Bohike

The Game

Bohike is a sidescrolling jump'n'runner about an elemental spirit mask fighting it's way through a native fortress.

The player can double jump, sprint, spin to attack and glide. Collected mojo from chests and enemies can be spent for extra lives. After reaching the end of the fortress and beating the chieftain, the player wins the game.

The Creation Process

This game was created in a programming course over 10 weeks. Thanks go out to our professor , Christoph Hahn, and to our tutor, Max Stürzl.

It was my most ambitious project while studying by far - needless to say, it's also the most unfinished one. We thought we'd manage to crunch out 4 entire levels and a boss, together with cutscenes to tell a story. A lot of stuff had to be cut and the only thing I managed to get out was a level and a boss. It's missing animations and music, too. This truly was the moment where I got taught that making games takes a lot of time and work. I'm happy I learned this lesson without much money involved.

Still, I'm in love with the result! It's a prototype, pretty much, but I love the feel of the game. It was a blast to develop. I'm still a huge fan of the character designs and I firmly intend to pick it back up for a reboot.

I'm most proud of the fluent controls and how the camera moves. Because the player moves so quickly he needs a lot of room on the screen to maneuver reliably. Having him smack bang in the center all the time felt amateur-ish, so the camera now zooms in slowly if he stands still, zooms out the faster he moves and tries to predict where he's going. This gives him the space he needs to react to hazards in front of him and makes the game feel more dynamic and polished.

Bohike was created using C# and MonoGame. The sprites were created with Paint.NET. The sound effects are a capella for the most part and created with Audacity.