Buster Rackon (2022)

Role:

Game Designer / Game Programmer

Teamsize:

3

Duration:

3 Days

Engine:

Unity

Genre:

Cozy Adventure

Platform:

PC

About

This game is made during a short game jam at Södertörns University.

A very small game about a racoon that helps a sad girl. You collect different coloured crayons that colours the world.

We won 3 awards out of four. Best design, best game and best idea.

Introduction

Our game, Coloring the World, explores contrast. It begins in black and white, and players restore color by collecting crayons. A photo album provides clues to their locations, with images turning colorful as crayons are found.

I handled most of the programming, except for the player controller (using Invector's free third-person controller), and contributed to level design. While we didn’t have time to refine everything, I’m proud of the final result.

This was my first time programming a game on my own, and it was a great learning experience!

Simple System

I implemented a straightforward system for this project, as I was relatively new to programming at the time. I created an array to hold all the meshes that required material changes. Depending on the crayon collected by the player, the system updates all the meshes in the array to the corresponding colored material. I utilized static booleans to track which crayon had been picked up, enabling the functionality to change materials based on the active boolean.

Main Menu

Despite the limited scope of the game jam, I aimed to include both a start menu and a pause menu. I achieved this by incorporating simple animations for the buttons. The start menu features options for starting the game, quitting, and viewing credits, while the pause menu includes buttons for returning to the main menu, quitting, and accessing credits. Additionally, the start menu showcases a rendering of our character performing a humorous dancing animation sourced from Mixamo.

Level Design

The level design was kept simple due to time limits. I started with the outer walls, then added roads, buildings, green spaces, and vehicles. While not as detailed as I’d like, it works for the game.

I also added a playground with a treehouse and a parking lot. An artist contributed extra details like a pond and a hot dog stand, making the environment feel more immersive.

I learned to independently solve problems and seek solutions through Unity's documentation, as well as through trial and error. Being the sole programmer was a rewarding and novel experience, allowing me to plan and execute all programming aspects on my own.

What I learned

Although the code could certainly be improved, I take pride in what I accomplished given my level of experience at the time. My code was well-structured and included comments, ensuring clarity and organization. I’m pleased that I dedicated time to maintain this structure, as it will facilitate any future refactoring. Overall, I really enjoyed the process of creating this game.

This was my first game jam, and with a time frame of only three days, I quickly learned how to implement functionality efficiently. While I didn’t have the opportunity to find the optimal solution for every challenge, I gained confidence in my ability to deliver results within a tight deadline.