Overview
Teehee's Revenge was my third major project in Digipen. Just like Black Dungeon, Teehee's Revenge was developed over two disciplines; design and computer science degree.
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As the design lead, I was in-charge of developing the game mechanics; enemies behavior and the project's level.
Genre: Scifi, Action, Adventure
Game Engine: Unity, Custom Engine
Platform: Windows
Project Duration: 24 Weeks
About the Game
Teehee's Revenge is a 3D scifi-action, adventure game.This project is a sequel to the other two designer's project, in another module. The narrative continues from their previous project, as Teehee escapes from a spaceship. On his way back to his home planet, he is capture by another human spaceship where experimentations are performed on his body.
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As a result, Teehee is gained enhanced intellect and the ability to generate bananas from his barehands. Freed by Prime Ape, the ape resistance leader Teehee encounters Cornelius, just like him is being experimented on by humans. However, Cornelius develops the ability to fire laser beam from his eyes.
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Armed with a superpowered baby and his ape-like dexerity, Teehee begins his counterattack upon the human scientists who captured and experimented on them.
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Teehee is able to perform a variety of attacks; his basic melee and ranged attacks, and any abilities that Cornelius has. Players have to make use of the various attacks; abilities and Teehee's agility to overcome traps and take down the scientists and the robot enforcers deployed within the spaceship.
The process
Designing Teehee's Revenge was a challenge for me, juggling between design and art made it hard to fully commit to a single discipline. Thankfully with the assistance of my fellow designers and tech team, I was able to properly execute my role as the design lead.
Game Mechanics
In Teehee's Revenge, I wanted an ape companion for our protagonist. This companion would act as both a mean as a power-up for the player and a crucial aspect for survival. Originally the idea of an ape baby was suppose to be similar to Pikmins and 101 Heroes. Where players would control a hoard of baby apes; each baby would represent an ability, the greater the number of babies from that ability, the stronger its effect will be in combat and exploration.
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Ultimately this idea was scaled down to a singular baby, where its ability could be augmented based on the food it was fed. It was a key imperitive that players managed the baby's stress meter, as the could it raised through using its abilities and from the players taking damage.
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This meant that the game technically had two core loops; the first loop revolved around navigating and completing a level while the second loop focused on managing Cornelius. This made combat and exploration of the levels more dynamic and engaging.
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To up the stakes, I designed a secondary function for Cornelius, if Cornelius was seperated from Teehee for a prolong period of time, the pent-up stress would cause an implosion, destroying the entire spaceship. It was further enhanced by a timer that would play at the bottom of the screen, when Cornelius detached himself from Teehee. I designed Cornelius to seek refuge if he were to be dislodged, players would have to chase the baby down while avoiding enemy attacks.
3D Modelling & Animations
Being the only design member of the 3D that was familiar with 3D game development workflow, I stepped up to the task of modelling; rigging and animation the characters in the game.
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For this project, my team decided to use Blender as our main 3D software. As I was new to this workflow, I first researched on the basic tools that Blender provided. After watching hours of videos, I begin to research on the face structure of apes. I decided that the characters in Teehee's Revenge adopt the same disjointed body as Rayman. This allowed for more fluid and expressive character animations, removing the limitations of animating character limbs.
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After modelling the player and enemies. Next was rigging and animating them, thankfully I retained most of my knowledging from 3D riggin back in my polytechnic days, I was able to quickly rig up all the models and added IK handlers to make the animation process much more efficient.
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However, the animation process proved to be the most challenging aspect during the development. Blender uses and adopts a vastly different method of storing animation data than Maya, many of my animations broke when it was imported into the custom engine. Thankfully, with my graphics team and classmates who were proficient in 3D animation, the animation issues was rectified and we were able to deliver a project with its properly animations in the end.
DEsignning the LEvel
For Teehee's Revenge one, my team and I decided to only develop one polished level for the project. It would commence with the escape of Teehee and would conclude with the defeat of the security program "Firewall".​
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In each room, I would introduce a new element that would be crucial in overcoming the level boss at the end. Each room served as a training ground for players to learn about the new enemy or obstacle.
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In the Lab Room, players are introduced to the grunts of the game, the melee robot will follow the player and strike them when they are within range. Players learn to use the ranged weapon to easily dispatch the melee robots, or make sure of Teehee's agility to outmaneuver them during their attack animation.
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In the Turret Room, players are first introduced to the ranged robots in area 1, they learn that using Cornelius's laser eyes will efficient clear out hordes of enemies, but it comes at a great price. In the second area, players are shown the terrifying electrified floors. With its pulsating energy waves that deals damage over time if players remain on it.
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In the Sever Room, I added verticality to the room, designing a basement where players can hop ontop of the server units and rain bananas upon their robotic foes. The change in room layout was meant to server the melancholy of experiencing combat in a singled-level room.
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Finally the Boss Room is the accumulation of every elements players have experienced. With its multiple attack pattern; "Firewall" is able to throw every obstacle players have encountered so far in waves. Once players have overcome the boss, threated to a cutscene, that hints the continuation of Teehee's adventure through the ship.
What I've Learnt
Probably the most enjoyable project that I have worked on, developing a project that wasn't afraid to take itself serious allowed me design features that I would not normally add into a project. Working closely with my graphic lead when we were troubleshooting the animation import issues, opened my eyes to how each 3D modelling software stores its transformation data within the bones or vertices of a rigged model.
Thanks to the tips and knowledge taught by professors and from my personal research, my understanding of importing and exporting 3D animations has grown tremendously throughout the duration of the development.