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D.B. Gooper

Embark on a thrilling free-fall adventure as D.B. Gooper, a slippery character on the run after hijacking a cash-laden plane. Navigate the skies, dodging obstacles, collecting power-ups, and snatching money from the airborne chaos as you descend back to Earth. With each passing moment, more obstacles will appear on the screen, enhancing your score as you plummet. Do you have what it takes to achieve the ultimate high score?

The Game's Development 

I. Core Problem & Initial Thinking

D.B Gooper was created by a team of 5 in a span of 15 weeks. When brainstorming for this project, there were many ambitious ideas thrown around: a puzzle game, a game that progressed through multiple stages... However, my team and I quickly determined the scope would be exceedingly massive.

 

We decided on a game with a smaller scope so we could fully bring the idea to life and focus on polish rather than creating a large, unfinished game. By doing this we were able to come up with the game's current genre. D.B. Gooper is an endless faller game played in real-time. The objective is simple: fall the greatest distance while collecting the most money to achieve a higher score in each playthrough.

II. MyContributions

  • UI System: All menus, buttons, and navigation screens

  • Clickable buttons implementation 

  • How to Play screen design and code

  • Button bug fixes and hitbox adjustments

  • Documentation and Trello task management

DB Gooper Gameplay

III: Tools & Technologies

Game Engine: MonoGame/XNA Framework

  • During our class, we had learned about MonoGame and create mini projects with the program. To get a better understanding, our team counited  learning more about MonoGame to make our game.​

Code Editor: Visual Studio 2022

  • Since this was the first project, we all knew a lot more about Visual Studio and decided to use it. It was also helpful since Visual Studio id the common tool used in game development. ​

Version Control: GitHub 

  • ​Git handles version control locally which is something we needed. GitHub adds collaboration, backup, automation, and visibility on top of it.​

Project Management: Trello, Discord

  • ​We used Trello to track tasks across 4 milestones and Discord for team communication. Each task had a due date and assignee, which kept our team of 5 coordinated.​

Art Tools: Aseprite & Photoshop

  • ​The artist for our game spent a lot of time in Aseprtie and Photoshop. To ensure we got all the assets we needed, we decided o use their tools due to familiarity from the team.​

Documentation: Google Doc, Google Slides, Google Drive

  • For documentation that is a "living" asset, created and maintained by a team, Google Doc, Google Slides, Google Drive are perfect for that. We were able to all be on the same document the same folder and see live edits as they were happening in real time.

IV: Mechanics

Mechanics

D.B. Gooper offers a gameplay experience reminiscent of arcade classics, characterized by its art and music. I helped create some visuals in the game with the help of the team's artist. The player will see the pixelated main character, D.B. Gooper, falling from a plane while dodging objects like pixelated crates, suitcases, or birds. Through its art and music, D.B. Gooper evokes the nostalgic aura of 80s arcade games.

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Shop Page

Control

To play the game, the player will use their keyboard to navigate D.B. Gooper. The player will use WASD to move the character around the screen. The A and D keys will move the player left and right while W controls fall speed on the screen. I also implemented mouse support on the home screen to navigate through different screens at the start of the game.​

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Onboarding

To guide players in learning how to play the game, I built a 'How To Play' option on the home screen. This section displays the WASD controls for character movement, outlines what obstacles to avoid during gameplay, and provides information about each power-up and its usage. Additionally, we included an option to activate God Mode, which prevents the player from taking any damage.

Control Page

Systems Built​​

I wrote this Button class for D.B. Gooper. The image on the left show how I handled button clicks. The other two images show the logic in which the gameState updates and how we drew the buttons to the scene, The challenge was hitboxes overlapping . I solved it by tightening the hitbox to match the texture size exactly.

Draw Button

gameState Button

Button Bool Logic

Bug.png

I tracked bugs using Trello were the team could go in and edit or create the task they are working on. 

V: Design​

D.B. Gooper offers a gameplay experience reminiscent of arcade classics, characterized by its art and music. All the visuals are originally crafted in pixel art. The player will see the pixelated main character, D.B. Gooper falling from a plane while dodging objects like pixelated crates, suitcases, or birds.  Through its art and music, D.B. Gooper evokes the nostalgic aura of 80s arcade games. ​

UI Mockup​

I had redesigned the main menu button. The original (top) had overlapping hitboxes and busy in game UI that confused players. My fix (bottom) tightened the hitbox, simply in game UI, and changed the button to 'How To Play' for clarity.

Protoype
Final Version

UI State Diagram

I helped design this UI state machine. It shows how the game flows from splash screen to main menu to gameplay to game over. This structure prevented state conflicts during navigation.

image.png

VI: What I Learned & Post Mortem

  • Leaving hard problems like File IO to the end is risky. We got it working, but we felt the crunch.

  • Organization matters early. We had to backtrack and rewrite large parts of Game1 because it became too cluttered.

  • Track bugs using Trello so nothing fell through the cracks.

  • Button hitboxes need to match texture sizes exactly, or players will click the wrong thing.

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I personally learned how to implement clickable UI buttons in MonoGame, fix hitbox alignment issues, and create a How To Play screen that actually helps players understand power-ups before starting. D.B. Gooper is a great learning lesson on the basics of UI/UX development.

DB Gooper Gameplay

Credit Page

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