Chromatic Conundrum

Chromatic Conundrum

A top down puzzle game about changing and mixing colors.

Reflection

Chromatic Conundrum was my first Solo Project in my game design studies, created during my sophomore year. At this point in time I had already decided to pursue systems and level design, and a puzzle game seemed like the perfect marriage of the two. I developed a multitude of simple straightforward mechanics, hand picking the most interesting and positively tested ones. From there, I spent a large majority of my time sketching out possible levels, testing them, and improving upon them, all while noting their relative difficulty. I made it a point to introduce mechanics one at a time and develop them thoroughly over a few levels, showing the player the many ways they can interact with it, building complexity as you progress. I implanted variation of logic and timing tests to keep things from getting stale. Looking back, I can see many places which can be improved, however I am extremely proud of what I created at the time with my skillset at the time.

Conception

A core concept I felt simplistic and that many people could quickly and easily understand was that of color. Allowing the player to change color at various points in a level, with the goal of reaching the end as a specific color started my framework. By weaving in simple additions around this core structure would allow me to create complex yet simplistic puzzles. I started with doorways that you can only pass through if you matched the color and turrets that would should a mobile version of the color switching points. These turrets could easily interact with a push able 'crate', creating more interactions and opportunities for me to use.

Complexity

I wanted to add one more unique, slightly more complex, mechanic for my puzzles. I took the basic idea of the player changing color and thought 'why not embrace the color changing and let the player change to color of other things as well'. With the help of a more experienced coder, I created receivers the player could touch to impress their color upon them, that would then send the color along a path to change a final object. I immediately envisioned these paths as circuits that a signal is being sent along (which I'll come back to later), and the most special part of my game was born.

These receivers could change color nodes, doorways, turrets. Upon re-examination why couldn't the signal be split. I entered the script and made it so. Now the signal could be sent to any mix and match of the above. Furthering the modularity of these receivers, I could even play around with the time it took for the signal to be sent. This allowed me to create time sensitive puzzles.

Happy Accident

While playing around with the receivers, I kept thinking of them as electrical wires. One idea this brought up was a closed circuit. What if I fed a receiver into itself so to speak. I created one and turned it red in game. It stayed red... not much excitement. A little disappointed I attempted to turn it blue next. This is where things got special. The blue signal got sent around, but the red signal was also still there, I just couldn't see it because I had no visualization for where the active signal was. So the circular line kept changing between blue and red. The possibility space for puzzles just ballooned.

Refinement

At this point I had some basic levels created, lightly tested, and a solid set of tools on my toolbelt. I sat down, sketched out some puzzles, implemented them, and began to focus on improving gameplay feedback based on my previous and current testing.

I started with quality of life changes. A button to reset yourself to a clean slate of white. This also doubled as another tool to use in puzzles, though I had to be careful in my level designs about softlocks. In addition, I added a level reset to address any potential softlocks. I also added some particles to visualize a receivers active signal(s).

Finally... iterate, iterate, iterate. I cranked out a load of levels as puzzles, tested them, and tweaked them to improve understanding and flow as they were tested. Some I had to throw out as they were not super standout or special, or maybe just a little off. Then after some tweaks test them again and rinse and repeat.

After I had established solid levels that increase in a consistent difficulty, I focused on some theming and visuals. I opted to go for a hacking theme inside electronics, running off of my headcannon of circuits. Crafting a few basic pixel sprites, I slapped them in and the game came together.

Development

A Solo project developed over about 5 months.

Focus: Puzzle and Level Design

Editor: Unity 2D

Goals for the Project;

Strong level & puzzle flow
Modular and interactive mechanics
Utilize each mechanic to its fullest