/Escape_Drill

The theme for Ludum Dare #29 was “Beneath the Surface”, and my entry for this 48 hour game jam Compo was a simple Unity game called “Escape Enclosures Expeditiously” (in keeping with my alliteration name themes I've used in previous Ludum Dares).

In this game, the player must get to the end of an isometric level while avoiding contact with enemy pieces. Movement is simple, and each enemy follows specific rules, so it's up to the player to identify the rules of each enemy type and maneuver around them to get to the objective.

Interestingly enough, however, my goal with this weekend project was not as much to create a full game (although that would be fun!), but to extend the Unity editor in a way that would allow me to create new game levels inside of it. For this, I created custom mesh builders and editor tools which allowed me to extend a tiled isometric grid, control the height of each grid cell, and paint them with different tile types, each with different attributes (water, grass, colors, etc.).

The end result was a simple yet fun game to play. I finished the 48 hour compo with 3 levels; it was extended with 4 more and some ranking/high-score tracking a day later for the post-compo version, and before it was published on game portal websites like Kongregate. It was also renamed to “Escape Drill” then.

This little project was an exhilarating experience and a great learn to get deep with Unity's editor. It opened my eyes to its extensibility, and scratched an itch that I've had for a long time.