Goal of the game

The basic gameplay is rather simple but allows for a lot of different challenges. The player controls a coloured cat that has to get to the end of the level. The player is not allowed to touch platforms that are a different colour than them, with the exception of the black neutral platforms. At the start, the player is only blue, but after a while, the player encounters pickups that allow the player to change the colour of the cat. This means that the player can switch what platforms are dangerous. This forms the main concept of the game.

Challenging mechanics

The seemingly simple main concept of the game allowed for multiple interesting and challenging mechanics. Some come from the combination with more conventional mechanics, like moving platforms.

Moving platforms

The introduction of coloured moving platforms turned out to be a rather interesting mechanic. The platforms now could be both a way for the player to progress and something the player has to avoid. Especially mixing different coloured platforms together proved to be an easy way to make the levels more challenging.

Veils

In the game there are areas that are called veils. These areas have a colour and act the same way as a coloured platform, meaning that they kill the player if the player is the wrong colour. However, the player can move through the veils if the player is the right colour.

Bouncing platforms

A mechanic that did not make a lot of sense at the start was a platform that shot the player into the air if they touched it. However, as the game became more and more about reflexes, the unpredictability of these platforms allowed for more hectic and difficult levels. This came in very handy in the later levels.

Idea of the game

This was the first game that I made that was a bit more ambitious. The previous projects were a bit experimental and took a lot less time to develop. These projects were mostly to test out and set up distribution. With this game, however, I wanted to take a bit more time to come up with an interesting premise. Originally, I tried to make a puzzle game. I looked for a way to lock off certain parts of the level until the player had found some form of key. These keys turned into coins that allowed the player to change colour. The coloured platforms became the way to lock off part of the level. As level design progressed, the focus shifted from puzzle elements to tests of dexterity and reflexes. I found that this came a lot more naturally and was a lot more fun to play.

Achievements

Something that I had struggled with up until this point was challenge. The games I had made so far had all turned out to be rather easy and therefore they were not very interesting. However, this game was genuinely a challenge to complete, even for me. It was also the first game I made in Unity which was a very valuable experience.