What it will do

I propose that my game will be a simulator in which a player takes on the roll (get it???) of a marble. In this game, a player with navigate puzzles or obstacle courses with the aim of reaching the end and accomplishing various tasks (subject to my coding ability). To keep the game interesting, in part by incentivizing risky or challenging choices of pathway, various enhancing or debuffing items and mechanics will be introduced to the game - “power ups.” A goal is to program in a standard metric of gravity, and have modifiers such as increased/decreased speed, moving platforms, increased/decreased gravity, or inverse gravity.

Rationale

This project matters to me in developing an understanding of the difficulty and intricacies in game development. As an “early player” of Roblox from 2010 onwards, I have interacted with some game development tools, while also being a game player (which is my primary and sole role post-high school). It is easy to be a critic of how a game can be boring or repetitive, but a closer analysis of seemingly simple games such as Racer vs Police AI in the preceding production reveals that various aspects of gameplay or engagement time works hand-in-hand in sucking players in beyond initial impressions or 10 minutes of play time. However, unlike Racer vs Police AI, I don’t think I will have a daily reward or virtual economy metric as the timeline of delivery should be by the end of this semester (~1 month).

Tools and tech

Unity game engine