The Making of Seagull Simulator
By: Josevan Danusastra | 18 October 2022
"At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities." — Jean Houston
Seagull Simulator
It Flies and Eat Fries
Seagull Simulator is a comical exploration game where you play as Seagull that eats human food and flies inside and outside a human office. Using your little seagull brain, be mischievous, outsmart humans and steal their fries. Think like a bird and act like a bird. Explore the street and office space to clear puzzles, obtain food and annoy humans. With more food comes greater flying ability, and maybe you could reach the summit.
Early Conception
Seagull Simulator is a group project for a Games Studio course I did at RMIT in the second half of 2022. The groups are generated by the instructors based on preferences, which include the people we want to work with and the type of games we would like to make. I was put in a group with fellow classmates Resh, Issac, Jason, and Gyles. Although we didn't click at first, talking about game ideas gave us a common interest to bond over. Our first step is to make 3 pillars as a foundation of the game. The 3 pillars foundation is a concept we were taught in class, which is three words that convey the feeling of playing the game. After some back and forth we picked the pillars Mischievous, Comical, and Liberating.
Conception
The concept for Seagull Simulator came from Issac Mao:
"To be an Eagle flying in the sky. The birds in the sky gave me a sense of freedom and clarity. But when I grew up, I became lazy. Instead of being an eagle that hunts on a routine basis, I would rather be a seagull or pigeon who wanders on the street and wait for people to feed them, or just take them by force."
It’s charming to live like a seagull, even if it’s a video game for 30 min, we all thought. Thus Seagull Simulator was born - concept art underwent development! We thought about the essence of being a seagull and what makes a seagull a seagull. We came to the conclusion that stealing food - or fries in our case - is the embodiment of being a seagull. So the idea that fries are a powerup came about early.
Gameplay
Now on to connect the concepts and storyline, there were several decent ideas, but the final story we came to is: the seagull flies from her nest and babies, accidentally flew and hit a building, falls and gets injured, eats fries, discovers her sense of flight back, and flies back to her nest.
A story will only be complete with trials and tribulations, and the game is precisely about that. Getting fries will not be easy, and the seagull needs to use all of her wits to accomplish her desires. So our level designers Gyles and Issac got into conception. Gyles drew several missions and also drew the tower that we are climbing (or flying in our case), and Issac wrote some of his wacky ideas on paper.
Our initial gameplay conception is a street-roaming game similar to Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars but with a seagull instead of a car. Since the seagull is minuscule compared to a car, we thought a closer camera with suit the game. However, it does not align with our pillar of liberating, which was derived from flying higher. Then we moved to a tower map, which was Jason's idea.
In the end, we thought of several puzzles that perfectly showcase our intent and hit all three pillars. A crowd favorite is the dog puzzle, which Gyles conceived and coded later on. The dog wants to get closer to the seagull but it is on a leash, and the player (seagull) needs to lure the dog to make the leash trip down a walking waiter carrying fries.
We thought of different areas of play or levels, and we thought of 3 main areas: the street, the office, and the balcony. The street has a garden, a hotdog stand, and a van. The office has the office boss room and small items to run rampant on. The balcony has a swimming pool, a restaurant, and a dog.
Art and Art Style
Our art style needs to reflect the core of the game - the 3 pillars. Our initial aesthetic is the basic Unity URP materials and shading, but the overall look doesn't match our pillar: comical. Then we made the decision to use a toon art style and softer colors, with a strong black outline for our characters.
Seagull Concepts by Resh Yao
Early Building Concepts by Jason Reagen
Puzzle and Building Concepts by Gyles Whytcross
Color Pallette by Resh Yao
Production
Character Controller
The first two iterations of our character controller are made by Issac and have two different control styles. The first controller uses WASD to move and glides after jumping. It feels and moves very well but playing it felt like a flightless bird grasping the little chance it has of flying. The second controller is a perpetual flying controller and uses WASD to change its flight direction. Once again, the controller is solid but does not fit our narrative and our puzzle designs.
The final character controller is made by Gyles based on Issac's first prototype but implements a flight system that has a height limiter that is determined by the number of fries eaten. With the final controller, we achieved a liberating feeling while still giving the player more control over the bird.
Mechanics and Controls
To solve our wacky puzzles, we added some wacky mechanics that fit our controllers like a glove. Issac added a squawk function that uses the instantiate function to create a temporary collision sphere and we used this function to enable the seagull to scare away some pesky visitors. Issac also added a pooping mechanic that enables the bird to nuke unexpecting victims with unsavory projectiles. We used the mechanic to craft our magnum opus: the pool puzzle.
Camera
Gyles fixed the camera into a third-person angle that does not rotate horizontally but zooms out during a high flight. We had problems syncing the controller and the camera angle but found a golden angle that showcases the bird and environment in a way that does not interfere with most of the puzzles. However, some of our puzzles needed see-through materials to be identified and solved. Luckily, one of our classmates and friend Alysha, had made a see-through shader that solves our problem. We used her shader in critical areas such as the van and office. Thank you once again, Alysha!!!
Modelling
Josevan did the modelling of the animals, props and environment. Jason and Resh helped model some of the smaller props to fill out the space and Resh modelled the human characters. We used Maya to model
Character Controller Prototypes by Issac Mao
Zoomed Out Camera by Gyles Whytcross
See-through Shader by Nizua Inas Alysha
Currently Writing More...
Seagull Simulator Team:
Josevan Danusastra - Producer, Lead 3D Artist, Animator, VFX Artist
Resh Yao - Primary 2D Artist, 3D Artist, Concept Artist
Issac Mao - Programmer, Level Designer, Game Designer
Gyles Whytcross - Programmer, Level Designer, Concept Artist
Jason Reagen - SFX, 3D Artist
External Assets Used:
Special Thanks:
James Manning
Tash Vranic-Peters
Jarod Pearce
Caleb Noller
and All the Playtesters!!!