Out of Juice

Conception and Production of Crucial Game-Ready 3D Assets

Masterarbeit von andre Michael Braun, betreut von Brünja Wollny und Prof. Jens Müller.

Design of Game Mechanics and Levels that Combine Satisfying Movement with Combat

Masterarbeit von andre Moritz Naab, betreut von Prof. Jan Bernkopf und Prof. Jens Müller.

Game Concept

Out of Juice is a interplanetary sports tournament, broadcasted through the endless vastness of its very lively and diverse universe. Heroic fighters from all across the galaxy come to take part in the prestigious, yet not always fairest, fight to become the champion. Built as a multiplayer game, Out of Juice thrives through the interaction with and against other competitors. The team, who is able to dominate the map and have more possession over the artefakt, will be chosen the winner.

Character Design

Mechamuck: Between organism and machinery, this bionic organism is an unstoppable force of nature combined with the intelligence of an alien species. Name: Mecha Muck. Moveset: Slow, sluggish movement yet with a lot of force once in movement. Backstory: When people usually say don‘t lose your head, they don‘t take it literally. In this case however, that is exactly what happened. This swamp creature got caught and taken over by a physical brain operating advanced machinery. With the fatal hook still pierced through its tongue, this physically enabled intelligence surely is up for no good.

Cold Steel: An intelligent android which was assembled on a high-tec planet and is known as one of the most unpredictable robots across the known galaxy. Name: Cold Steel. Moveset: Fast, assassin-like movements with deadly precision. Backstory: Accidentally killed her loved one in an argument during a mental breakdown. During this fight parts of Hot Steel‘s body were destroyed and replaced with the still intact limbs of the green counterpart. Ever Since the incident the female android mourns the death of her partner and remains in deep grief slowly losing her mind.

Game Mechanics and Levels

The thesis by Moritz Naab is going to explore the possibilities of combining combat-focused game mechanics with movement-focused ones and how the design of levels and combat environments can support and strengthen this connection. I’ll take a dive into the fundamentals of the combat design of action games and find the pillars of design that different genres have established in their evolution. Equivalent design patterns will be analyzed for the design of player movement across different genres of games, including multiplayer games. Using insights gained from presentations of professional game developers, held for example at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), game reviewers and journalists, as well as papers and books related to the topic, the goal is to evaluate the question posed earlier and create an experimental game prototype in collaboration with Elia Ç. and Michael B. In this game, I am converting the research done for this thesis to actual gameplay. Taking the role of the leading game designer, I develop the game’s rules, boundaries, and game mechanics as we create the core of the game together.