#studentgames

Frankenfruit Studio’s Backyard Snowdown has finally hit “release”, after months this game has been in the making by our small student team at AIE Melbourne since September. 

This Game Trailer has been made to reflect the theme of the game and shows off the gameplay as it is at the Gold Milestone.

(Credit to https://incompetech.com/ for the music)

A huge thank you...

...to everyone in my team during this process. @hamishsmithers​ as my fellow designer, @Mitchell_C_S and @nerbzthedude my programmers, and please take a look at some of my artists’ work:

https://sketchfab.com/condello.art

https://www.artstation.com/condello_art

Backyard Snowdown is well underway, our programmers have not stopped to get as much in the game as possible before we hit Beta. Which is great! We now have a fully playable and (dare I say) fun game to work on. 

Main Mechanics:

The most important aspect to Backyard Snowdown is the snowballs. They can be thrown directly at the other players to inflict damage, or (and don’t ask for the logic) they can ricochet off anything except other players to hit their mark.

From the start of development, it has been really important to have an inclusive roster of characters. Initially sitting on the idea of 4-8 (depending on scope) selectable characters. That was then changed to basic character models that could be customised with hats, gender and skin tone. After feedback from our first presentation to a Teacher Panel, we went back to selectable characters.

Rolling with that we now have 4 adorable and quirky characters, 2 male and 2 female (gender equality has been really important from the start). Here is the first one, looking to be ready for Alpha!