D.O.C
It's a high-stakes, Hotline Miami-style top-down shooter where you play as a doctor fighting a massive viral outbreak. You use keyboard and mouse to dodge intense enemy attacks and try to survive a brutal countdown timer to clear each level and save humanity.
- Role
- Game Design
- Type
- 2D Top-down Shooter
- Platform
- PC
- Team Size
- Solo Project
- Duration
- 3 Weeks
- Date
- 2020
Screenshots
Reflections & technical notes
Design Inspiration
This project is like a warm nod to the Hotline Miami series. You can totally see where it gets its ideas—from the way it looks to how you play, it’s got that HM vibe for sure. But the actual gameplay takes a different path.
With the pandemic as the background, I mixed HM’s classic gameplay and art style with this super timely theme. Instead of making the main character a people-killer, I reimagined them as a virus-slayer.
This project was mostly about practicing 2D game design. And Hotline Miami? It’s such a standout game in the gaming world, so it was an obvious top pick for this kind of practice.
Game Flow
This is the general flow of the game. Basically, you can fail each level as many times as you want and keep trying until you successfully pass it. The punishment for failure has also been minimized.
Character, Enemy & Item Concepts
These are design drafts for characters, enemies, and items. They mainly use a pixel art style and are designed around the "pandemic" theme.
Level Design
Tutorial Level
This is the tutorial level, which is designed to help players quickly get familiar with the game mechanics. Although the difficulty is not high, players may still fail because they take damage.
Level 1
The first level marks the official start of the game. Players need to challenge according to the game rules, trying to survive within the time limit. At this stage, they only have to deal with one type of enemy.
Level 2: Rising Difficulty
As the game progresses, the difficulty level gradually increases. At this point, not only does the mission time limit get extended, but the types of enemies also increase to two, and pickable items begin to appear simultaneously.
Level 3: Final Stretch
This part of the game is almost over now. You know, the time limit has been extended once again, and on top of that, the types of enemies have gone up to three. That means the difficulty has hit its highest point. If you want to get through this level successfully, you really have to focus all your attention. Once you pass the level, the game will end, and you'll have beaten it for good.