The Making Of: Shape Shift

THE JAM

I made this game 100% on my own for my very first game jam.  I was so excited about this jam for weeks before it started.  I prepared by watching videos about game jam tips and other peoples' submissions to other jams over the years.  I managed my time and scope very well and found that I probably could have taken on an even bigger project with the time I had.

The leaderboard system was the biggest headache of this whole project.  I planned to dedicate an entire day to figuring that out and I used every minute of that time to get it right.  I ran into problems with it working in the editor but not in the build.  It was actually a little finicky and I ended up making no changes and just rebuilding the final build and it started working properly.

THE GAME

The original concept was actually supposed to be flipping the direction of gravity on the ball.  However, I found that this mechanic was not fun because the ball would end up bouncing to its maximum height constantly after flipping gravity just once.  I thought about restricting the physics of the ball somehow but this didn't sound fun to me.  Instead, I changed the mechanic so that the world flipped around the ball.  This was so much more fun and the subtlety of the physics engine made it more challenging than one would expect when they first start playing.

Some of the new things I learned during this project:

• Resolution scaling
• Implementing and managing a leaderboard system (used LootLocker as per jam requirements)
• Randomized obstacle instantiation
• Mesh colliders (to get the triangle shape)
• Post-processing effects
• Creating multiple menus
• Unity's audio mixer system
• Endless side-scrolling environment
• Hackers be hackin' (had to delete an unearned top score from the leaderboard during the voting period)

This was an amazing experience!  I absolutely loved getting to see the peer feedback (both good and bad) and I actually got to see a streamer playing my game live!!!!  Such a surreal experience :)  This game has become the showcase for my portfolio.  I'm so excited for the next game jam and I'm planning to do one per month going forward.