Pawn is a short 2D action-adventure game in which the player embodies a chess pawn and must defeat the adversary Queen. To do so, infiltrate her castle, kill the enemy pieces, free your own allies and earn weapons and skills.
The game is a personal project I made using Photoshop, Audacity and Unity.
I took on every role, from game designer, programmer, artist and animator to integrator. Credits for sound effects and music can be found below.
The project took eight months of work between May and December 2021.
I took on every role, from game designer, programmer, artist and animator to integrator. Credits for sound effects and music can be found below.
The project took eight months of work between May and December 2021.
Creation process
I drew many maps on paper to establish the layout of the castle's rooms. A few changes were made in the final version but the drawings helped me a lot to stay on track.
Entryway concept art
Kitchen concept art
Enemies and weapons
Armor and UI
Teleportation sketches #1 & #2
Teleportation sketches #3
I sketched a few concept art pieces to better visualize certain rooms of the level design, as well as the general atmosphere of the game, many assets, characters and UI elements.
Certain elements and ideas illustrated to the left had to be cut out of the game during the production due to their complexity and lack of time. For example, the teleportation animation and VFX were simplified because of my limited experience with those skills.
Certain elements and ideas illustrated to the left had to be cut out of the game during the production due to their complexity and lack of time. For example, the teleportation animation and VFX were simplified because of my limited experience with those skills.
Abilities of enemies / Abilities given by allies
Boss battle loops
Other sketches and plans were made on paper for the gameplay elements. For example, brainstorming of beats for the boss battle, a list of enemies, their attacks, movements and bonuses.
Because my 2D art skills were not very good at the beginning of the project, I attempted to create some game assets on Krita, without much success. I decided to take an online pixel art course, which allowed me to establish a stronger artistic style for the game and gave me an approachable method to create the assets.
Bow attack
Death
Hurt
Idle
Jump
Shield
Sword attack
Run
I had initially planned to implement a character customization option, allowing the player to chose the colour of their pawn just like classic chess. Unfortunately, the idea had to be cut out due to the animation technique chosen and my limited experience in animation. The main character was also supposed to wear a helmet as an armour, but I chose a shield for the same reasons.
Pawn
Rook
Knight
Bishop
Queen
King
Other challenges included the level of difficulty of enemies. They were sometimes too easy or to hard to kill. There were also a few bugs that didn't appear during the builds but that many testers experienced.
You can find a few scripts from the game on my Github at
https://github.com/Untamed90/Pawn
https://github.com/Untamed90/Pawn
CREDITS
Music
Main : "Retro Turnaround (Stage 1 Remix)" by Centurion of War (Original from Kirard)
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Menu : "[Chiptune] The Old Tower Inn" by RandomMind
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Sound effects
Arrows: "Fire match" by SoundCollectah
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Character gets hurt: "Fist + shoulder_01" by deleted_user_2104797
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Hearts: "success_02" by Kenneth_Cooney
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Winning bell: "UI Confirmation Alert, C5" by InspectorJ
Licensed under Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
Licensed under Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
Fonts
