Morning Rush
Introduction
“Morning Rush” is a 2D side-scrolling game inspired by the everyday experience of commuting to work in the city. The player moves through Taiwan-inspired urban scenes, avoiding obstacles and reacting to small, unexpected moments in the environment. The visuals are calm and light, but the gameplay adds a sense of tension, creating a contrast between appearance and experience. The game captures the feeling of moving through the city before fully waking up, turning an ordinary commute into a playful interactive experience.
Role & Scope
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Role: Independent Game Creator
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Project Type: Solo project, independently designed and produced
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Deliverables: Level design, gameplay flow, visual design, UI, character animation, and interaction design
Gameplay Overview
Objective
A movement-based gameplay experience set in Taiwan commuting scenes, focusing on smooth navigation, reactive actions, and small everyday humor through running, jumping, punching, and playful ranged attacks.
Core Gameplay
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Run: The player moves forward and keeps the commute in motion.
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Encounter: Obstacles appear along the path during movement.
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Evade: Avoid obstacles through jumping or attacking, restoring momentum.
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Continue: The player resumes movement and advances through the stage.
Key Features
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Taiwan-Inspired Commuting Scenes: Three everyday commuting contexts presented in a calm, light visual tone, including street environments, MRT interiors, and scooter riding sequences.
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Cultural Objects and Local References: Obstacles and characters drawn from Taiwanese urban life, such as stray cats, road traffic, MRT stereotypes, and playful elements like bubble-tea attacks.
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Frame-by-Frame Character Animation: Hand-drawn movement and action animations that emphasize body motion and subtle humor, including running, jumping, riding, punching, and throwing.
Scene Setup
Level & Scene Structure
The game is structured across three commuting scenes, each presenting a different movement context and interaction focus, showing how the same character adapts across street, MRT, and scooter environments.
Character
The player character is based on a commuter version of myself, animated through frame-by-frame motion to highlight small gestures and body movement. The character can run, jump, punch, ride a scooter, and throw bubble tea as a playful ranged attack, turning everyday commuting actions into light interactive behaviors
Cultural Elements
The game also features characters inspired by Taiwanese social moments and public-space etiquette, including a seat-snatching grandma in the MRT, a manspreader passenger, and a motorcycle delivery rider. Everyday urban obstacles appear throughout the scenes as well, such as stray cats, traffic cones, road barriers, wet-floor signs, fire extinguishers, traffic lights, and other familiar objects from the city environment.
