Kamuning Munings was my first ever game, developed around December of 2019. At the time I was a freshman and it was just the first few months of classes. I was anxious that my game development skills (or any developer skills to be honest) wouldn't be in par with my classmates. After all, my course was BS Computer Science with Specialization in Game Development and Mobile App Technologies, something like that. I decided that I should learn the basics of game development and create one before we get back to classes on January.

What do, what do?

Throughout watching YouTube tutorials on how to use Unity, I have one main issue- what do I make? A 2D platformer was the easiest for me since there are a lot of references and tutorials on how to make one. Originally, I planned on doing a 3D game like Subway Surfers where instead of subway and trains, the theme is set along EDSA and the player jumps from moving jeepneys. But I was just about to learn game development, I believe it's not a good idea to jump straight into 3D.

Putting the Munings in Kamuning

I love cats so that's automatically something that should be included in the game. For the environment however, I decided to take inspiration from Kamuning Rd instead of EDSA because mainly, I do not know about EDSA. But also because Kamuning fits very well with the cat theme so I decided to go along with it. This also means I get to highlight the Interweave building, which is a very notable sight in Kamuning.

Gameplay

I decided that players should get to freely roam around the map to get that experience of walking around Kamuning. There would then be cats scattered around the map that the player has to collect to earn points. For the challenge, there would be jeepneys roaming around the map that the players has to avoid.

As a platformer game, I need to have platforms (duh) so taking inspiration from the early Subway Surfers idea, players may stand on top of moving jeepneys. Players may also use the roof of buildings as platforms.

The gameplay is simple - avoid jeepneys and collect cats for points.

Final Thoughts

I am very happy with how the game turned out, given that it was an output for self-learning Unity and introducing myself to the world of game development. I have always been fond of playing games but to create one and understand the things under the hood is a paradigm shift for how I view the gaming industry.

It feels like developing a game is a game itself. It comes with all the satisfactions (and frustrations) that playing a game would normally give. At the end it is both stressfully rewarding, but rewarding nonetheless.