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Virtual Breach
One Button Game – Arcade
for 1 month in January 2021
Team: Solo
Tools: Unity | Bolt | Illustrator
Skills: Gameplay design | Technical design | Level design
The constraint of playing with one button led me to approach arcade games during my research. In the end, I decided to take inspiration from Atari's Tempest, whose vector-based visuals really appealed to me. I chose to concentrate on movement, as I wanted to move away from my inspiration that placed shooting mechanics at the heart of the game. As a result, I was able to concentrate on a dynamic dodging game whose difficulty lay in its increasing speed and the need to remain attentive. To support these choices, the rounds are short, with instant death if you make a mistake, but allowing you to start a new round as quickly as possible.
I made the whole game on my own, except for a few assets such as the background and sounds. Everything else is programmed by me in Unity, using Visual Scripting and position lists to draw the shapes with a vector effect, which are then visualized using LineRenderers. The whole game is just lists of positions that move with the LineRenderer updating and Raycast detections, meaning there are no sprites or meshes, except for the player. It was unusual to design, but very instructive in terms of modular code that can be reused as best as possible.
I designed three levels for the game so that the scope would fit with the time I had. These three levels are more like tutorials, as you unlock the endless mode once you've completed them, which fits better with the arcade aspect of the game. Each level features one of three enemy types in patterns drawn and randomized according to progression and level. What's more, each pattern can be randomly rotated to suit the game's format, giving the player the impression of seeing unique shapes each time, rather than predefined patterns.
To make it easier for players to get to grips with the controls, I've made the menu playable, so that they can understand in a safe environment how to manipulate their character.
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