Pieces

Summary

Pieces is a 3D platformer inspired by Mario 64 and Bastion created for the 2018 Global Game Jam. In it you take on the role of Boo, a lost spirit trying to find pieces of their home scattered throughout an unfamiliar world.

What I Did

Design work on this game was a mostly communal effort, but there were lots of small things I pushed hard for like camera control and player acceleration and the game is so much better for it. As far as implementation goes I did the scripting for many of the smaller effects like the Bastion-inspired platforms and sundry incidentals like item pickups. I also implemented the animations produced by our artist and learned how to wrestle Mecanim into submission in the process, which was actually a lot more educational about various features of Unity than I expected it to be.

What I Learned

For every polish and game-feel related feature I managed to get in, there are two more that I really should have pushed harder for. Making a platformer feel good to control is a lot of little things in concert, and your game will feel cheaper and less engaging for each one that’s missing. For as limited as we were in time, we also spent a lot of time working on non-essential features and content that could have been spent making a more complete platforming experience which would have improved the game considerably. I knew this at the beginning of the jam, but didn’t feel confident enough to go to bat for every feature on my wishlist.