The Journey of the Game
The main core mechanic to figure out was the maze generation. To do the maze generation, I used recursive backtracking, essentially creating a grid and then removing pieces from it. I then cut out large parts of the grid to act as certain key points in the maze, including corners and the center.
We designed various obstacles, powerups, and debuffs to make life a little more difficult (or easier) for players. This was also how we introduced the fight mechanic, making it so you could debuff another player or even attack them to steal some of their points.
The visual style was very much just pixel art. We kept the color palette vibrant, shining and blinking against the black background. We wanted to keep it bright and engaging.
We implemented a variety of arcade sound effects (when using powerups or getting debuffs) as well as arcade music to really sell that arcade vibe. We also added lighting effects, making the environment pulse and flash to enhance the arcade atmosphere.
We playtested with both friends and professors, and ended up with a project we iterated upon 3-4 times. In the end, we got quite an enjoyable game to play with friends, taking into account the feedback that we had to make the fighting more engaging, the powerups more powerful, and the debuffs more devastating.
