Turn the color wheel to change the track of the train.
A tiny prototype that was inspired by complex GIT branching. The idea of it was to create an endless mobile game in portrait mode. The level is made up of procedural colored tracks. The player spins a little wheel that changes the color of the train. The train will try to stay on the chosen color. When the colors don’t match the train crashes.
Design
It’s an interesting idea when you think about it, but as with any procedural game you need to build it before you can see the flaws:
- Chaotic: too many colors, hard to see the wheel, and pick the correct color.
- Stressful: no real choice, you just do what you need or you DIE.
- Crossing tracks are visually confusing. You assume you can change track, but nope! Crash!
In hindsight I think most of these are fixable:
- The pacing can be improved by making you start with only two colors, and gradually adding more.
- Make different colors affect the train in some way. Place objects near tracks that you can collect.
- Visually distinguish when paths are crossing.
Takeaways
- Don’t give up on a prototype too early