Space-Time Slip

Mobile Game | 2022-2023

Tools
Photoshop, Procreate, Pygame, Unity

Skills
Game Design, Mechanics Design, Concept Art, Prototyping, Presenting

A mobile game about flying a rocket into space, collecting upgrades and travelling forwards in time. The game uses the theory of general relativity to explore how moving away from the Earth's gravitational pull would make time flow differently for the person in the rocket, when compared to those on the planet surface. The player, controlling the rocket, is able to fly away from Earth, to make time go faster on the surface, and return to different civilisations throughout history. Unique upgrades can be bought from each civilisation that drastically change how the rocket controls. The core gameplay is about avoiding asteroids and space debris, while collecting fuel to keep the player's run going. The game uses a single interaction, holding down the screen and releasing, to control the rocket's flight.

In this project I learnt a lot about how to rapidly produce and test game ideas based on research. I chose to research the topic "time", and was able to design 12 initial game ideas which, through careful consideration and playtesting, I was able to bring down to a single idea to develop further.

Early Game Concepts

I developed 12 ideas, that I felt had the most potential, into single-page design pitches. These communicated how the game would play through explaining mechanics along with diagrams to help visualise important elements. I have included a selection of these below.

Prototyping

I spent some time developing prototypes for these games to see how specific mechanics would work in play. I also created some prototypes that were playable; these were playtested to refine the games as well as help me to decide which ones to pursue further.

Concept Art

Once deciding on a final idea I worked on developing the game and produced concept art showing its visual style. The art shows a playthrough where the player has already reached the modern age, as such the rocket is upgraded with modules; this is evidenced by the cannon. I also produced a gif that visually showed the mechanic of the rocket taking off into space.

Implementation

As this is a mobile game, I used Unity to develop it. I decided to work on the asteroids moving in, as well player movement, first so that I could have a playable prototype early on where I could playtest the core gameplay loop. The early development can be seen in these videos.

I also created a fire animation for the flame that comes out of the thrusters on the bottom of the ship. This is a loop that repeatedly plays whenever the player has the thruster on, and is flying upwards.