Would it be possible to recolor
a world that has lost its colors?
- Introduction
Hello, I'm Victor the developer of Neo Spectrum, on this page you will find in detail about the process of the game's development and my experiences on doing so.
- What is Neo Spectrum?
Neo Spectrum is a platform and puzzle game, the player has the power to color blocks found in the levels and thus giving them different attributes, with smart use of different colors, movement ability and caution for enemies, the player will be able to proceed through the different levels and obstacles they will encounter on the way.
Design and Planning
- Motivation / Methodology
Neo Spectrum started as a college project in a mobile development discipline, the idea was to create a complete game on my own and without third-party content, but at the end of it I decided to continue development, so i could improve and polish the game's content to publish it on virtual stores.
The methodology used throughout the production of the game was that of Heather Maxwell Chandler shown in her book: The Game Production Toolbox, together with the guidance of my professor Guilherme Zanchett.
- Concept
"Would it be possible to recolor a world that has lost its colors?", This is the concept of Neo Spectrum, at first I didn't have a clear vision of what the game would be like, I imagined something like a city in black and white or a world of ink and paper, until eventually I decided that the universe of the game would be within the circuits of a computer and the colors would be represented by lights.
The puzzle genre was chosen because it is one that I had never worked on before and I would like to learn, I also believed that it would match the target platform since I know several games of the same genre there, as well as being able to be played by anyone with simple controls in any place or occasion.
During development I end up realizing that the genre demands more time for testing and refinement than anticipated, it was not the ideal choice in terms of available time and it was certainly a challenge to be overcome, but I believe it was a good genre for the concept of game and it is something I don't regret.
- Scope / Documentation
Once the game's premise was decided and the mechanics approved, it was necessary to define a scope. What tools would be used? How long would each stage of development take? For this it was necessary to define how the rest of the game would be, document and create schedules of tasks and resources, then continue with the development until having a complete version of the game.
Neo Spectrum was developed with Unity and C#, it was the engine required by the discipline and also the engine that I had the most development experience.
The documentation was made using Google Docs and the schedule using Meister Task at the recommendation of the professor, I believe that the schedule was very well prepared and followed due to other college projects that I was participating at the time of development , I knew I could not dedicate myself as much to the game and only included the necessary and with coherent deadlines with a little margin for unforeseen events.
Neo Spectrum's pipeline documentation.
Neo Spectrum's Meister Task.
Game Mechanics
- Prototype
Right after the concept was validated and before the game started to be fully produced a prototype was created, the prototype was created with the aim of testing whether the basic mechanics of the game had the potential to create fun and intriguing puzzles for the player, otherwise, they should be revised.
The prototype had all the basic mechanics of the game, such as movement, interaction with enemies and interactions with colored blocks.
- Blocks
The main mechanic of Neo Spectrum is the one to blocks found in the levels, the player can color any block one of the three different colors simply by touching one (with the touchscreen), however the player has a maximum range within which they can interact with the blocks. A block will gain different properties depending on the color chosen: The red block gains physical properties, the green block gains high bounciness properties where the player or red blocks can bounce, and the blue block gains adhesive properties where the player can stick and stay there or climb the side of the block and perform multiple wall jumps.
Given the properties of the blocks and level layouts, it was possible to create different levels with creative and distinct solutions for the player. The mechanic of coloring blocks was definitely the best idea I had for the project, and during production I was able to realize how much potential it had.
- Movement
As well as a puzzle game, Neo spectrum is also a platformer, so I had to make sure that the character's movement was fluid and easy to control. I believe that the factor that most influences a good 2D movement is how the character jumps, the jumping is done similar to the old Super Mario Bros (and many other games of the genre), where the character has a falling speed higher than the jumping.
The final result of the game’s movement mechanics was to my liking and I am satisfied with it.
- Enemies / Obstacles
The game's enemies are not particularly threatening to the player, they can even be seen as moving obstacles, the main difference between enemies and lasers is the fact that enemies destroy the player's blocks, while lasers are blocked by them, so each one had a unique purpose when planning obstacles for all levels, in addition, enemies are also affected by the lasers as well as the player is.
From a technical point of view, common enemies are just colliders that move sideways, while lasers are raycasts with particles.
-Multiple Characters
Levels with multiple characters that move simultaneously were created to increase difficulty, those levels require the player to reach the exit with all characters without having any of them destroyed.
Neo Spectrum's Prototype.
Player coloring blocks.
Player jumping onto a blue block.
Smooth falling demonstration.
Enemy destroying a block.
Laser demonstration.
Level with multiple characters.
Level Design
- Levels
The objective of the player in each level is simply to reach the exit, and for that goal they will have to use the blocks and avoid enemies in an intelligent way.
