Monq
Monq is a 3D Adventure Platformer where you play as a young adult called Flip. Flip is a time-monk, bestowed with the powers of manipulating time. With these powers, they must set out to save the zodiac Gods from an Evil Manifestation whose only goal is to destroy all good in this world.
Credits:
Design
James Hellman
Nicholas Stankowski
Animation
George Evans
Ross Everson
Art
Harri Slee
Robert Adolfsen
Programming
James Hellman
Warwick New
Music
Jason Read
Writing
Michael Wheatley
Monq was a student game I helped make during my second year of university in 2016. My primary responsibility was designing and programming the game. This was my first jump into Unreal and I learnt a lot about what not to do during production.
The Mechanics of Monq
Astronomical-Time
This is the ability to jump centuries if not millennia into the future or past. Only available at certain locations and powered by the items you collect throughout each level.
Biological-Time
This is the ability to control the age of certain objects in the game, for example, Trees. You could shrink a tree to a shrub or grow it into a towering object you can jump on.
Calendar-Time
This is the ability to control the time of day go from the harsh night to the warm day and melt frozen rivers, or perhaps you want to alter the water level with the tides.
Delta-Time
This ability allows you to slow down the flow of time to allow you to move past fast-moving objects, or to evade enemies.
Flip and Combat
Flip, the main character of the game, would have a few methods of fighting their way through the world. They would have Delta-Time to evade, Biological-time to defeat their enemies. So using Biological-Time, Flip could make the enemies grow old and wither or become young before they would have been your enemy. This style of combat would be through touch at melee range or through a thrown orb to become ranged. Unfortunately, Biological-Time combat didn’t make it in the game in time, but the premise of it was that some enemies needed to be close to defeat and some from afar.
Enemies
Each level comes with its enemy. The initial plan for Monq was to combat these enemies in a different way for each one. For example, the Humminbird enemy would be flying so you’d have to combat them at range. Or you could choose to evade them with Delta-Time.
Bosses
The bosses would be the different animals of the Zodiac corrupted by evil, and as such, each one wasn’t to be killed but rather freed. You would do this through a puzzle rather than directly fighting them.
The antagonist of Monq, The Manifestation. She is the coming together of all of humanities greed and corruption, her only goal, to destroy.
In Monq, the plan was for you to face her at the end after freeing the Zodiac and having to use all the mechanics of the game to do so.
Levels
For Monq, Each level was accessible through a level hub, each level becoming available as you complete the last.
Each level would have a theme based on the Zodiac that you’re freeing. So, for the Tiger it was a bit of a jungle with Aztech inspired architecture.