Color Drifter

1/4

Solo Project
Unity and C#

A First Person Parkour game where the player has to switch their color to land on safe grounds and perform parkour movements to traverse complex territory.

Design Process

Design and Experience Goal

The Design Goal is to challenge the player through fast-paced reactions and spatial navigation

The Experience Goal is to provide Satisfying and Novel parkour movements and levels.

Gameplay Design

To create parkour movements that just feel amazing to play around with, I scripted my own character controller in C# and fine-tuned all the gameplay elements of Color Drifter

1. FOV change: I introduced FOV change between 80 & 100 whenever the player performs a parkour movement to create a sense of speed.

2. Camera Shake and Bobbing: I carefully scripted and tweaked headbob and handbob, added various camera shakes to mimic the natural head/view movements in fast running and landing.

3. Physics: I used different force mode and magnitude in different movements, and timed the acceleration and deacceleration just right to make the physics feel natural and forgiving.

4. Animation: I added rope animation and "target acquired" UI animation for the swing movement to light up the rather static visuals.

Level Design

I decided not only to craft the levels specifically for challenges, but also architectural aesthetics. Combining real world architectural space and level space, I am able to deliver memorable levels that feel significant to the player.

1. Start with Texts: I listed as many fun interactions with the parkour and color switching as possible, resulting in a handful list to pick from.

2. Architecture and Routes: Envisioning an architectural space that is both easily recognized and interesting to traverse, I can start with a larger layout and quickly draw the routes or "movement lines" around the space. To provide diversified experience, I included vertical and self-crossing lines.

3. Color Guidance: Since Blue, Yellow, White are already introduced as important game mechanics, players can easily see them as level guides and make intuitive reactions in a quick and clear way,

4. Quick Reaction: I limit the number of game elements whenever player is in a series of fast-paced challenges so that the player won't get confused when trying to discern their "next important goal".