Project Overview
10 Second Worries was created for Ludum Dare 51 with a small team. The game placed 393rd overall and 161st in fun out of about 2000 games submitted.
In the game, the player must manage the various systems of a space ship to prevent it from exploding. With the "help" of a friendly AI, the player is faced with multiple issues on a time limit.
We settled on this game idea not only because it sounded hilarious, but also because it would challenge everyone involved to try new things.
UI Challenges
Working with UI in Unity was a weak point of mine, so I decided to make the entire game in UI. Everything the player sees and interacts with is some form of UI. This forced me to learn a lot of little tips and tricks when it comes to designing ui.
Having the game's main mechanic in UI form caused me to make sure that UI interactions felt smooth and enjoyable. Every time a play tester complained about the lever, it went through iteration or two in order to hone in the perfect feel. The difference from the first version to the final showed me how powerful something as simple as a UI lever can be.
Another important part to the design of this game was player feedback. The first two days of the project was spent creating the game systems, while the last day was spent adding sfx, lights, music, specific voice lines, etc. That last day of the project made the game feel so complete. Implementing this feedback through UI was a new challenge for me that forced me to learn new things about UI in Unity such as the ins and outs of buttons.
Dialogue System
The dialogue system was another first for me. Going into the project, I had some good ideas on how to implement it; however, we quickly faced some issues. In order to ensure a fluid dialogue, we needed lines to cut in when necessary and overwrite filler lines. The problem with that was some lines needed to not be cut off. The final product works, but I was already itching to start from scratch to make an advanced priority system.
While I didn't have the time to create an advanced system for voice lines, I will continue to hold onto that knowledge as it can be applied in other situations such as a dialogue system where characters react to the player's actions similar to a game like Hades.
