A Game About A Lost Robot

The Project

A mobile exploration / puzzle game. Created in 48 hours for the Moray Game Jam 2017

My Role

Designer / Programmer in a team of 5.

Project Description

The theme for the game jam was ‘If at First You Don’t Succeed…’. Our response was a mobile game where the player guides a robot around an alien planet, finding components to fix their crashed ship. If a component is not the correct part for the broken section of the ship it will break other sections of the ship, resulting in a trial and error / memory puzzle to try and completely fix the ship.

My Contribution

I was one of two programmers in the team along with two artists and an audio engineer. My role in this project was primarily designer / team leader with the other programmer doing a majority of the heavy lifting code-wise. Key features implemented:

Broken room system – One core feature I implemented was the system which would systematically break other rooms when incorrect items were used. This meant that an item / room combination would always have the same result in game, but would differ each play through.
Polish and particle effects – All particle effects and general polish including the menu and UI were implemented by me.
Design – The game’s mechanics were my design and I worked as the ‘glue’ for this jam, coordinating and prioritising the tasks of all other members of the team.
Audio Implementation – The engine-side implementation of audio was handled by me, whilst the audio engineer worked on the Wwise-side implementation.

Learning Outcomes

I learnt a lot about the importance of adding polish even for a game jam game. It really made the game feel more complete and fun to have subtle feedback to the player. I also learnt about the hazards of over-complicating a problem without thinking it through thoroughly – the broken room system was far more robust and complex than necessary. A simple rng, with some restrictions, would have been ample for the purpose and would have taken a fraction of the time to implement – allowing other parts to be worked on.