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TRIPPIN BALLS

Time

2 weeks (2022)

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

Team

Solo

Status

Finished

Concept

This was our first assignment on the Game design programme. I made a rough plan of the two levels, but most of it is made out of experimenting with different ideas. The main goal, however, was to make a relaxing game – promoting being in the moment, curiosity, and visually smelling the roses.

In the everyday world, we navigate through not only our senses, but also verbal reasoning. We interpret what we meet through previous experience and knowledge of the world. This way of navigating usually applies to intuitive games as well, for example: “I can see that the road leads into a cave, which usually leads out on the other side – I can go there”.

In this game, I actually wanted to strip a lot of that away, which would pretty much force the Player to rely on primitive abilities to navigate through the levels, such as visuo-spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination. It is in mostly stripped from verbal aspects, and is constructed with shiny objects – creating an abstract art style.

There is no rush, no competition, and no time pressure. Just enjoy the colors, the beauty, and the music – and you will find your way through.

Features and mechanics

In line with my concept, I added a lot of color, different shapes, shiny surfaces, and objects behaving in a non-realistic way. For example, some objects sparkle when touched, or move without gravity. The interactive elements were designed to promote exploring. To enhance the experience, mechanics for grabbing, moving or manipulating the objects were added. For example, the Player can initiate a domino sequence, collect Trippin balls, throw around mirrored objects, pace jumps between objects in motion, and open a secret door to the second level.

Since I wanted to further practice working Unreal Engine’s node system, I also added snacks paired with a snack count with fun sound effects, as a way to further encourage movement in the levels.

As the Player progresses through the first level, they will find a trigger to open a secret door to the second level. The purpose of this was to add to the element of exploration and reward the Player for thorough exploration.

1. Navigating through mid air platforms and rings in motion.
2. The dominoes.
3. Soaking in the ambience.
4. Checking out the surroundings.
5. There’s always something new to see.
6. The secret door to the second level (blue triangle) and the trigger (blue cylindric ball).
7. Entering the second level.

Ideas for Further development

I would love to add Virtual reality (VR) features to this concept, to further enhance the experience. For this, the levels would be made very small, but with more mechanics for manipulating objects with the hand controls instead of having to walk around or climb. The beauty and color of the surroundings would still be a key feature.

Play-through

A play-through will be uploaded to YouTube within short.