Two D. Piece

Two D. Piece is a 2D sidescroller beat 'em up game inspired by the anime and manga series One Piece. It was developed as my first major project in the Multimedia Technology (MMT) – Game Development program at FH Salzburg. The game follows Ape D. Lucky, a young pirate who has to fight his way through enemy soldiers and a powerful boss to reclaim his stolen meat. The project combines classic beat 'em up gameplay with narrative elements, smooth animations, and a multi-phase boss battle. The core gameplay is a classic sidescroller. The player can move, jump, and use different attacks: a stretchable punch, a rapid gatling punch, and a strong kick. Each attack has its own animation and hitbox that changes over the course of the animation. Enemies react to being hit, can be carried by the stretch punch for a short time before being knocked away, and drop meat pickups when defeated. These pickups restore the player’s health, creating a simple but satisfying risk-reward loop. One of the biggest technical challenges was building a flexible animation and combat system. I created a base class for animated entities that handles sprite sheet animations, timing, and collision rectangles. Both the player and all enemies inherit from this system. This made it much easier to add new animations and keep the code organized. The combat logic is centralized in a CollisionManager that checks player attacks against enemies and enemy attacks against the player every frame. The boss fight against “Bull” is the highlight of the game. It is divided into five distinct phases connected by dialogue. In the early phases the player has to break through the boss’s defense by landing three successful blocked attacks. After that, a transformation sequence is triggered where the player must hold the G key to activate Gear 2 mode. This completely changes the player’s appearance and attack power for the final phase of the fight. The boss battle also includes cinematic transitions, such as a rocket ride to reach the boss arena and flying entrance animations for both characters. To create a more immersive experience, I implemented several cinematic sequences. The game starts with the player arriving by boat, followed by a jump onto the harbor. Later, a rocket transition takes the player to the boss arena. These moments use a special “externally controlled” mode so the player character follows a predefined path and animation while the camera and dialogue are handled automatically. This gave the game a more polished, story-driven feeling without turning it into a full visual novel. Another important part of the project was the user interface and feedback systems. I built a custom dialogue box that types out text letter by letter with sound effects, a health HUD that updates in real time, and several menu screens with interactive buttons. The credit screen even features an auto-scrolling text animation. All of these systems were designed to feel responsive and clear to the player. Working on Two D. Piece taught me a lot about game architecture. I learned how to structure a larger codebase using partial classes, inheritance, and manager systems. I also gained practical experience with state machines for handling different game screens and phases, frame-by-frame animation control, and collision detection based on dynamic attack rectangles. Debugging complex interactions between the player, multiple enemies, and the boss helped me improve my problem-solving skills significantly. Overall, I am very proud of what I achieved with this project. It started as a simple idea based on my love for One Piece and grew into a complete, playable game with combat, multiple levels, a challenging boss fight, and cinematic moments. Even though there are still some areas I would like to improve (such as further code cleanup and adding more enemy variety), the game already feels like a solid foundation. Two D. Piece has strengthened my passion for game development and gave me the confidence to take on more ambitious projects in the future, including my planned semester abroad and internship in the game industry.