Strike!

Thanks for visiting my page – this is my entry for the Physics Game Jam 2023!

In this puzzle game the objects are simple, knock down all 10 pins, its as simple as that... ruthlessly hunt down all pins and knock them down... its easy :), no matter where they go, or who stands in your way... knock the pins down, it couldn't be more fun

I'm using this space as a sort of blog to document my journey in self-taught game development, which has been ongoing for about 4 months now. This game marks my fourth solo project, and I'm quite excited about it.

Unlike my previous games where I primarily focused on coding and getting things to work, this time I really wanted to delve into the design aspect. Part of the reason is that I just completed a Unity Programming course last month, and now I've moved on to the Creative Core course, which has inspired me to focus on design. I've been watching numerous videos on color theory, scene composition, story, ambiance, and all that stuff. I did my best to make this game visually appealing, but I admit, I still need a lot of practice. Unity can be a bit tricky to configure correctly and figure out which parts handle what (I spent hours trying to understand the lighting).

For the actual theme/design part, I found inspiration after listening to a podcast about the design process behind Portal (Humans who make games: the Kim Swift episode). So, I made an effort to think more about the mood, story, progression, and how to teach players, etc. Even so, I ran out of time and some of the things I wanted to add didn't make the final cut.

Despite intending to primarily focus on design, I got stuck in programming numerous times, squashing bugs left and right. I had to keep readjusting my plans as the week went by. The first significant hurdle? The Unity Starter Assets for First-Person Players. Never again! They were so finicky and kept causing issues. At one point, I had to start over because it bugged out and I couldn't resolve the problem (it just prompted me to reinstall something, but I couldn't figure it out). I spent the entire first day just trying to determine what was compatible with the character controller. I was quite paranoid in the end; I backed up the game like crazy every single night because I was afraid that even a tiny change would break everything.

Then there's the UI saga. I invested way too much time into it, only to discover that it didn't interact well with the character controller. So, I had to scale back some of the features, which left me with much less time for level design than I had hoped for. I began with plans for 12 levels, which then dropped to 8, then 5 solid ones, and in the end, I managed to create only 5 somewhat rushed ones.

I still used a lot of AI for the programming and for the cover art (which inspired the colours)

In any case, despite all the bugs and the game experiences not being very smooth, I'm genuinely proud of what I've created. Out of all the games I've put together, this one has had the most heart poured into it. I actually thought about the story, how players would feel, and even the art – not just rushing to get something working. It's the first game I've made that feels more like a complete experience and not just an idea hastily pushed out.

Anyway, I hope you have fun exploring what I've created. And if you're also in the Jam, good luck! Let's enjoy the ride. 🎮

Oh and Credits with links

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tDml-06eG_c-nLMb3LrNfhFLrjR9obo8bUuxLnu6...