Ashes to Gunpowder
Ashes to Gunpowder is a 2D top down shooter game where the player plays as Hime, the last descendant of an ancient eastern clan. Hime was a young priestess who was tasked to use the power of light to cleanse the land of malicious spirits. This game takes inspiration from games such as Enter the Gungeon, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and other top down shooter games.
This game is developed by Fireflakes Studio.
My role in this game is the Game Designer, Artist and Animator.
Developer Thoughts
"Lessons through experience and pain."
I was the game and level designer for the game and throughout the project, I learned many things, including learning to juggle between what is feasible to do and what should be let go in order to make a project work.
I designed the first few levels of the game which taught me a lot on blending environmental design as well as level design, using both to describe the lore of the world while guiding players in intended directions.
This is the first screen that greets the player. Immediately, I want the players to focus their attention to the shrine in the center, hence there are not many, or any at all, decorations around, so that the players are usually drawn to the shrine.
Placing it center stage helps too. The shrine serves as save points and place to heal the player.
After introducing the shrine to the player, I want to introduce the player to two important mechanics of the game - dashing and shooting.
There are 2 traps in this segment and the players can see the first one immediately, as they approach, there will be a prompt teaching players about the dash.
After the traps, there will be one lamp that teaches player about the second mechanic, which is shooting Hime's bow. By shooting the lamp, the lamp will light up, which will become important later.
On hindsight, I should've thought of a better placement for this lamp as players tend to miss it.
This is the next segment, which is a puzzle segment, which requires the players to shoot all four lamps to unlock the gate.
This puzzle introduces the existence of such puzzles to the players, in a relatively safe environment. This also serves as a shooting range for players to practice their aim.
As the game progresses, puzzles will be used in more unique ways, such as lamps being timed, lighting lamps while fighting monsters, or both.