I made a crossword game…

I recently made a crossword game in Unity. This was a nice bite-sized challenge and something I hadn’t really made before. Right now it’s played by 2 players on the same device (or one player if you play against yourself). I plan to add online multiplayer, matchmaking and leaderboards as well as playing against a bot at a later date. The game is designed for mobile devices but you can play (for free) via browser here: https://pure-virtual.itch.io/pure-word-play

Starting on a Skate Game…

I’ve recently started on a new Unity game. It’s a 2d skateboarding game with an infinite runner mechanic. The plan is to release on iOS and Android (and potentially PC). My goal is to have very simple one touch input. I find with a lot of mobile games that anything more than simple touch/taps adds friction to the UX (swiping, gyro etc…). The player will be able to touch/hold anywhere on the screen (no on-screen virtual buttons). One game I’m pulling inspiration from is Alto’s Adventure, simplistic (but nice) graphics and a simple control scheme (but a great “game feel”).
I’ve started playing around with the player character and adding physics using Unity’s in-built components (RigidBody2d and circle/box/polygon colliders etc…). I’ve also started playing around with SpriteShape (for the first time) for some smooth ramps/hills. The character automatically adjusts/rotates to the surface they are about to land on. At a high level, this is done by casting a ray from each wheel and if there’s a collision from at least one, the skater is rotated based on the normal of the surface they’re about to land on. If the skater is high in the air with no surface close beneath them, they will level out to their default rotation value. I’ve also implemented ollies (jumping), a manual (skating on the back wheels) and a nose manual (front wheels). The player character is a simple test Spine rig that I setup but I plan to investigate Unity’s own character/skeletal animation to see if that will suffice for this project.

You can find a video of the current progress here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLb1D1L_MLk

The next task top of mind is some basic procedural level generation. Looking forward to sharing more updates in the future!