The Fifth Sun

Puzzle Platformer | PS4 | Roles: Programming

The Fifth Sun was created for my postgraduate module Media Specialist Practice. The module was an opportunity to work on any sort of project you wanted, so I decided I wanted to work with the PlayStation devkit the University had recently gotten. I also wanted to work with a designer, so I could just focus on programming – as such I grouped up with my friend Flor (also on the programming masters but wanting to do a design project).

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We made sure to have regular scrums, which we broke up into three phases. First phase was prototyping the mechanic or feature Flor had designed. Second phase would involve showing the feature to Flor, making any changes that she felt were needed. Finally, I would test it on the PlayStation Dev Kit, making sure it worked with no issue.

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Game Summary

The Fifth Sun is a 3rd person puzzle platformer, based on the Aztecan myth of human creation. You play as Quetzalcoatl who is tasked with collecting the bones of the previous human race, for the new race to be created. This requires the player to traverse the nine levels of Mictlan, each one guarded by a Lord of the Dead – for which the player must defeat. The main mechanic the player has, is the ability to summon creatures to aid in solving puzzles and fighting bosses.