Data Dash: A Game for Cyberpunk Lovers

Data Dash is a cyberpunk themed platformer web game based in HTML Canvas. The scope of this project was to design and implement from scratch a playable web game using HTML Canvas. This was a 3 person group project in which I was responsible for programming the gameplay+mechanics and for the UI Design. I also contributed to coming up with the idea for the game and designed the Data Dash brand. Among the other members, Jefferson Valdez was responsible for all illustrations, designing the game, characters, setting and various transition screens and Joshua Ekins was responsible for the copywriting and communications.

The game will be set many decades in the future in Neopolis, a fictional dystopian city state in a Cyberpunk world. After the Fourth Corporate Wars between the Izanagi Corporation and OmniTech International, the United States descended into chaos. Izanagi took control of what was once Los Angeles, turning it into a high tech dystopian cyber city-state.

In our game, the playable character is a netrunner, hired by OmniTech to hack into Izanagi’s main building and find information that could help OmniTech destroy them. The netrunner was caught by Izanagi’s security systems which released a virus which would kill the netrunner and their implanted interface on contact. This backstory sets up our platformer game in which the netrunner must jump onto platforms and collect various boosts in order to escape Neopolis and avoid getting overrun by the virus.

Data Dash Homescreen
Data Dash Winning Screen
Data Dash Virus

Objective

The objective of the game is for the netrunner to survive the virus and escape Neopolis. The netrunner must jump on the platforms and keep progressing upwards in order to maintain the pace necessary to stay away from the virus. As the netrunner progresses through different sections of Neopolis, the pursuing virus will increase its speed and the netrunner will encounter more obstacles, making it ever more necessary to keep hitting the platforms without missing much.

The playable character will be a netrunner trying to escape Neopolis and get away from the virus sent after them by Izanagi. Other characters include the virus, which will be the length of the playing screen and move upward towards the netrunner at a variable speed depending how far out of Neopolis the netrunner has progressed. If the virus makes contact with the netrunner, it would kill the netrunner and end the game. There may also be obstacle characters in later sections of Neopolis that would be there to slow the netrunner down, these would likely be either Izanagi agents, Neopolis police officers, or both. The obstacle characters would not be able to kill the netrunner, only to slow it down.

Gameplay

The game will be controlled using the spacebar and arrow keys. The spacebar will be used to jump with the netrunner and the left and right arrow keys will be used to move the netrunner left and right respectively.

This will not be a multiple life based game, the netrunner will have only one life and would die immediately if it makes contact with the virus. The netrunner must successfully jump onto platforms to maintain its pace and avoid the virus. If the netrunner misses a platform completely it would likely fall into the virus and die, if it misses a platform and lands back on the same platform it jumped from, that would slow the netrunner’s pace down.

In further levels we may integrate obstacle characters who would also slow the netrunner down on contact. The game will end when the netrunner successfully escapes Neopolis. We will keep a timer for score purposes but may also consider using the timer to set an upper time limit to escape the city, in this case if the netrunner hasn’t managed to escape by the time the timer reaches the upper time limit, the virus would instantly cover the whole playing area, killing the netrunner.

Click on the logo below to play the game

Data Dash Logo

Audience & Design

The game, being a platformer game with a cyberpunk aesthetic, will be targeting mainly people who enjoy platformer games as well as people who enjoy consuming cyberpunk themed art and media. The game should be challenging enough that it’s fun to play, hence the punishments for missing platforms, potential obstacles, and increasing difficulties. It should, however, also be easy enough for a casual gamer to enjoy, hence the simple game controls and straightforward game concept.

The design choices made for the game were made to stay true to the cyberpunk aesthetic. The colour choices were the mix of dark edgy colours and bright neon colours that would be expected in the cyberpunk genre. The characters, setting, and typeface were all designed in a pixel art style.

Type

Programming, UI Design, Web Game

Client

School Project

Roles

Brandon Donini - Programming + UI Design

Jefferson Valdez - Illustration + Game/Chatacter Design

Joshua Ekins - Copywriting + Communications

Tools

HTML Canvas, CSS, JS

Data Dash Virus

Saint Pierre Winery

Brand Identity + Packaging Design

Data Dash Case Study

Web Game Programming

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Brand Identity

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Brand Identity + Packaging