This is a puzzle game on PC (Windows/Mac). Player will see a cluster of stars, and the major process is for the player to look at these stars from different positions to figure out the designated pattern in these stars. I took this game’s inspiration from Shadowmatic, which is a puzzle game based on rotating objects to get the right shadow. I found that constellations will also look quite different if you look at them from a different position, so I designed this game.
When I decided on the game’s core idea, I quickly listed out the game’s basic processes according to the player’s interactions with the game scene. The most important function of this game is to let the camera rotate around a certain point while always aiming straight at it.
I completed this function by studying Unity’s API as well as referring the camera controller from other games. After this, I polished the game’s visual and sound effects. I customized the skybox and the sparking stars, and add background music to the game to make player feel relaxed while playing.
The next step was putting the stars at proper position to display a special pattern. I compared these two pattern generation methods: program and manual, and found that the pattern generated by the program didn’t look well, and manually crafted the stars was more flexible and efficient, especially in making patterns such as English letters. So I hand crafted the constellation. And last I polished the game by adding some caption.
I have learned how to develop a game based on gameplay, including how to quickly develop a test demo, how to evaluate and choose the different technical solutions. This is the first game I developed with Unity. I have also deepened my understanding of game development from this experience.
