My Mechanical Friends
A turn-based strategy game that takes place in a world that is as whimsical as it is bleak.
What is My Mechanical Friends?
My Mechanical Friends is a project was created by a three-person team at DePaul University as a capstone project, consisting of myself and two classmates. It was created over approximately twenty weeks of development time.
What role(s) did I serve on the project?
I served the roles of creating 3D assets and writing out the dialogue and universe of the game, while also serving as the game’s producer. The game was created using Unreal Engine 5, while I made supporting assets through Autodesk Maya and Adobe Photoshop.
The gameplay of My Mechanical Friends
The game follows a simple turn-based combat formula. Each robot gets two different attacks, determined by what arms they have equipped. There is a basic elemental system, where enemies can resist or be more vulnerable to specific types of damage. The game also has four distinct environments, and twenty different levels. In order to add more depth and variety, the player is introduced to new damage types as well as additional robots for their team as they progress through the game.
The design philosophy of My Mechanical Friends
The game was originally based around the concept of ‘what if you needed to repair your robot soldiers emotionally as well as physically?’. Effectively, between missions you’d have to talk with your robots while also learning more about the game’s world and story via their perspectives on the world. You as the player are effectively dropped into the game’s setting without knowing much about it, while all of your robots are well-experienced with it.
The game’s visuals were originally meant to be that of a gritty PS1-styled aesthetic, with the environments being that of a rusty factory chamber, a scrapyard full of robot parts, pristine lab corridors showing signs of abandonment, and a massive rocket launch bay. The assistance of a pixelation filter as well as a transparent static effect was designed to make the game look as if it was being viewed through a video camera rather than the player’s own eyes.
However, as we developed our vision of the game further and I created more of its models, I decided to give the robots themselves a bit more of a clean aesthetic, since their lighthearted behavior is meant to contrast the hopeless situation they’ve been placed into. This was further emphasized with the game’s attack and flinch animations.
