Thrust

Description

This game was created in 48 hours during the 2017 Brains Eden game jam at the Anglia Ruskin university in Cambridge. We competed with a team of 5 against about 30 other teams. The theme of the game jam was 'Give and Take'. Our game won the 'Best PC game' award. I was responsible for many of the game's mechanics, VFX and UI.

The core mechanic is to push the wall in the middle all the way towards your opponents' side so they get crushed by it. This can be done by grabbing items from the conveyor belts around you, placing them inside the thrusters on your side of the wall and stepping on the button. Other items can be used to interfere with your opponent's progress.

Below I describe the process we used, as well as some design insights as to what makes the game work.

Engine: Unity

Process

As this was a game jam project, the process for this was short and hectic. 

1. The idea for the conveyor belts came from a memory I had of the old Tetris board game. The back-and-forth of the wall in the middle was core to simulating the tension of Tetris, and made for a natural fit with the theme ('Give and Take').
2. We brainstormed for about 6 hours before developing the idea. I believe we were the only team that spent that much time up front. I also think it contributed to us winning the game jam, as it allowed us to cover edge cases and solidify the design. Everything went relatively smoothly after this.
3. The mechanics were developed in a modular manner. We knew exactly what was expected of each system before starting, so we were able to comfortably spend time on making sure that each system was capable of standing on its own, instead of rushing with hacks everywhere.
4. We respected our health and slept a solid 8 hours both nights. We knew that to work efficiently our minds and bodies had to be in shape. Sacrificing sleep was not an option.
5. Focusing on a single-screen game made it so both art and development had to be limited in scope. We didn't have to worry about scale; everything had to fit inside one screen, anything outside of it was irrelevant.

Design Insights

• Originally we had the inputs for the conveyor belts in the middle of the arena (top and bottom). We realized though that by offsetting them to the corners, we could give players the opportunity to 'steal' items from their opponents; however, by putting them in the corners, it also means that your window of opportunity is short. This creates a 'risk vs reward' opportunity, as you often have to choose between attempting to steal something from your opponent's conveyor belt (and possibly failing), or going for the more guaranteed item on your side (as that part of the conveyor belt is longer), but then possibly giving an important item to your opponent as a result.
  
• The physical movement of the middle wall has a beneficial 'rubberbanding' effect: the player that is doing better will have to move around more, as their side of the playfield expands. Inversely, the player that is losing will be able to move more quickly between the core components of the arena (= thrusters, conveyors belts and the button). However, the increased exposure to the conveyors belts also means that the winning player has more items available to them, so it doesn't feel like you're disadvantaged. This made the game quite forgiving when it comes to skill difference, kept the game feeling fair and kept tensions high throughout the game.
  
• By placing the different requirements for progress on opposite sides of the arena (conveyor belts top and bottom, thrusters on one vertical side, the launch button on the other), there's a constant drive for optimization: how much time do I spend waiting at a conveyor belt, which items do I focus on, how do I make sure my opponent has a little of a window as possible to interfere with my progress, ... While the setup may look simple
• One core aspect we came up with was increasing the 'level' of the thrusters over time. Every X seconds, the thrusters would become stronger (indicated through the timer and an arena-wide visual effect). This was necessary to guarantee the game coming to a close, especially in evenly matched players, but it also adds an additional layer of strategy: "do I wait for the next upgrade that will arrive, or do I go ahead with a weaker thrust push so I can already continue to gather new parts for the next push?"

Items

• Fuel Tank - Place one in all 3 thrusters to activate the fire button and move the wall towards your opponent!
• C4 - Throw it at your opponent to disable them for a few seconds, but be careful, if they react fast enough it might come flying right back at you!
• EMP - Slap it onto one of your opponents thrusters to steal their fuel. If you find one of these on your side, grab it before it discharges to get a speed boost!

Controls

• Gamepad 
  • Analog Stick - Move
  • A Button - Pick up, Drop, Throw, Deflect
• Keyboard P1
  • WSAD - Move
  • Spacebar - Pick up, Drop, Throw, Deflect
• Keyboard P2
  • Arrows - Move
  • Return - Pick up, Drop, Throw, Deflect

Team

Art: Sander Vander Meiren, Samuel De Vos

Code: Robert Lindner, Kiam Vandendriessche, Arno Vanden Branden

Sound: Patrick Haynes