So recently I’ve been working on a game for my IPP module at university, and I may have gone a bit overkill on said game. Our task has been to create a mobile prototype, and I’ve definitely gone over the requirements for said prototype and almost have a publishable game, Quickdraw!
Quickdraw is an android game focused on drawing shapes quickly (as the name would suggest). The player is given a shape, and they have to trace the shape without running out of time. If they trace the shape correctly, they gain a point and get less time for the next shape. If they either trace the shape incorrectly or run out of time, they lose a life. Lose all three lives and it’s game over. Due to the variety of shapes, the game can get quite challenging quite quickly, so to make it easier (and more interesting), I added power-up shapes:
- The bullet gives the player two points upon completion rather than one.
- The timer gives more time for the next shape upon completion.
- The heart gives back a lost life when completed.
Based on the name (Quickdraw), I decided to give the game a western shootout type theme, and I opted for pixel art because, to put it simply, it seemed easier (my art skills are not the best). This game gave me a chance to try and develop my art skills, and I’d say I haven’t done a bad job. And now for a little bit of technical stuff.
The main challenge was trying to find a way to tell if the player had drawn the shape properly. The way I decided to do it was using colliders. Each template is split into multiple colliders, each with a specific tag. All of the player’s paint checks for collisions, specifically with colliders with this tag. If the paint is ever not colliding with those colliders, the player has drawn outside of the shape. This gave me a lose state, but I still needed to check if the player had completed the shape. To do this, I check all of the colliders on the template and see if they are colliding with a paint object. If any of them are not touching a paint object, the template has not been completed, and the game continues.
That was the only really complicated part of this project, all the other issues have been small things with different scripts clashing with each other, for example some particles were getting destroyed earlier than they should resulting in no countdown at the start, and the tumbleweed in the background started breaking the speed of light.
Below are some screenshots of the game, and when it is completely finished, I will post a follow-up post along with the google play link!
harrygamedev.game.blog 