall: cdh343@nyu.edu , camerondhall.com

Marcus Guimaraes: mzg218@nyu.edu, marcuszaeyen.com

Nick Neissa: nan278@nyu.edu

Tyler Finley: tylercharlesfinley@gmail.com, tfinz.itch.io