Squished was a game that I made for a games competition as well as my 3rd-year final project. The theme for both was “platformer”.

From the theme, I decided to make a multiple-player smash bros type game where up to four players can play together within a fast pace, beat ’em-up environment with X-Box controllers. I wanted each round to be quick, so I decided to force the players inward over time by using a platform that shrinks. To stop one player from using their better ability to get back on a platform, I added a damage statistic, this statistic would increase the knock-back of the player.

I also wanted to work more with physics-based movements and effects, so I made the character a slime block. When the slime block falls from the ground or reaches the ground after a jump, it bounces and you can continue this to bounce higher and higher like you would on a trampoline.

I felt the movement of the player’s movement also needed to be fast and fun. So I added a double jump to let them fly across the map, I also added in the ability to loop around the screen so the player had more options on where to go. Another movement option I added was being able to stick under platforms. This was for two reasons; One to add a fun movement type and Two to add a safeguard for falling due to the double jump.

To add more interaction between players, I added emotes that the player could use to make a friend, taunt or just show off.  I also added a crown for the last known victor of the round. The bottom of the screen also housed a UI which showed the players in the game as well as their wins and damage statistic.

For the end of the game, I also added a tally which shows the wins of each of the players,  before moving to a victory screen.

This project uses C++ and SFML.