Hamxia Balls

Rescue Hamxia with the left and right arrow keys !!! 
Try and get all of the seeds in each level, and press R to reset if needed!

Submission Link

Github Link

Physics

For this game, I utilized the rigidbody 2d physics built into Unity to create a game where you tilt a box back and forth to lead a ball out the exit. Within the box, there are obstacles, which I used OnCollisionEnter2D to detect. Additionally, a sub-goal is to collect all of the seeds in the box before escaping, which I used OnTriggerEnter2D to detect. Additionally, there is a goal platform the player must land on in order to escape. Since there is the possibility of the player bouncing out, I could not use OnCollisionEnter2D to trigger the win state. Instead, I used OnCollisionStay alongside a timer to ensure the player fully landed on the winning platform.


Balance

This game gets progressively more difficult throughout the levels, but in order to ensure less frustration and more fairness, I made the condition that raises the difficulty optional. It is fairly okay to simply escape for each level, but if your goal is to get all 3 seeds in each level, you will be forced to fully utilize the physics within the level. This creates an extra level of challenge for the player without locking them away from progression.

Iteration

Since the game is so physics/gravity based, the placement of the colliders/objects had to be constantly fine-tuned in order to adjust the feel and difficulty of the game. The rotation speed of the arrow keys was constantly changing as well, as I realized some of the more challenging levels could not be solved without extra rotational speed. However, this meant I had to change the rotational speed for all levels, as I did not want the player to get used to the game feel only for it to change on them, and instead wanting them to feel mastery over the constant mechanic they have access to. Overall, the longest part of making this game was the various iterations it went through in order to make a fair experience.