Turn Tiles is a puzzle game that involves rotating tiles to match lines with their goal.
What I worked on
- Unity
- Puzzle Design - C# Programming - UI - Animation |
Process
My goal for this project was to make something with strong visual polish and development systems which made puzzle creation easier.
I knew I'd have to rely on animation for polish because the art style was decidedly minimalist. I went with a linear curve for the tile turning and menu transitions and fade ins/outs for everything else.
To systemize the design process I made pieces for each line and placed them on a blank tile. When the game starts it generates each tile by spawning different combinations of diagonal lines, vertical/horizontal lines, and a single dot in the center to smooth out the corners. The images for each line type are white with transparent background so the color can be chosen in the level editor.
Once these systems were in place I was able to easily make level my designing them on paper then recreating them in the editor. I made the mistake of building these systems first before having others test the game. I ended up spending a bunch of time making a game that I didn't even know was fun until halfway through development. Fortunately playtesting went well which made me feel better about making more levels.
Other than fun and interest, I was also testing to see if players could figure out how the game works without written instruction. Most players started off confused as the game gives no prompt for interaction. Having just one thing in the center of the screen allowed them to quickly figure out what the goal of the game is. From there each tester made their way through the rest of the levels without any confusion.
I knew I'd have to rely on animation for polish because the art style was decidedly minimalist. I went with a linear curve for the tile turning and menu transitions and fade ins/outs for everything else.
To systemize the design process I made pieces for each line and placed them on a blank tile. When the game starts it generates each tile by spawning different combinations of diagonal lines, vertical/horizontal lines, and a single dot in the center to smooth out the corners. The images for each line type are white with transparent background so the color can be chosen in the level editor.
Once these systems were in place I was able to easily make level my designing them on paper then recreating them in the editor. I made the mistake of building these systems first before having others test the game. I ended up spending a bunch of time making a game that I didn't even know was fun until halfway through development. Fortunately playtesting went well which made me feel better about making more levels.
Other than fun and interest, I was also testing to see if players could figure out how the game works without written instruction. Most players started off confused as the game gives no prompt for interaction. Having just one thing in the center of the screen allowed them to quickly figure out what the goal of the game is. From there each tester made their way through the rest of the levels without any confusion.