Improve the White Blood Cell mobile game in 6 hours.
| Event | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Challenge start | 2023/2/22 | 12:30PM EST |
| Initial commit | 2023/2/22 | 01:00PM EST |
| First checkpoint | 2023/2/22 | 04:10PM EST |
| Lunch break (time pause) | 2023/2/22 | 04:30PM EST |
| Lunch break end (time resume) | 2023/2/22 | 05:10PM EST |
| Second checkpoint | 2023/2/22 | 05:55PM EST |
| Final checkpoint | 2023/2/22 | 07:10PM EST |
| Challenge over | 2023/2/22 | 07:10PM EST |
After briefly playtesting the game, I came up with the following changes that I'd like to make to the game:
- Changes to game mechanics:
- Make Viruses eat the Red Blood Cells instead of having them be idle.
- If a Virus consumes a Red Blood Cell, a score penalty is applied.
- Consuming Viruses extends the player's momentum.
- Turn system overhaul:
- Change the turns system to use an analog bar instead of a fixed number of turns.
- Make the turns bar deplete on its own to disincentivize camping/farming.
- Boost system overhaul:
- Display boost direction and force as the player charges the boost.
- Apply drag to player movement.
- The longer a boost is charged for, the more of the turn bar is depleted.
- Fixes/improvements:
- Fix UI canvases to properly scale dynamically.
- Add juice to players consuming Viruses/Red Blood Cells.
The following features were added during the 6 hour window which weren't originally planned, but either came up organically during the development process or were deemed necessary while playtesting:
- Replace UI assets.
- Font change throughout the UI (now using Indestructible Type's Gnomon font).
- Spawn enemies in bursts with delay inbetween each enemy in the burst.
- Preview the amount of energy that will be consumed in the movement bar.
- Added background graphic so that walls are visible.
- QOL: If a player clicks/taps for a tiny fraction of time (accidental double-click, bad debounce settings, etc.) the action is ignored, energy is refunded and previous velocity is maintained.
- Added hitfreeze alongside camera shake.
- Made player trail opacity fade as velocity reaches 0.
- Reworked shake system.
- Vibration when entities are consumed (untested).
There are still some things I want to do with this project. I've stored the project as it was when the challenge ended on a separate branch, and the main branch will contain any future changes I make to the game. Here are some of the changes I've already started considering:
- Fancy animated transitions between screens (main menu/game/game over)
- Animations for the player and various entities for when they are consumed, when the player is launched or bounces, etc.
- High score storage for display on Game Over screen (I was hoping to do this during the challenge, but I ran out of time when implementing the screenshake and hitfreeze)
- Sound effects are always a welcome addition and definitely improve the game feel, so if I find a way to obtain some sound effects it would be great to add those as well.