CHROMAZONES

A 2D stealth puzzle game where the colour of zones dictates who is prey and who is predator. With the ability to change these zone colours, players must lure, avoid, and catch enemies.

Entered into Swinburne GameMaker Club’s End of Year Game Jam 2023.

Play Code

OVERVIEW

PROJECT

Role

Programmer, Designer

Team Size

2

Time

2 Months (PT)

GAME

Released

2024

Platforms

PC

Genre

2D Stealth Puzzle

DEVELOPMENT

Languages

C#

Engine

Unity

Tools

GitHub

PROJECT DUTIES

project duties image

SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING

  • Established an event-driven architecture with C# events
  • Created an additive Unity scene system for a layered scene structure
  • Developed a simple saving/loading system with persistent data
project duties image

GAMEPLAY PROGRAMMING

  • Implemented player movement and enemy FOV types
  • Programmed UI
  • Utilised state machine pattern, component pattern, and Unity's NavMesh pathing to develop a selection of AI enemies
project duties image

DESIGN

  • Pitched initial concept - inspired by Samurai Jack (Episode XL: Jack vs. the Ninja)
  • Designed and tested the mechanics, ensuring they were introduced after players successfully mastered the previous mechanic
  • Developed levels with difficulty curves in mind
  • Facilitated multiple playtests
  • Designed jazz-inspired soundscape and sourced sound clips

PROJECT BREAKDOWN

WHAT I LEARNT

  • Additive scene loading in Unity to develop a hybrid event-layered architecture (multiple level scenes loaded in and out underneath one gameplay scene, gameplay scene and main menu scene interchanged under one services scene)
  • Composition structures when creating complex game objects (plugging in different enemy behaviours)
  • Creating meshes in a script at runtime (enemy FOV)
  • Persistent data (loading/saving level progress)
  • Accounting for different screen resolutions/aspect ratios with Canvas
  • Introduction to Unity Editor-related scripting (seeing FOVs without pressing play)
  • Level progression pacing and introducing new mechanics at the right time for players
  • Intuitively teaching mechanics through level and gameplay design
  • Shape theory (players wanted to 'eat' projectiles when circular, but then correctly saw the danger it posed when it was triangle-shaped)