Goobies: After Hours
Goobies: After Hours was made for the week long 2023 Makeup Scream Jam with a group of 5 Designers and 1 Artist
Summary:
The Goobies work hard on their show entertaining millions of kids around the world weekly! But what happens behind the scenes? Who takes care of our beloved Goobies when they aren't entertaining us? In this game we play as the caretaker of the Goobies after hours, all we have to do is tend to their needs and keep them happy and ready to go for their next show. But things are never as they seem...
In this project I acted as the project lead and one of the main designers. I was also responsible for coming up with the overall level layout, tutorial voice acting, bug fixing, and keeping the game as cohesive as possible in what little time we had
For this project I took on the task of taking on 3 of the 5 Goobies myself through utilizing different functions built into unity that I believe make the game unique and make the Goobies really come to life
My Role on Goobies: After Hours
Level Design
System Design
Project Management
Level Polish
Game Testing
Game Balancing
Player Feedback
Bug Fixing
Voice Acting
Work Summary
The Goobies
The Goobies are inspired by children's TV show characters. Each of them have their own unique personalities and quirks. Working with this and taking a turn from the first Goobies game I came up with personalized mechanics and theming's to attempt and make each Goobie feel like their own unique threat.
Knowing we were constrained on time I was prepared to cut any ideas that are either taking too much time or feel out of place. This is not to say I didn't choose to do anything experimental, it actually means the exact opposite
I chose to use this jam to really test myself and my knowledge of Unity and game design. Specifically I got to things new and exciting for myself that I didn't get to use before and create each of the 3 Goobies I was responsible for
Gameplay
Gibby The Red Goobie
Gibby is the most popular of the Goobies crew, he needs constant attention
To take care of Gibby the player just has to run over to his window occasionally and stare at him until he returns to his first idle position
If the player ignores Gibby he will slowly find his way to the door of his room where he will eventually kill the player because he has been ignored for too long.
Gibby has 4 different Locations he can be in his room each slowly going towards the door, he will slowly progress to each location but can be reset by giving him the attention he craves.
Gibby acts as a sort of pull so the player is unable to just stay in one of the rooms to take care of another goobie, the player has to manage all of the Goobies at once and Gibby serves to bring the player back and forth between the blue and purple Goobies
Gabby The Yellow Goobie
Gabby has separation anxiety and needs constant attention from someone, she cant be allowed out of her room though because she will bother the rest of the cast all night and they wont get any rest. To deal with this the player is given a walkie talkie to communicate with her
To keep Gabby entertained the player can pull out the walkie talkie and talk to her using their microphone if they hear static (indicating she is not there)
If she is left alone without being talked to for too long she will kill the player
This was a highly experimental addition to the game that I worked on for a few days of the jam learning how to access and use the players microphone for the mechanic to properly work
Gill The Forgotten Goobie
Gill was not nearly as popular as the other Goobies and was tossed to the side by network executives and thought to be long forgotten. When the player gets to the final night Gill makes his surprise appearance
Gill works similarly to the Gibby (Red Goobie). The difference being that instead of looking at him the player has to do the exact opposite and look away and avoid looking at him for too long or he will kill them
Level Design
I wanted to create a room design that connected each of the Goobies rooms together due to the game being more about time management then anything I wanted the player to be able to easily run back and forth so they can focus on the Goobies so I created a quick layout that allows the player to move freely and focus more on the Goobies themselves
