RaccCity

A retro action platformer created for NES Game Jam 2025! Welcome to RaccCity, a fast-paced action platformer that channels the spirit of classic NES games like Contra! Fight your way through a city overrun by explosive rats and face off against the notorious Rat Queen in this challenging adventure.

About the Game

RaccCity is a labour of love created by Celeste Artley (a recent CS graduate) and Sophie Rowley (learning game development). This project represents one of our first collaborations in game development. 

Gameplay Features

• Contra-style Movement: with 8-directional aiming and smooth platforming mechanics
• Combat: Kamikaze rats that chase you down and explode on contact, snipers aim and shoot at you, and patrolling enemies keep areas guarded.
• Platforming: platform to the tops of Racc City and explore all the enemy types
• Powerups: Heal your character, and try the more powerful weapon if you find it
• Boss Battle: Take on The Rat Queen in a multi-phase boss fight featuring:
  Phase 1: Tommy gun barrage with spread shots
  Phase 2: Summoning waves of explosive rats while jumping between platforms
• Power-up System: Collect health pickups and weapon upgrades to enhance your arsenal
• Achievement system: Track your progress and have a bit of replayability

Development Story

This game was born from our shared love of classic action games and the challenge of the NES Game Jam 2025. As a recent computer science graduate, I brought the technical foundation, while Sophie contributed fresh perspectives on game design and player experience. We're learning the ropes of Unity development. The game was an attempt to develop an architecture that could be expanded, and as such, a lot of what is under the hood is not seen here. For those developers out there, this was my first experience creating and managing an Event Bus for all my classes, as well as assembly definitions for better compiling.

Technical Highlights

• Custom physics-based movement system with smooth acceleration/deceleration
• Event-driven architecture for a clean code organisation
• Dynamic boss AI with phase transitions
• Object pooling for performance optimisation
• Modular weapon and power-up systems

Thanks so much, everyone, for playing and hopefully rating our game. We worked quite hard on it and just ask that you rate it what you think. If you have thoughts, please feel free to leave a comment. I will be looking regularly <3

Controls:

• WASD/Arrow Keys/Gamepad D PAD: Move

• J/Gamepad South: Jump

• K/Gamepad West: Shoot

• S/Down: Crouch

Created with Unity for NES Game Jam 2025