“Neon Climb is a 2D vertical platformer. Explore the environment to collect all required items.”

Here are some general updates regarding my team’s progress on the final project:

Our team is trying to figure out how to harness the fun of the infinite jump without having to create extremely long background assets. The main time sink in balancing this project is the amount of time it takes to look for a resource or tutorial that can teach us how to implement a certain mechanic. The camera issues have been fixed now so that the player doesn’t go too far off screen, ditching the main camera. Additionally, the counter + item collection mechanic now functions in creating the condition for progressing to the next level. The collection of the items is very stale, however, as nothing happens other than a tick in the counter. This seems boring, so I’m trying to add an animation for now as our programmer may not have enough time to figure out powerups.

Regarding the art style, I’ve dialed it down starting from the main menu screen to decrease visual noise and clutter. Because the mechanics are so simple, it is important that we design levels that have a good flow of movement that doesn’t cause too much of a break. The level design ties directly into the background and art, which is one of the main things that will motivate the player to keep climbing. Visual interest is difficult to consider when the canvas is extremely vertical.

Everyone on our team is balancing finals so it is slightly difficult to get everyone to work on it at the same time, but we have all done bits towards the goal so far.