What is Soaring Hearts?
Soaring Hearts is a local co-op puzzle platformer where two flightless birds ascend a mountaintop by solving platforming puzzles. It takes great inspiration from titles such as Celeste and Super Meat Boy.
Soaring Hearts' development team consisted of 8 people and was created in a single week. It is playable in browser on Itch.IO.
My Contributions
My main contribution to Soaring Hearts was the creation of the carrying and throwing mechanic where players could pick up and hurl one another. I also created the interactions that result from throwing a player and being thrown such as standing on top of the player that was lodged into a wall and becoming unstuck after being thrown. I was also the teams lead QA tester and fixed issues other developers and players ran into.
Picking Up and Throwing
The main mechanic of Soaring Hearts' platforming puzzles involves players picking up and throwing each other to clear gaps, use one another as platforms, and to reach vertical spaces that would be otherwise inaccessible. I created the technical backing required for this mechanic through various states within an internal movement state machine that dictates the movment of each player along with built-in functions that apply forces to Unity's Rigidbody2D. A hitbox extending just beyond each player determines whether or not a player can "grab" the other and carry them around until they decide to throw them.
Makeshift Platforms and Getting Unstuck
I also created the interaction where after a player is thrown into a wall, their beak becomes lodged into it creating a platform for the other player to stand on. This was made possible by disabling the thrown players gravity and velocity the moment they come in contact with a wall as well as nullifying any forces acting upon the player. Players who are stuck can activate their grab button to spring themselves up and away from the wall gaining a vertical boost.
Bug Fixing and QA Testing
The team experienced several bugs during Soaring Hearts' development mainly relating to gameplay interactions between players. I took on the role of Quality Assurance Tester and played through the entirety of Soaring Hearts several times making sure to report and fix any bugs I encountered. I was also responsible for fixing bugs other developers and players ran into during development and playthroughs.
Fuzzy lowering a red platform.
Hardy moving a wooden box into the right position.
Hardy carrying Fuzzy. The mountaintop is in sight.
Fuzzy lodged into a wall while Hardy stands on top.
Moving a large box onto an orange platform.
