I’ve revived a game I scrapped a few weeks ago and have committed myself to finishing it and releasing it on Google Play for Android devices. It’s pretty simple, but I think it’s a good project to start with. I just want to finish something and I’m trying not to stress too much over quality.
The player can press their finger anywhere on the screen to rotate a little dot around the player (it will obviously be an arrow or something later) and release their finger to launch the player in that direction. The player will freeze wherever it is while the dot rotates. They have a limited number of launches to reach the goal. They have to collect all the collectibles (right now, they are little golden orbs) before the goal is activated. They can use the environment like bouncy surfaces on floors and walls, slippery surfaces with virtually no friction, and boxes that respond to the physics engine that the player can knock over and push. Boxes can collect golden orbs as well as the player. The player must also avoid obstacles that kill them and force them to start the level over.
Here are some screen shots. All the art is temporary. I’m mostly just using primitive unity shapes for everything. The white dot is a little hard to see against the white background.
bouncy surfaces are purple. The blue surface is slippery. In this level, the player starts in the upper left hand corner and bounces off both purple, bouncy walls to collect all the orbs and reach the exit (grey right now, because it isn’t active yet) in just one launch.
Two launches: the player starts on the top of the wall in the middle. They launch and bounce off the ceiling, bounce of the bouncy surfaces, collect all the orbs, fall back down and launch and hit the goal. Red “kills” the player, forcing them to start the level over.
I have 6 test levels right now and all the gameplay elements have been coded. I just need to design a bunch more levels, come up with a good story, create the art assets, and create the menus.
This is an idea I had for the story: The player’s avatar is a bolt (or some other round piece of a machine) that is inside of a mid-20th century textile machine. The bolt sees the outside world through a crack and detaches himself from the machine. He must now find his way out of the machine and free his fellow bolts along the way (the collectibles / golden orbs). The bouncy surfaces, slippery surfaces, and obstacles can be chemicals, different types of fabric, or other parts of a textile machine.
I’m from Greenville, South Carolina and the textile industry was a gigantic part of our area during the 20th century. It’s a really fascinating culture that has hardly been explored at all in digital media.
By the way, what is a good number of levels to create for this sort of game? All the levels can be replayed to win trophies for completing the level in fewer launches. I was thinking somewhere around 15 for the initial release and then add around ten more via updates.
