Andrea Carhuavilca
My work centers around quest design, gameplay systems, encounters, and narrative gameplay, and I enjoy collaborating with engineers and artists to bring interactive worlds to life.
Personal Projects
Play my 2 player prototype action platformer with a pal and enjoy escaping the dungeon together! Engine Used: Unity What I learned: To say I learned "a lot" would be an understatement. This project really challenged me because setting up all the logic and ensuring it replicated and worked for both players was quite a task. A fun bug I encountered was when turning the character left or right, the whole game would flip! That was amusing! Also, learning about rooms and matching room names and servers was a lot, and frankly, quite confusing! I think it was important that I learned how to let players pick their own names and create their own rooms. Despite it being a pain in C#, I believe it added a nice polish to the prototype, allowing it to feel more complete and refined. Player 1 defaulted as a Princess and was the protagonist of our game, while Player 2 was a mage and loyal servant to the Princess. Player 2 could shoot spells, while Player 1 had a sword that shot beams. So, depending on whether you prefer combat face to face or as a mage, I allowed players the option to choose. Designing for 2 players was a significant challenge compared to designing for just 1. When I worked on this project during grad school, it was my first experience with multiplayer design. I made sure to include a variety of enemies so that both players could experience combat. Additionally, I ensured that the players had different abilities and gave them the choice of who to play as. What I would do differently: Now that I have more knowledge and experience, I would add more multiplayer aspects to this little game. Take the story, for example, where the Princess and her friend are captured and presumably escaping their cell. There could have been puzzles and traps that required 2 players to solve together. "It Takes Two" is an exemplary example of 2-player co-op design that I would have liked to emulate in my game. Even the ability to have Player 1 stand on a button to hold the gate open would have been a simple thing to add, but alas, hindsight is 20/20! On to the next project! Fun Facts: There is no official "die" function! I cheated and had the player teleport if they fell down a hole or got hit by an enemy! :) I was inspired by "Super Princess Peach" and wanted a Princess to save herself and the day! My friend composed the music and was my part-time QA tester! Check out the music on Youtube!
Join Draggy on this epic adventure as he travels through various lands to rescue his best friend Pip who was mysteriously kidnapped! Released 3/12/2021 Engine Used: Unity What I learned: "Draggy's Dominion" will always be one of my favorite projects. This was my final project for my last year of graduate school. I invested lots of hours and a piece of myself into this final project, and it does not disappoint! "Draggy's Dominion" drew a lot of inspiration from "Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest," where DK somehow gets captured by King K.Rool, and Diddy has to save him. It also drew inspiration from the "Paper Mario" games, which had a light-hearted and charming sense of humor. "Draggy's Dominion" follows the story of Draggy the dragon on his quest to rescue his best friend and roommate, Pip the squirrel, who has been kidnapped! The player controls Draggy through three levels until they find Pip and confront the final boss, the Yeti, to save him. I learned how to create cutscenes, develop boss AI, design a staff roll credit scene, and make music loop and play continuously across multiple levels. All of it was worth it! It was a lot of fun, and honestly, I hardly encountered any bugs while making this project (unlike the multiplayer game). I do recall that the music looping posed the biggest struggle I encountered. Music in games is actually quite complex, and there are dedicated professionals for implementing sounds and music. Fortunately, I managed to figure out how to make it work for my game. Moreover, this was the first game to feature original music, and I believe it fits the game perfectly! I am still extremely proud of everything in the project! While there are some bugs and areas that need polishing, at its core, it captures much of what I envisioned and reflects who I am as a designer and gamer. What I would do differently: I would love to give "Draggy's Dominion" a makeover. I would add more levels, refine the existing ones, and simply expand its content. First and foremost, the player character controller needs improvement. Jumping feels too floaty, and Draggy sometimes gets stuck in the jump animation even when he touches the ground. I'm not sure if the ground check bool isn't working or if it's the jump code, but that needs fixing. Traversal should feel natural and could use some refinement. Secondly, the enemies and boss need much better AI. I handled all of this myself, and I'm not a programmer. The logic is very basic: target the player. While it gets the job done, the simplicity becomes repetitive. Introducing various enemies with different behaviors would keep players engaged by requiring them to adapt their strategies (e.g., Goombas vs. Hammer Bros in SMB3). Additionally, all levels currently progress from left to right, which isn't bad, but I would like to explore 2D levels that involve vertical traversal. "DKC3" executed this well (World 2 drew inspiration from that game). However, I am quite pleased when reflecting on this project. One of the nice aspects of revisiting past projects is seeing how much progress you've made. It's heartwarming to see where you once were and to have a moment to be proud of what you've accomplished, what you're currently doing, and where you're headed next. I love games and have always cherished the memories and experiences they leave us with. Fun Facts: "Draggy's Dominion" was dedicated to my grandparents! They were always my biggest fans and consistently got me the games I wanted. My grandma passed away during my graduate program, and then the pandemic happened, but I knew she would have wanted me to excel, so I did. My grandpa is still alive and well at 92 and in amazing health, while I throw out my back weekly just from sneezing too hard. Love you, Grandma
Bacon Blitz Go
Help Snortle the Pig escape from the farm! See how long you can survive in this endless runner!!
CherryO!
Gather water droplets to help Pit, the adorable cherry grow! Make sure to avoid the spikey bombs or its game over!
A simple platformer made with Unity
This is a project I made in my prototyping class during my graduate studies at Lindenwood University. We had a week to make a simple game and I choose a classic, the platformer!
Our assignment was to add to a previous game we made by adding new goals like a timer and enemies. I chose to expand on my original QB game.
The final version of QB
Our final project for class was to "finish" and polish one of our prototypes. I really grew fond of QB and it's simple platformer mechanic. I choose to add 3 levels and a "final" boss.
