Description

Aim High Lofi is a whimsical, fast-paced, FPS game with Lo-fi music and platforming elements. Made in Unity for PC & Mac, it’s my second solo released game.

Inspired by the movement and feel of games like Titanfall and Overkill, wholesome cute aesthetics, and chill beats of Lo-Fi music.

Achievements

Created 1st & 3rd person FPS character (able to swap between perspectives for player preference).
Wall running, jumping, sliding, and Dash attack.
5 levels with different objectives.
Created 5 guns (called Pew Pews).
Created 3 enemies with behaviour and movement.
HUD & SFX feedback during combat.

Project Objectives

Create an accessible, joyous, FPS distinguishable from conventionally violent FPS.

Thrill – Fast, empowering, shooting & combat.
Chill – Create a whimsical, wholesome world with chill music.
For all – Accessible to a range of skills & capabilities

Systems

Rewarding Fast paced movement

Aim High Lofi is best at fast speeds. To incentivise this:

Moving fast multiplies attack damage.
Enemy accuracy is high, promoting evading attacks.

Dashing

Dashing launches players over far distances, attacking enemies and transparent green blocks.

In playtesting, players didn’t Dash to attack, it was too risky. I added gaining health when defeating an enemy. This gave a reward to the risk, promoting it’s use.

Shooting

PewPews (guns) have 2 firing modes to keep combat dynamic.

Optional Z-target style aim assistance which can be customized for accessible and preferential levels (more in Accessibility).

Interaction

Ability to look at item gives a description before picking it up. This also allowed me to add little silly jokes in it’s description to keep with the theme.

Energy & Sliding

Energy acts as fuel for Dashing and ammo. Sliding on the ground gains energy back. This created moments to break up the flow of combat and prevented abusing air combat.

Misc.

Enemy “X-ray” outlines. Helped reduce seeking the final enemies.
SFX/UI combat feedback such as hit registers and being hit indicator.
Customizable game modifiers (more in Accessibility).
1st & 3rd person camera switching catering to player preference.

Accessibility

I wanted to make the most accessible FPS game I could make. A game for new players and old players alike. Aim High Lofi has various customizable modifiers. Most solutions solve a cognitive or motor problem.

Problem	Solution
Various aiming abilities	Z-Target style aim assist which can be enhanced or turned off
Reaction speeds	– Movement & Game Time customization – Enemy reaction speed customization
Violence/Gore	Cute wholesome aesthetics
Motion Sickness	– 3rd person option – FOV slider – Movement & Game Time customization
Controller abilities	Mouse & Keyboard + Controller support (couldn’t get reconfiguration done in time)
Various skill levels	Ability to modify enemy speed, reaction, damage, player speed and movement, to name a few.

Reception

Reception was positive but small. 2 distinct polar opposite groups formed.

Inexperienced children who enjoyed the colourful aesthetics and silly weapons (and their parents who liked it wasn’t a violent game).
Experienced teens/young adults who enjoyed the quick movement and combat.

Unfortunately while I did find members from both groups interested it was a small overlap, too small.

Post mortem

Originally I envisioned a Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler but when I realised my highly niche market I had to “kill my baby”. I wrapped up development as quickly as possible, turning it into an Arcade-esque game, and releasing it for free on Itch.io.

Lesson learned:

Don’t reinvent the wheel – Established genres exist for a reason. Build for market. People will want to play what they already like.

Conclusion

Aim High Lofi was born from 1 desire & 1 question. The desire to create a fast-paced FPS with the Dash mechanic, and to see if there was a market for a “whimsical FPS”. While I personally love the game and it’s feel, the market is too niche, so I moved on to something less risky.

Store Link

Itch.io