Inspiration:
I’ve always had a fear of snakes. Overcoming it seemed impossible until I started working on my game. Inspired by how snakes consume food whole, I created “Going Through It”. An obstacle course game where the obstacle course is designed in the shape of a snake. The player controls a small stick character trying to escape the snake as fast as possible. Adding my own unique twist to the game, the player cannot directly control the jumping ability of the stick figure, instead the stick is more akin to a ‘pogo stick’ where it bounces off with every obstacle it collides with and the player only controls the rotation of the stick figure using their keyboard.
Challenges Faced:
Developing “Going Through It” presented me with several challenges
- Collision Detection: One of the primary difficulties was implementing an effective collision detection system that could handle the stick’s rotation and interactions with obstacles at various angles. Ensuring that the stick responds correctly to collisions, including bouncing off surfaces at appropriate angles, required careful calculation and testing. This is one of the primary features of the game and needed to be perfect although I am always sorting out minor issues with the collision detection mechanism.
- Physics and Movement: Balancing the physics of gravity, friction, and rotational speed to create a challenging yet fun experience was another challenge. The stick couldn’t be too fast, the gravity couldn’t be too strong and the rotation had to be just right to be responsive yet precise. Fixing these problems involved a significant amount of play testing the game.
- User Interface and Feedback: Designing an intuitive user interface that provides clear feedback to players was an essential feature of the game for me. This included displaying elapsed time, providing instructions, and ensuring that game states (such as starting or ending the game) were communicated effectively. In the end I decided to go with a very minimal layout that fits with the aesthetic of the game but I do believe that it is still intuitive and someone could understand how to play and win with minimal effort.
Final Project:
Conclusions and Reflections:
Reflecting back on this project, developing this game has been both a creative and highly technical journey.
Looking ahead, I hope to improve many aspects of this project as it is an idea that I haven’t seen before. The following are some ideas I have for future improvements to this game.
Level Design: Expanding “Going Through It” with more levels featuring diverse obstacle layouts and increasing difficulty. Moving obstacles are also a problem I hope to tackle in the future.
Multiplayer Mode: Due to the speed-run nature of the game, a mode where players can compete in real time would greatly add to the immersion and entertaining nature of the gameOverall, this project has laid a strong foundation for further development, I am genuinely excited about the game I have created and I hope to keep working on it in the future. Plus the amount of trigonometry implemented for collisions has made me a better mathematician which is always a welcome side effect.