MobJump — Isaiah Sepulveda

My first game project featuring custom mechanics, visual effects, and a cinematic sense of speed and flight.

Goal

MobJump is my first game development project, and I began it with the goal of learning a little bit about the many facets of game development. I chose Godot and aimed to understand its architecture through my exploration, from scenes and scripts to the rendering and physics engine. To this end, I started with the basic 3D game tutorial, and extended it with several additions.

My Contributions

Implemented the starter project, a straightforward 3D arcade survival game involving a player jumping on randomly spawning enemies.

Made design decisions to enhance this concept, like adding a 'twirl' ability to give players the ability to extend their airtime, modifying physics to give the player more control in the air while keeping it fast paced, and adding a combo system to reward high-skill play.

Designed a novel dual-stick control scheme where the right stick tilts the entire game board, shunting enemies around. This could be used to launch enemies into the player, which I quickly recognized as an emergent gameplay concept. I took this idea and ran with it, making it so launching enemies into the player would cause the player to rocket far into the sky.

Designed a high-stakes, aerial focused gameplay loop where touching the ground means instant death, and the player is tasked with skillfully using the twirl and board shift mechanics to survive as long as possible.

Programmed a simple but effective dynamic, two-phase camera system that transitions between board focused and a cinematic side on perspective as the player flies high into the sky.

Wrote a simple post-processing shader in GLSL to give the game a stylized, pixelated aesthetic.

Challenge

The primary challenge was the steep learning curve of the Godot engine itself. As a newcomer to game development, I had to grasp fundamental concepts like the node-based scene tree, the GDScript language, signal-based communication between objects, and the 3D physics engine, all while implementing my own custom features for the first time.

Solution

I tackled this challenge through a structured, hands-on approach. I started with a deep dive into Godot's official documentation and community tutorials to build a foundational knowledge base. I then broke down my ideas into small, manageable tasks—implementing the board-tilt mechanic, then the camera system, and so on. This iterative process of learning a concept, immediately applying it in the editor, and debugging the result allowed me to build a holistic and practical understanding of the engine.

Outcome & Impact

MobJump represents a successful journey from zero knowledge to a simple but well executed project in a new engine. It demonstrates my ability to independently learn a complex technology stack and apply that knowledge to create a unique and playable experience. It proves my capacity for rapid skill acquisition and my foundational understanding of core game development principles.

Key Technologies

Godot, GDScript, GLSL, Git