The Flight of Hermes
The Flight of Hermes is my first wholly original game developed with Unity. The assignment was to create a game solely with primitives based on an event from the Odyssey. I chose a particularly small scene involving Hermes. The messenger god is commanded by Zeus to tell Calypso that he demands she release Odysseus. I saw an opportunity to create a small rail game ala Star Fox or Space Harrier.
I wanted to communicate Hermes's status as an immortal god while also emphasizing the fact that he is a messenger, that time is an important factor. Thus, the game does not utilize any health system and is instead a "race against time". Obstacles will slow Hermes down, but they will not "hurt" him. Instead, Hermes must deliver the message before reaching the time limit, in this case represented by Zeus's "impatience" (because what else am I gonna use?). I think it was a fairly decent success, especially considering I developed an entire "rail" system from scratch using scripts I coded myself.
The game starts in Olympus, and Hermes is given an incredibly barebones story setup from Athena and Zeus. While this cutscene plays out, players will use this time to become acquainted with the WASD controls to learn how to fly up, down, left, and right while Hermes moves forward automatically. They'll probably also take note of the UI elements depicting Zeus and Hermes, surmising that there's some sort of "race" between Zeus and Hermes due to the "Start" and "Finish" texts.

The first "Orb of Light" is nestled between two pairs of pillar obstacles and is surrounded by a light source. These elements will draw players to the power-up, resulting in a short speed boost. This setup quickly communicates the core of the gameplay: Avoid obstacles, grab power-ups. The pillar behind the power-up might trip up a number of players, but this will serve to inform the player that obstacles will slow Hermes. This sort of "baptism by fire" moment is best used at the beginning of the level while things are still relatively "simple". There's also a second power-up not too far down the hall to make up for the initial hit.
The next stage of the journey involves a descent from Olympus by avoiding "dark clouds". The rail system allows Hermes to weave in and out of the clouds, making things feel a little hectic yet exciting. I do wish I had more time to fully elaborate on this idea, however, because I don't think it was as well-executed as it could have been. That said, it takes an order of magnitude more time to arrange a 3D path with 3D obstacles, so I think it's a fine job given the time.
The ocean segment is by far my favorite, and I think it turned out the best. As Hermes glides along the ocean surface at top speed, waves short and tall will come crashing down on him. I felt like, given the combination of waves and clouds, the ocean segment gave me the best tools to create the most interesting arrangements of obstacles. The waves "pop up" and the player has to react, searching for the spatial "hole" that is safe from harm.
The island might be my least favorite portion of the game. I wanted to create the sense that Hermes was zipping to-and-fro between the palm trees, grabbing orbs as he went, but it just didn't seem to come together. This was probably due to my rushing to get the island finished, and as a result I didn't really plan out the palm and node placement as well as I could have. In addition, only horizontal space is explored – there's no need to move up or down. Regardless, it's still decently entertaining, and it is fun to feel like you're dashing back and forth between palm trees.
The final segment is also simplistic, but it's meant to be more of a denouement where the challenge winds down and players begin to relax as the game wraps up on its own. After a bit of back-and-forth between stalagmites, Hermes commands Calypso to release Odysseus and the goddess relents with a surprising lack of resistance.
​
Of course, if the player was just a tad too tardy, Hermes will pay the ultimate price:
Ouch! Play him off, Keyboard Hermes!
