Gravity Shift

Sam Hague and 2 OthersJasmine Horowitz
Andrew Perticone + March 24, 2025 5:53pm Privacy: Public

Gravity Shift

By Andrew & Sam

Background

When we started the project we were conflicted on what exactly we wanted the project to be. We wanted to make a FPS game with Sam originally wanting to make one about casting spells, but we both thought we could do something more interesting with the genre

Thesis

Big-budget first-person shooter games have gotten stagnant, stale and content with decades-old game design. While some smaller games have moved the genre forward, we plan to create a first-person shooter without any conventional weapons, forcing players to use their creativity and problem-solving to take out their opponents. It is created in the Unity engine and written in C#

Guiding design principals

The player needs to use the environment to take out their enemies

The player is given many movement tools to evade opponents

The player only has 1 health point, any damage taken will force them to restart

The first few seconds of a puzzle room the player is given a slow down in time to get a better look at the environment before everything becomes crazy fast

There should be many solutions to one problem, but not one solution to every problem

Levels are short and complex, they are meant to be replayed multiple times to find better solutions and get faster times

The player needs to use the environment to take out their enemies

Guiding design principals

The player needs to use the environment to take out their enemies

The player is given many movement tools to evade opponents

The player only has 1 health point, any damage taken will force them to restart

The first few seconds of a puzzle room the player is given a slow down in time to get a better look at the environment before everything becomes crazy fast

There should be many solutions to one problem, but not one solution to every problem

Levels are short and complex, they are meant to be replayed multiple times to find better solutions and get faster times

The player is given many movement tools to evade opponents

Guiding design principals

The player needs to use the environment to take out their enemies

The player is given many movement tools to evade opponents

The player only has 1 health point, any damage taken will force them to restart

The first few seconds of a puzzle room the player is given a slow down in time to get a better look at the environment before everything becomes crazy fast

There should be many solutions to one problem, but not one solution to every problem

Levels are short and complex, they are meant to be replayed multiple times to find better solutions and get faster times

The player only has 1 health point, any damage taken will force them to restart

Guiding design principals

The player needs to use the environment to take out their enemies

The player is given many movement tools to evade opponents

The player only has 1 health point, any damage taken will force them to restart

The first few seconds of a puzzle room the player is given a slow down in time to get a better look at the environment before everything becomes crazy fast

There should be many solutions to one problem, but not one solution to every problem

Levels are short and complex, they are meant to be replayed multiple times to find better solutions and get faster times

In the first few seconds of a puzzle room the player is given a slow down in time to get a better look at the environment before everything becomes crazy fast

Guiding design principals

The player needs to use the environment to take out their enemies

The player is given many movement tools to evade opponents

The player only has 1 health point, any damage taken will force them to restart

The first few seconds of a puzzle room the player is given a slow down in time to get a better look at the environment before everything becomes crazy fast

There should be many solutions to one problem, but not one solution to every problem

Levels are short and complex, they are meant to be replayed multiple times to find better solutions and get faster times

There should be many solutions to one problem, but not one solution to every problem

Guiding design principals

The player needs to use the environment to take out their enemies

The player is given many movement tools to evade opponents

The player only has 1 health point, any damage taken will force them to restart

The first few seconds of a puzzle room the player is given a slow down in time to get a better look at the environment before everything becomes crazy fast

There should be many solutions to one problem, but not one solution to every problem

Levels are short and complex, they are meant to be replayed multiple times to find better solutions and get faster times

Guiding design principals

Sketches Option 1

Compile all sketches in one slide (delete this)

Creating the game design document

Constraints

-No trad weapons

Inspirations

-Interesting game mechanics that encourage exploration, creativity & have a high skill ceiling

-exciting player movement

-clean visual design

-intentional scaffolding of new mechanics and game complexity to keep it exciting but not overwhelming

We were specifically inspired by the

Sketches Option 1

Compile all sketches in one slide (delete this)

Sketches Option 2

Compile all sketches in one slide (delete this)

Process Diagram

Prototypes Option 1

(delete this)

Combat loop

Demo

Next Steps

Improve the gravity orb player launch
Improve the grappling hook
Add enemies
Add conduction effects
General refinements to the movement
Start working on tutorial level

Thank You!

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Present

Project Description:

Gravity Shift is a first person puzzle game designed to have absolutely no conventional weapons, built in the unity engine. The player must use environmental hazards, like electricity and water, to eliminate their enemies, who are robots. The game is designed around a grappling hook mechanic, which allows you to grapple objects with other moveable objects and parts of the environment. We used this mechanic to make the player interact with the environment, as their only method of defeating foes is to use environmental hazards.

Gravity Shift

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