Keaton’s Adventure

About This Project

‘Keaton’s Adventure’ is a project that began development in December 2023 and currently on-going. In one year, I’ve managed to turn it from prototype into a complete demo that anyone can play. Keaton’s Adventure is being developed solely by myself; all content, save for the music and some sound effects have been developed by me. My intention with this project is to release a full version on Steam, where it is currently listed.

What is Keaton’s Adventure?

Keaton's Adventure is an expressive 2D, side-scrolling, action-adventure game with RPG elements where you’ll embark on an action-packed adventure throughout space as cosmic superheroes empowered by the Galaxy itself to fight off an Invasion, restore balance, and unveil the truths of a conviction-shattering conspiracy.

Tools Used

Godot 4.3(GDScript), Aseprite, Figma, Chiptone, Git

1 Year of Development + Playable Demo

In this video, I am showcasing the development progress I made in one year. The art, animations, UI, programming was all done by myself. The demo can be downloaded from itch.io or you can check out the steam page below

Features

  • Fluid Character Mechanics

    Characters have 8 special abilities they can perform with 6 unique abilities called “Ultra Moves”, along with the usual movement mechanics such as crouching, and double jumping.

    Players also have an energy meter meant to support the use of “Ultra moves”, 3 hearts for health, and a combo chain meter that also represents the player’s damage output

  • Character Selection

    Quickly select between one of two characters, with more to unlock as you progress the game’s story. This responsive menu updates UI to reflect the selected character

  • Multiplayer

    Players can seamlessly jump in and out of gameplay and tackle obstacles together or compete with each other for a best 2 out 3 score. The dynamic camera follows both players and handles various situations such as being off screen, cutscene management, and various gameplay conditions.

  • Multiple Save Files

    Store multiple game saves and load them quickly from the main menu. Also supports save deletion. Information about a given save file is also displayed so that players can differentiate their progress.

  • Story Elements + Unique Dialog

    An over-arching story fit with NPCs, each with their own unique dialog.

    Dialog is versatile, allowing cutscene and non-cutscene dialog, items provided by NPCs and dialog choices.

  • Level Selection

    Progress levels by selecting planets when they become available after completing a previous level.

  • Equipment System

    Modify character stats by equipping ‘Quarks’, rare drops, each with its own rarity level and ability. Quarks can be removed with the press of a button. They can be set before entering a given level.

Achievements

Keaton’s Adventure - Live Interview & Showcase

On December 7th 2024, Keaton’s Adventure was showcased at Oak City Indie Games. I attended a live interview with Siryn, from Stream Raleigh, which had been streamed on the front page of Twitch.

What I’ve Learned

  • I learned how to build various types of mechanics that work a/synchronously.

  • In order to develop such a large scale project on my own, I use kanban boards such as trello to sort bugs, milestones and my todo list

  • A lot can be said about how I can get this much done in a year. I’ve learned to take proper breaks, and learn skills that allow me to use my development time efficiently.

    I attend a monthly playtest event which I also use to hold myself accountable for to make progress on my game before the next showing.

  • I learned patterns such as finite state machines and prefab-like resources to assist with concepts such as saving and loading.

  • With such a large project, version control is important. Early on, when the project was smaller. I found myself creating zipped backups of my project before deciding that it’d be best if I learned version control and save my future self from a disaster. Keaton’s Adventure has over 250 commits.

  • This project was bigger than I could chew when I initially took it on but that was exactly why I did it. I’m someone who likes to challenge myself and improve by persevering. Through my initial struggle for how to program certain feature and mechanics, I discovered how to break down problems and get the results I envisioned, or can research what I need to learn in order to achieve it.

Raleigh Retro Gaming Showcase

On August 24th, 2024 I attended my first showcase event.

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