jaydedcompanion/6hourchallenge

Improve an existing game in the span of 6 hours!

6 Hour Challenge

Improve the White Blood Cell mobile game in 6 hours.

Time Log

Event	Date	Time
Challenge start	2023/2/22	12:30PM EST
Initial commit	2023/2/22	01:00PM EST
First checkpoint	2023/2/22	04:10PM EST
Lunch break (time pause)	2023/2/22	04:30PM EST
Lunch break end (time resume)	2023/2/22	05:10PM EST
Second checkpoint	2023/2/22	05:55PM EST
Final checkpoint	2023/2/22	07:10PM EST
Challenge over	2023/2/22	07:10PM EST

Planed Features

After briefly playtesting the game, I came up with the following changes that I'd like to make to the game:

• Changes to game mechanics:
  • Make Viruses eat the Red Blood Cells instead of having them be idle.
  • If a Virus consumes a Red Blood Cell, a score penalty is applied.
  • Consuming Viruses extends the player's momentum.
  • Turn system overhaul:
    • Change the turns system to use an analog bar instead of a fixed number of turns.
    • Make the turns bar deplete on its own to disincentivize camping/farming.
  • Boost system overhaul:
    • Display boost direction and force as the player charges the boost.
    • Apply drag to player movement.
    • The longer a boost is charged for, the more of the turn bar is depleted.
• Fixes/improvements:
  • Fix UI canvases to properly scale dynamically.
  • Add juice to players consuming Viruses/Red Blood Cells.

Unplanned Extra Features

The following features were added during the 6 hour window which weren't originally planned, but either came up organically during the development process or were deemed necessary while playtesting:

• Replace UI assets.
• Font change throughout the UI (now using Indestructible Type's Gnomon font).
• Spawn enemies in bursts with delay inbetween each enemy in the burst.
• Preview the amount of energy that will be consumed in the movement bar.
• Added background graphic so that walls are visible.
• QOL: If a player clicks/taps for a tiny fraction of time (accidental double-click, bad debounce settings, etc.) the action is ignored, energy is refunded and previous velocity is maintained.
• Added hitfreeze alongside camera shake.
• Made player trail opacity fade as velocity reaches 0.
• Reworked shake system.
• Vibration when entities are consumed (untested).

Post-Challenge

There are still some things I want to do with this project. I've stored the project as it was when the challenge ended on a separate branch, and the main branch will contain any future changes I make to the game. Here are some of the changes I've already started considering:

• Fancy animated transitions between screens (main menu/game/game over)
• Animations for the player and various entities for when they are consumed, when the player is launched or bounces, etc.
• High score storage for display on Game Over screen (I was hoping to do this during the challenge, but I ran out of time when implementing the screenshake and hitfreeze)
• Sound effects are always a welcome addition and definitely improve the game feel, so if I find a way to obtain some sound effects it would be great to add those as well.