Parcel Panic is a party-style simulation game where the player works in a parcel facility. Their goal is to collect parcels in the warehouse and hand them to the correct customer, filled with different obstacles and map layouts to challenge the player.
I worked on this independently during my summer break from university and continuing to work on it when I have the time. My personal goal is to turn it into a co-op experience where players can work with or against each other, as well as adding multiple environments that can be played in.
This game is available to play via this link: https://polar8e2.itch.io/parcel-panic
Inspiration was my job as a warehouse assistant, making it goofier and more chaotic
The player traverses the level horizontally between the front desk and storage area to collect and deliver parcels
They earn score by delivering the correct parcel to the customer within a time limit, if not they lose score for taking too long
To add difficulty, shelves can obstruct the players path as well as Forklifts that traverse the level vertically
The HUD was a work in progress to not obscure the players view as well as show as much information as possible
Character Controller component is attached to a red capsule, placeholder for the character, with a script that takes input for Up/Down/Left/Right movement
The player has an additional script to pick up a parcel they are close to and drop them again with the same button/key
A simple Spawner that puts customers and parcels in the world varying in colour. If the parcel put in front of them matches then they are despawned
I replaced the desk with conveyors to move the parcels around, adding to the warehouse factor as well as adding another layer of difficulty
Cubes are placed in the world to simulate the layout and get a feel of how a level may play out
Learning Blender at the time gave the opportunity to add some models and art now that the core loop is implemented
I examined similar games like Overcooked and PlateUp for a quirky and party style aesthetic
Forklifts added to the Spawner, yellow cubes, as well as shelves and a conveyor model
Final model with animation blending and rigging to objects
Game loop elevated by replacing the colour system with numbers, adds to the simulation factor of being in a warehouse
Customers have a "wait time" for how long they will wait for their order before leaving and penalising the player
Parcels spawn with an "Order Number" which is determined randomly by the Spawner with a maximum value
Customer retrieves all of the parcels in the level and saves the ones that haven't been assigned to other customers.
Chooses a random Order Number from the unassigned parcels and assigned it to themselves.
This method avoids multiple customers choosing 1 parcel while still allowing customers with the same order number to accept parcels with the same order number
Modular level assets
All assets modelled in Blender, I went for this approach as it would allow a sandbox feel to mix and match many different layouts and see what works.
Difficulty of each level follows the flow of: Introduce 1st thing, Introduce more of 1st thing, Introduce 2nd thing , Introduce both things together.
This is a suitable way of slowly introducing new challenges to the player.
The HUD I planned to be traditional but after play-testers feedback it would be more immersive to incorporate it into each level.
The player has 2-3 minutes to get as much score as possibly by completing customer orders. In the left picture, the top number was the players current score and the bottom number was the time remaining in seconds. In the right picture, the time remaining is now shown as a digital clock below the score for readability purposes.
Scoring took a lot of fine tuning to make it rewarding and fair
Following the working theme, the game over screen is shown as a handover of the players results
Each level has a target score, specified at the start of the level, and the player unlocks the next level by reaching it
"Overtime" to account for remaining customers
