Smith & Dozer is a 2D action-platformer for Android tablets. Set on an abandoned planet in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, a pair of intergalactic treasure hunters named Smith and Dozer search the ruins of an old civilization for lost riches. The pair must shoot and smash their way through the robot dinosaurs that have taken control of the city. Players navigate through ruins and caves to collect gems while fighting off the aggressive race of synthetic dinosaurs. Being a dynamic pair, the player can choose to switch between controlling Smith and Dozer at any time to take advantage of each of their strengths. Smith can jump higher and farther with his jetpack and shoot at enemies from a distance with his dual blaster pistols. Dozer can take more damage thanks to his thick armor and smash through the robot dinosaurs with his sledgehammer. Players must constantly swap between the two to face whatever challenge is presented to them. The game features five levels with achievements and high scores in each to encourage repeated plays through the game.
This game is currently hosted on itch and can be played for free on desktop/laptop browsers. To play the game on an Android device, download it from here and install it on your device.
By team Geoware:
In this project, I worked on a multidisciplinary team of four developers at SMU Guildhall. To develop this game, we worked using the SCRUM methodology and completed our game by delivering milestones to our stakeholder. These milestones were:
The design and development of this game was made under three fundamental design pillars:
In this level, Smith and Dozer find an abandoned hidden cave during dusk. It is an entrance to the secret base, and it is mostly made with earth-like rocks and soil with some vegetation scattered around such as plants and vines. The level layout is set so that the player starts from the top entrance of a cave and goes its way to the bottom right the level where the player encounters the outer area of the secret base.
The level begins with a small indirect puzzle that allows the player to choose either Smith or Dozer and the best moment to drop off from the initial platform. If the player asserts, he/she will be able to land the character and attack the patrolling enemies without taking damage. Afterwards, the player finds a trail of gems which serves as a reward and as a guide for the player to follow to continue exploring the level. The rest of the level contains similar encounters with patrolling melee enemies as well as with stationary ranged enemies guarding the way towards the exit. Some of these enemies also guard other valuable items, such as health pickups and gems.
At the top of the level there is an enclosed room located at the top which contains five weak melee characters packed together. Since this room requires the player to use Dozer to break the doors, it gives the opportunity for the player to discover that Dozer is effective for ramming through weak melee characters as well as figuring out that Dozer can take more damage than Smith.
This is the last level of the game. It is the hardest and the longest level among all 5 levels as it requires mastery of all the skills that the player has learned through the previous levels, such as double jumping, shooting, and engaging in melee combat. It features plenty of platforms and buildings for the player to jump around; it has the most number of enemies of all level, and it features plenty of traps such as death pits and ceiling spikes, thus making it the most dangerous level of the game.
The player begins enclosed in a room close to a tough melee enemy patrolling the area nearby, which takes two heavy hammer strikes to eliminate. The entrance door gives initial protection to the player as well as giving the player a chance to prepare and choose when to break in. As the player walks towards the right, a trap is triggered, and 4 enemies drop down from above and walk down towards the player’s location to attack the player. After defeating these enemies, the player proceeds to continue his way out by jumping a series of platforms and dodging/attacking the enemies shooting from above.
This part of the level challenges the player’s ability to time his/her jumps with Smith to jump across several rooftops. Going from left to right, the first building provides an extra platform attached to its left to make an easy jump with Smith. This allows the player to cool off a bit from the battling from the beginning of the level as well as to give him/her a bit of confidence. The following rooftops then start to become more difficult: they require the player to perform double jumps and follow the implicit lines formed by the yellow floating gems to collect them, which requires a careful timing for pressing the forward and jump button. Furthermore, some of the rooftops have enemies shooting and patrolling the area, which adds an extra layer of difficulty to these challenges.
This part of the level is the most guarded area of the level. It contains several range and melee enemies protecting the area from outsiders, and it encourages the player to combine both characters’ abilities. The middle area of the level gives serves as a choke point that requires the player to maneuver carefully to avoid the ceiling spikes as well as to attack enemies nearby, and the area to the right contain several ranged enemies that the player needs to battle to collect the final treasure chest.
