Design Brief #7

Hey everyone! And welcome back to another design specialism brief update.

Last time I just started exploring the concept that would evolve in my third brief application, and I was left to wonder how I would evolve the gameplay mechanics coming up with a visual style first.

I honestly love this challenge!

Personally, I am used to come up with fun gameplay systems first and to find a matching visual identity later, so gamifying an art style is something that I have never done before; at least in a tangible manner.

So first of all, what’s this special look I’m talking about?

Long ago I stumbled upon this program made by a you-tuber that goes by the alias of Code Parade that uses equations to create beautiful animated imaginary.

To explain it in a few words, the light trails that are spawned randomly off screen move in a path explained by the two equations on the top left. The fancy patterns happen because the t variable changes over time and thus makes the equations change!

I have loved the awesome shapes that these patterns draw since if first laid my eyes on them a long time ago and I wanted to use them in some way ever since. Finally it seems that this program’s time has arrived.

So, I started to think about ways to implement gameplay into this game.

The thing that first came to my mind and was that stuck, even after every concept iteration I explored, was a game where you had to match the pattern your light trails draw with an existing shape given to you.

This would either be accomplished by either moving some sliders up and down and thus changing ( unknowingly ) some of the parameters in the equations ( and thus the patters the trails followed; or players would actively meddle with the equations themselves, like by switching elements ( variables, plusses or minuses etc.. ) between a pool of available ones.

These concepts all have some absolute potential. However, there is no sure way to get some feedback on how fun they play based on concepts alone, so I have to give it a quick try in a mechanical demo.

I am a little nervous about my coding abilities and the fact that the source code is written in C++, a language that I have studied in the distant past, and that I don’t know in the extents of what I want to do.

I’ll try it out in a unity project and let you know how it goes, see you until next time!