Sando's Freaky Quest
(12/2024)
A gourmet fantasy. Sort of.
A weird action RPG starring Sando, a burger knight living in a world of food. To rid this world of evil, he must fight terrifying monsters, explore Thousand Island, and talk to unusual creatures. When in doubt, ROLL! Made in Unity.
What be this thing?
My friend Jimbo and I were taking a course at the University of Chicago called ARTGAMES. For both of us, it was our introduction to the Unity engine. In the class, we made small and weird experiments with custom characters, 3D models, storytelling, terrain building, and level design.
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For our final project, I knew I wanted to make something that combines all that we learned... and also something that can serve as practice for a similarly themed RPG that I want to make in the future. So, I paired up with Jimbo to ensure it can happen during a busy school quarter. I designed the world and overall concept, and Jimbo brought it to life with programming magic. He also shared voice acting/drawing duties with me.
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For more detailed credits, please check out the itch.io page!
https://chiefzika.itch.io/sandos-freaky-quest
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A small 3D action RPG with platformer elements was just the right amount of overscoping for us. Things went in wrong and unexpected directions, but the result is nonetheless quite a lot of fun to play. It doesn't have much of a story... but it's something you can tell stories about. It's inspired by Zelda, Dark Souls, and Paper Mario.
Footage & Screenshots
Here are some screenshots/footage of key areas in the game. To see all the secrets, though, you'll have to play it for yourself.....
The spooky Spaghetti Zone... and in the background, the even spookier Meat Mountain.
A part of the Cake Cliffs, one of the game's signature platforming challenges.
The village you start out in. Features a bard and a hot dog man.
Footage! Get an idea of the basic gameplay here.
BEHIND THE SANDWICH
This game borrows the most from two specific assignments in ARTGAMES. One was to design a fun place to travel to, and the other was to tell a story with custom characters.
My big "pie in the sky" RPG would take place in a food world...
and I love food, so this is a place I'd love to visit. I threw this together with the help of models from Everything by David O'Reilly.
The game's world design style comes from this
assignment.
On display here are the spaghetti trees, or "spaghetrees" I modelled in Blender for this. This is using Unity's terrain editor.
SPOILERS FOR A BORDERLINE STORYLESS GAME! The final boss is an abomination I made in MakeHuman for a little skit. Naturally, a fat man is food's mortal enemy.
Sando himself is based off some pixel art I made in 2022. This is where the overall styling of the characters comes from. I figured a hand-drawn 2.5D aesthetic (like in Paper Mario) would save time and fit the game better, though, so I depixeled him.
Concept art. A majority of this content made it into the game.
Here is the real fry/chip/fried potato strip used for Sando's sword.
This is from a photo I took in a school dining hall.