Life Sim

Life Sim is a 2D platformer I created as a the yearly surprise for my brother. The game reflects some of the significant events in his life that year, such as his engagement and the global pandemic. The main objective of the game is for the player, controlling a character based on my brother, to save his fiancée from the virus and bring her the engagement ring.

Gameplay and Features

• Platforming Challenges: Navigate through levels while avoiding virus-themed enemies and obstacles.
• Simple Enemy AI: Virus enemies patrol between two points, bump into the player, and can be defeated by jumping on them.
• Collectibles and Objectives:
  • Hearts: For healing.
  • Ripple Tokens: Collectible coins for scoring.
  • Main Objectives: Retrieve the engagement ring and free the fiancée from her cage.

Technical Learnings and Challenges

This was my first time building a full 2D game in Unity, which introduced me to new tools and workflows:

• Tilemaps and Tile Palettes: Used Unity’s tilemap system to design levels quickly and efficiently. Creating custom brushes allowed for seamless world-building and an iterative design process.
• 2D Physics: Leveraged Unity’s physics engine to implement realistic movements and interactions, which felt natural based on prior 3D experience.
• Simple AI: Developed patrol behavior for enemies, reinforcing fundamental AI principles in Unity.

Images and Screenshots

Here are some visuals from the project:

Outcome

The game was a success as a personalized gift and was greatly enjoyed by its intended audience. Despite its short development timeframe of two months, the project pushed me to learn and experiment with Unity’s 2D features, which were previously unfamiliar. This experience also reinforced the value of focusing on scope and designing enjoyable gameplay within tight constraints.

You can explore the source code for Life Sim on GitHub.