Game info

Witchpunk is a third-person melee arena combat game where
you play as Mollie, a skateboarding witch who battles
against a tyrannical corporation seeking to destroy
Halloween.

Witchpunk is a third-person melee arena combat game where
you play as Mollie, a skateboarding witch who battles
against a tyrannical corporation seeking to destroy
Halloween. The game is focused on gaining speed on your
skateboard to then use your hammer to deliver devastating
melee attacks, with a heavy focus on traversal.

Design Intent
Witchpunk was created to be a fast-paced action game that provided a unique blend between skating and arena shooters.
The goal was to create a gameplay loop where combat and movement flowed together, being intertwined systems that the player
could seamlessly bounce between without even realizing it. On top of this, we wanted to convey a sense of weight and kinetic
energy with every hit, making the player feel like an unstoppably fast-moving and heavy object that slammed into their foes.

To achieve this, we kept mechanics simple - stripping the game down to the parts of skating movement and third-person combat
that agreed with each other. Hammering down and refining only a few base mechanics allowed us to make these somewhat opposing
gameplay ideas work well with each other.

Aesthetically, we wanted to give our game a lighthearted but cool theme - a punk witch skateboarder fighting robots in a gothic
cityscape was decided upon. Throughout development, we iterated upon this theme to bring the world and characters to life,
providing an eccentric aesthetic backdrop to our rather out-there gameplay. Colors are bold and saturated, and lines are thick
and jagged, giving the game an audacious in-your-face appearance that catches the player's eye.
And with the game being Halloween-themed, spooky music was a must! The soundtrack incorporates hip-hop, jazz, and electronic
elements, all set to melodies that are evocative of a whimsical Halloween.

Innovative Intent
Witchpunk's core pitch was hard to pull off - a skateboarding melee game sounds cool on paper, but in reality, the
game had to go through months of careful iteration in order to get our primary gameplay loop to work.

Part of this is that we didn't want to make a skating game with combat, or a combat game with skating - we wanted
to make a skateboarding combat game, with both of these core systems playing into each other and supporting each
other as if they were one.

To do this, we heavily tied combat to traversal - your damage increases the faster you move, enemies chase you down
relentlessly unless you keep moving forward, etc. The inverse was also applied - making the combat elements of the
game support movement, with the player's utility spell that locks enemies in place to line up hits more easily, or
the air-dash which allows players to dodge and re-adjust swings on the fly.

The end result is a truly unique blend of melee combat and skateboarding traversal, with each system supporting and
reaffirming the other. Players skate around the map to build up speed before unleashing devastating drive-by blows,
while hopping on rails and dashing through the air to get away from enemies.

Our aesthetic design was no different - a blend of spooky halloween themes and cyberpunk cityscapes are odd things
to mix together, but the result is a bold and unique theme that supports our bold and unique gameplay. This is
further supported by our artistic direction, using saturated colors and thick lines to make the world pop out from
the screen, complemented by a stippling shade effect to give the game an almost comic-like feel.

Developer Background
Witchpunk was originally created by a small group of friends who wanted to create something light-hearted and cheerful
among a slew of other games that took themselves more seriously. Developed by a team of nine people, smaller than DigiPen
regulations would usually allow, 99% Funk's passion and desire to create a fast, fresh, and funky experience drove them
to create something that they were proud of.
It wouldn't be a simple task however, as DigiPen instructors warned that just because the team was smaller didn't mean they
could afford to be any less critical of their work. Every day that wasn't spent in classes or on homework was devoted to
testing movement, creating enemies, and cranking out funky tunes to bash robots to. 99% Funk wanted to prove that not only
were they passionate, but they were also hard-working and determined to create something that stood up to the other games
their cohort would create.
After a year of hard work and working under the fear that their team could be dissolved at any moment, Witchpunk had become
an innovative combat game with smooth movement and tight controls that playtesters were already loving. After growing to a
team of 26 people in one short summer, 99% Funk would be one of the few teams to get greenlit for a third semester of working
on their game. Now they had the opportunity push what they had created to be even better. Visual overhauls,combat updates,
and a final boss fight were just a few things that the team added in their last semester with the game. Now, the final version
of Witchpunk they had left with would be truly definitive.

99% Funk