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Shape Sorter
Project Info
2023
Unity
1
3 Days
C#
Everything
In Shape Sorter your goal is to complete a series of levels by making sure the correct shapes enter the correct goals. This is done by placing a variety of different objects in the level that bounce the shapes to the correct place.
About
Shape sorter was made by me during 3 days for SGC Jam 2023. It ended up placing 1st out of 27 games. The theme for the game jam was Organized Chaos. The game also had to include at least 3 out of 9 challenges. The challenges I choose to complete were: DIY Sounds - Record all the sounds yourself, Color Coded - Only use 4 colors and Who is the best - Include some sort of point and high-score system.
What I Did
I began by brainstorming ideas for a game that would fit the theme of Organized Chaos and include 3 of the 9 challenges. The idea I came up with was a game where you would sort shapes into different goals by bouncing them around in various ways. The game was inspired by the Google Doodle game Present Bounce. I also choose to go with a very minimal art style which would also work well with the Color Coded challenge that only allowed the use of 4 colors in the entire game. The other two challenges I choose were DIY Sounds since I thought it would be fun to record the sound effects myself and Who is the best which means the game has to include som kind of high-score system. To implement the latter challenge I simply choose to give each piece that's placed a value and the high-score would then be based on the lowest value used to complete the level.
The games mechanics are based around Unity's physics system and the code I wrote is mostly used to tie everything together. I therefore ended up spending a substantial amount of time on tasks that weren't programming related like recording sound effects, drawing icons for the UI and designing the levels. With the game jam only being 3 days long there were sadly things that I didn't have time to implement like a move tool and keyboard shortcuts. I also didn't have time to test the difficulty of the levels with someone other than myself which lead to the difficulty potentially ramping up too fast.
What I Learned
Even thought the game isn't perfect I am still very happy with what I managed to achieve in the limited time frame. I learned a lot about time management during this project and about prioritizing the most important aspects first. I also learned what it's like working in other disciplines which I feel will be helpful in the future. Overall I feel like I improved my brainstorming and prioritization skills as well as my ability to work under time pressure. I am very happy with the result considering the game ended up placing 1st and it was a lot of fun hearing everyone's feedback.