Space Bunny

Project Introduction

My senior project is an action-adventure RPG where you play as a Space Bunny sent by the Zovarion Corporation to explore new habitable planets. However, technical difficulties lead to an emergency landing. You take shelter in an abandoned bunker, only to discover it is an underground lab. Players will explore the underground, collect evidence, and unlock new scenes and dialogue to uncover secrets that could change everything about your mission and the fate of humanity. Upon exploring, you learn about a failed experiment on Bionids that tested on animals which led to the fall of humanity. In the end, you discover that Zovarion was held responsible, and you are one of the products of their experiments. The downfall of humanity was not an accident—it was a deliberate plan to destroy the planet. Zovarion’s goal was to use their animal research to create a new, genetically modified population of animals that could be controlled and used as tools for labor and future colonization efforts. You will have the choice to either destroy the evidence in the lab or use it for further research.

Game Development
Space Bunny was developed using Godot as my game engine for my project, given its easy scripting language (GDScript), and reliable tools for scene management and input handling. Additionally, Godot offers extensive documentation on its website, along with tutorials from both official and external sources.

This game relies heavily on environment interaction, as where actions and dialogue are triggered by the player's proximity to certain objects or areas. When the player enters a specific zone, the UI system prompts them with an 'Examine' option, allowing them to interact with the item and unlock dialogue.

Dialogue
To simplify the creation of branching dialogues, I used Nathan Hoad’s Dialogue Manager add-on to manage the conversations with AI and other characters. Although this tool is integrated into Godot, the interaction system was the most challenging to develop. I had not only interactions with objects with a unique dialogue script, but how to trigger a scene once all were completed. I did this by scripting a system that tracked all of the interactions and their states in order to activate specific events.

Character Design

Fortunately, pixel art animation proved to be relatively straightforward. I used Aseprite, a sprite editor and pixel art software, to create the main character, Space Bunny. As someone with no prior experience in this form of animation, Asperite was intuitive to use, allowing me to create frame-by-frame pixel animations without heavily relying on tutorials.

Why create your own character but not the environment?
Space Bunny’s identity plays a highly important role in the story. As a genetically altered bunny, the character is the result of corporate exploitation and unethical experimentation. I wanted Space Bunny to reflect these themes, ensure the character stood out as distinct, and reflect my creative effort.

While the environment is important, creating and refining it can be time-intensive, especially with limited budget and time. Finding an existing environment that fits the theme of Space Bunny would allow me to focus more on other key areas of game development.

Technology is advancing rapidly, and the uncertainty surrounding its ethical implications is not limited to just this game. This project reflects real-world concerns about corporate practices that prioritize profit over the well-being of people and the planet. Space Bunny is a product of Zovarion’s animal experiments but was designed to raise questions not only about how far humans are willing to alter or control others for the sake of progress or profit, but also how far off are we from Space Bunny? Will we be the creators of such beings, or will we become victims of our own unchecked experimentation, just like Space Bunny? Will that occur in this lifetime or the next? How far off are we from trapped in a system that uses us as tools and bodies of labor without our knowledge, or are we already there? While we may not be genetically altered or living in a dystopian future, we are already victims of labor in many ways—whether it is through the exploitation of workers, the extraction of our personal data, or the pressures of a system that benefits from our constant output and productivity. In both endings, Space Bunny tragically dies and Zovarion continues their exploitation, no matter what choice you make. The goal was to make this decision feel somewhat futile, allowing players to feel what it is like to navigate a world shaped by forces beyond their control with extreme global consequences. The core of the story is about the exploitation of life, whether it is the animals mutated from Bionid experiments or the way Space Bunny is manipulated and unknowingly created by a powerful corporation. How far from Space Bunny are we?

Development

Character Design

I used Aseprite to design Space Bunny's animations and 2D sprites. This pixel art software allows for frame-by-frame animation creation and exporting of sprite sheets compatible with game engines such as Godot.

Dialogue

I downloaded Nathan Hoad's Dialogue Manager add-on to simplify the management and structure of the game's dialogue system.

Game Engine

I used Godot for my 2D pixel game development due to its accessibility for beginner developers. It comes with many built-in features, such as GDScript, a scene manager, and UI tools, which were easy to utilize.

Bunker Design

I purchased the Tech Dungeon: Roguelite asset pack by Pupkin Assets to save time on environmental creation due to the limited development period.

Sound Design

For various sounds, including footsteps, machine operations, door openings, background music, AI voices, and more, I used Pixabay and jsfxr to download free sound assets for the game's audio design.

Resources

I followed various YouTube tutorials throughout the developmental process, such as creators DevWorm, Nathan Hoad,and Michael Games.

Timeline

Week 1

Project ideation, brainstorming game ideas, and story planning.

Week 2

Finalize core concept, story, and theme, and define basic mechanics.

Week 3

Write a detailed design document, covering mechanics, narrative, environment, and script.

Week 4

Create rough sketches of UI, characters, items, and environmental design for sites. Plan sprite sheets.

Week 5

Set up Godot project, begin building a basic scene with placeholder assets, and set up basic player movement and interactions.

Week 6

Design third scene (bunker interior), set up interactions for exploring the bunker, and script transition from crash site to bunker.

Week 7

Design lab and environmental details for the lab, and create a sprite for the vial containing the last surviving Bionid.

Week 8

Script sequence for finding research logs, and set up AI interactions explaining the lab’s history and Zovarion Corporation’s role.

Week 9

Design first two scenes, design sprites for the first interactive objects, and script transition from bunker to lab scene.

Week 10

Set up player dialogue choices that affect the story’s outcome, and design and implement UI elements.

Week 11

Integrate basic sound effects (walking, picking up items, interactions), and add background music for different scenes.

Week 12

Finalize and implement all UI elements, integrate sound effects and background music, and fix any leftover coding errors.

Week 13

Conduct playtests, gather feedback on gameplay and difficulty, and fix bugs.

Week 14

Analyze feedback and prioritize revisions, adjust difficulty, refine mechanics, improve AI, combat balance, and platforming.

Week 15

Midterm critique, refine code and presentation based on feedback.

Week 16

Final round of testing, fix issues, and optimize gameplay.

Week 17

Implement final revisions based on critiques, polish and finalize all aspects of the game.

Week 18

Final code fixes and polish, and prepare the game for release.

Week 19

Final presentation and critique with finished game.

Week 20

Gallery install and exhibition.