Cetacea is a dolphin simulation game developed in Unity. Activities include reef exploration, catching fish, interacting with other dolphins, and launching into the air to perform tricks. A great deal of the development went into the control scheme and camera, which handle differently above and below water, facilitating both precise navigational control and aerial maneuvers.
It began as a systemic game for a game design course at UC Santa Cruz's Games and Playable Media program. An interesting and organic consequence of the design is that a key phenomenon of dolphin locomotion is simulated; players will expend less stamina swimming from point A to point B if they periodically jump out of the water. Real dolphins use this technique to conserve energy, since air creates significantly less drag than water.
I was primarily responsible for programming and design, while Bianka Kovacs was responsible for design, level building, and the animation state machine. Eunice Lim was responsible for design input.