In Neo Spectrum each level is a different puzzle, some are simple and serve to teach the player how different game mechanics work, others are more complex and require a player to use what they have learned about the game to progress.
The basic foundation that I used for the creation of the levels was to give the player an initial idea of how to solve the puzzle, but make this initial idea have a factor that prevents it from working, so the player has an idea of what doesn't work but needs to find an alternative answer to the one they initially had.
A good example would be this level in which the player realizes that they must knock down the upper block in order to progress, but if he does that the block becomes inaccessible through the laser, this was also my first level created.
- Tests
Something that was very useful when testing the game on mobile was Unity Remote, it allowed me to do controls and performance tests without having to generate an apk, since the application allowed me to test on my phone while making changes in real time, something which certainly saved me a lot of time.
When it comes to a puzzle game, it is necessary that each and every level is tested rigorously and by people who do not know the solution already, I had help from lots of friends to test the levels so i could make the best game possible. I wanted to be sure Neo Spectrum could be a game interesting for people with all kinds of experience playing games, with a linear difficulty curve and slowly teaching to the players the game mechanics.
Example of a level.
Visual
- Visual Style / Concept Arts
The visual style of Neo Spectrum is 2D 32bits pixel art, a dark and technological environment with colorful lights and characters that shine, so the game Pac-man was used as the main visual reference. The character's visual style emerged from the inspiration of the image on the right with some adaptations.
Some initial concept arts of the game:
- Sprites and Animations
All sprites (images) and animations in the game were created with Aseprite, a simple program that facilitates the creation of pixel arts and 2D spritesheets. The stage of creating sprites was relatively long, the style of the art was revised and changed several times since I was never completely satisfied with it, in addition to having difficulty creating a dark and colorless environment that wasn't visually boring to the player.
- Lighting
Lighting is an important aspect of Neo Spectrum's look, lights are the colors of the game and represent the character's goal of recoloring their colorless world.
The intention was that of making the game environment mostly dark, but I had to be careful not to make it too dark, taking into account that the player could be playing on his cell phone in a sunny environment and being unable to see.
The game lights are part of the sprites themselves (in the form of gradients with low opacity), and part using 2D lighting shaders that used 3D lights to illuminate images, these shaders had to be of low graphic quality as they were by far the aspect that most required graphics processing.
- Narrative / Extras
The story of the game is: A computer has been infested by a virus and lost it's colors, and now it is up to the player to fight it. However, the way this story is told is not so straightforward, it is told mainly through the extras, a mysterious atmosphere and short phrases that appear at the beginning of certain levels.
The extras are images that tell the story of the game, there are four of them and they can be accessed in the extras menu, they must be unlocked by collecting a certain number of chips, each level has a chip that can be collected by the player.
I believe that this was a good choice for the game's narrative, a non-intrusive way and that encourages the player to explore the game as much as possible.
The visual style of Neo Spectrum is 2D 32bits pixel art, a dark and technological environment with colorful lights and characters that shine, so the game Pac-man was used as the main visual reference. The character's visual style emerged from the inspiration of the image on the right with some adaptation
Pac-man.
Character's reference. (all credits towards the rightful owners)
Visual style of levels.
Inicial enemy's concept.
Inicial character's concept.
Animation spritesheet.
Extras menu.
Game's first extra.
Audio
- Effects
Creating sound effects was something I had never done before and that I really enjoyed, at first I thought of creating sound effects in 8 bits to match the visual style of the game, but I ended up preferring to record audios directly through my microphone using bowls, plastic and voice, because it was much simpler to work this way, the audios created were then edited and polished using Audacity.
Although I did not have a good planning with the audio, the result was to my satisfaction even though it was something that I had no previous experience or advanced resources to work with.
- Soundtracks
The creation of the tracks did not give me the same experience as the sound effects, was also something I had no experience with but this time I had great difficulty. I chose to create simple and mysterious songs in 8-bit style and I believe it was a choice that matched the concept of the game, for this I used a program called Famitracker , with it I was able to create 8-bit tracks much more easily and directly implement them into the game.
Audacity example.
Famitracker example.
Publishing
- Goals
My goal was to simply create a good game that I could use as a portfolio piece, and learn about publishing games in online stores.
- Marketing plan
Much of the game's promotion was through its Instagram page, I believe it is a good way for an independent developer to have their product seen and create contacts with other people of similar interests.
- Trailer
Video editing and creation was something I had never worked on, and like many stages of development I had a little trouble getting started. I used a program called Shotcut for editing because it was free and simple to use, so I created a trailer that was self explanatory and could be used to promote my game.
- Digital Stores
Publishing a game on digital stores like Google Play Store or Steam is relatively simple, you just have to pay a fee and you can publish your game. Many adjustments had to be made like creating an App Bundle for mobile, implement Steam integration on the code, create visual media like banners, screenshots, etc.