Summon light to find your way out of the dark, dangerous maze. Avoid becoming a fish’s snack! A 72-hour game jam

Background

This project was made with 3 people, including another developer.

Out of 2194 submissions, Luminth was submitted for LudumDare55 and placed...

Top 3% in Graphics
Top 7% in Innovation

Because of the positive reviews, we've decided to continue polishing the game for 2 months.

My Technical Contributions

1. Handled the `Lights` class

Instantiation with dynamic light radiuses
Hostile Lights that decreased Player's health
Background Image Masking to "see" the maze

POST-GAME JAM: Better Light Visuals using Shaders (HLSL)

A huge mechanic of Luminth was the uncovering of the maze through lights. However, Unity doesn't have a built-in function to create transparent circles, needing HLSL Shader expertise.

Alpha blending
Texture Copy
Particle Effects
Post-Processing (Vignette, Bloom)

How did I achieve this? (Technical)

2. Made the Tutorial Scene

Game Event Triggers
Level Design
Dialogue Manager

POST-GAME JAM: Better Tutorial

Due to the interesting world Luminth had to offer, the original tutorial focused more on narrative to introduce the mechanics. However, we found that it gave players unclear instructions and expectations

In the polished version, Luminth's tutorial dialogues went from 27 lines to 5 lines. This gave more focus on action and visual instructions than words, making it clearer what players should expect.

Button Animations using DOTween

4. Randomised Exit Position at every scene instantiation.

5. WebGL Build published in itch.io

6. POST-GAME JAM: Focus Mechanic using Shaders (HLSL)

From the original submission's feedback, we have introduced a new mechanic that helps players find the direction of the exit.

Original Equations
Mouse Position
Unit Circle / Angle Calculations
Chromatic Abbreviation

How did I achieve this? (Technical)

Soft-skills

Challenges Because of the tight time constraints, it was necessary to have clear communication in work delegation and what the game needed. This included Task Prioritisation, Using GitHub Branches for specific tasks, and Agile Project Management.

What I've Learnt

Completed game: Successfully completed the game within 72 hours through effective collaboration, and polished the game with post-processing and publishing.
Applied knowledge: Applied knowledge from previous game development experience such as: Shader Language, Level Design, Game Events, Dialogue Manager, and Agile collaboration
Great feedback: Showcased at Hong Kong's Game Dev Happy Hour event, among other games, and received positive feedback.

Ludum Dare page

Luminth