Overview
A game system organised around switching powers.
The spaceship has run out of fuel, and the player must collect elemental resources across different eras. The game turns that premise into a tutorial and four levels built around Fire, Water, Earth and Air abilities.
The project was completed as a group assessment, so the technical challenge included both gameplay design and the continuous integration of work produced by several contributors.
01 / Game design
Teach one shared rule, then vary the challenge.
Players move, jump and switch between four powers to solve traversal problems and gather resources. The tutorial establishes the control language before each level focuses attention on a different elemental mechanic.
This created a coherent structure for level design: new spaces could introduce distinct challenges without changing the core way the player understood the game.
02 / Controls and systems
Keep the control surface compact.
- A / D or arrow keys move the character.
- W / Space jumps.
- 1-4 switches elemental powers.
- Escape returns to the main menu.
Mapping power selection to a predictable number row made all four abilities directly accessible, which supported levels that expected deliberate switching rather than menu navigation.
03 / Team delivery
Integrate gameplay, levels and art continuously.
The team used GitHub Projects to make work visible and coordinate delivery. Regular integration mattered because a mechanic that works in isolation can still fail when combined with a level, animation or another contributor's changes.
The project reinforced the value of small task boundaries, shared ownership of game feel and frequent playable builds.
04 / Outcome
Selected and presented beyond the classroom.
The subject coordinator selected Space Monkeys for the 2025 UTS Student Games Showcase. We presented the game, watched attendees play and gathered direct feedback alongside other student projects.
The build and source remain available below.
05 / Lessons
Cohesion is a team engineering problem.
The strongest learning came from the joins between disciplines. Gameplay code, level layout, art and difficulty tuning all affected the player's experience, so no contributor could optimise only their own piece.
A future iteration would formalise playtest notes earlier and use those observations to tune onboarding and difficult jumps before final content lock.