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Pea Knight MMO
February 2022 - August 2023

Available on Itch.io

Pea Knight: MMO is a top-down action prototype where you play the final hours of a fictional MMO.

The project began as a game jam project, growing into a long-form prototype project to establish an art and gameplay production pipeline. 

I serve as a Solo Developer, testing and iterating on design for future projects with 'Pea Knight'.

Highlights:

• Top-down Incremental Action Prototype intended for a short ~10 minute playtime

• Retro-style focus with low-poly, limited animation style & chiptune audio​​
  

• Hybrid ranged & melee combat flow system, 7 enemy typed implemented

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Combat Design - Swinging Weapons & Firing Spells

A core to Pea Knight MMO's design was playing as a 'witch knight' and swapping between a melee weapon and spells.

This was done with a spell charge system, requiring melee combat to refill spells.

The idea was to create a 'wave' of momentum between carefully swinging at a distance & rushing in with full spell charges and reckless abandon.

HUD indicator for spell charges (top left)

Player can buffer inputs into further actions and rotate in the ending frames of attacks to aim

Base kit of player includes:

• Two hit attack with wooden weapon
• Ranged spell costing 1 spell charge
  
• Dodge with quick start but high recovery
• Grab & Throw actions
• Actions with Equipment like a Shield

Each action can be buffered into another and the ending momentum of a spell can lead into the start of a melee attack.
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Pea Knight MMO's takes on a form of an incremental action game with a large arena of enemies, gold per kill, and player upgrades to purchase.

This was to experiment with the feel of improving player's abilities and which abilities felt more fun to include as an initial tool.

Dodging initially wasn't a starting action, so a slower recovery dodge was created

Visual Style - Expressive Low-Poly

Model eyes have a top bias for the top-down view

Pea Knight MMO uses low poly models with texture animated faces to evoke older 3D games. Animation is done in a limited animation style where keyposes are the only frames with no interpolation.

VFX like motion trails help to keep arcs of motion visible from the top-down view. Cel-shaded processing effects were applied to give a hard edge depth to the environment and characters.