Project info
- Developer Harry Pollock
- Showcase year 2021
- Programme Game Design and Production
Synopsis
Through the development of a game that blends the stealth genre (e.g. Metal Gear, Gunpoint) and momentum platformers (e.g. Sonic the Hedgehog, Wario Land 4), I wanted to explore the design process behind games that hyrbridise game genres, especially in cases where the two game genres are generally seen as polar opposites or even outright incompatible.
Along with development of the game project, I conducted research on hybrid games and analysed those that were designed as hybrid-genre games such as the critically-acclaimed Crypt of the NecroDancer.
These studies were used to inform the design of Petty Theft. I also explored if a strategy for designing hybrid-genre games could be devised from this research. Additionally, the project was used to strengthen my animation skills.
Motivation
I started work on this project in year 3 for DES311, initially as a way to break off from using a pixel art artstyle for my projects and to make a game with more fluid animation. Taking inspiration from unreleased indie game Pizza Tower, I started conceptualizing a momentum-based platformer, and chose to make it a stealth game to make the game stand out. I realised a little bit later that combining these two gernes was actually a pretty interesting design challenge.
Credits
“Petty Theft - Developping an Approach to Designing Hybrid-Genre Games” is a 2021 Digital Graduate Show project by Harry Pollock, a Games Design and Production student at Abertay University.
Find out more
