Congaline

General information

Platforms:	PC
Genres:	Puzzle, Adventure
Status:	Unreleased
Copyright holder:	Paladin Studios
Development time:	~1 week

Introduction

Congaline is a prototype that was developed internally in Paladin Studios, we worked roughly about a week on it. In congaline you play as a robot that convinces other robots (bots) to form a congaline with it. The project goal was to make a playable experience within that timespan, in order to share a build with other companies. I was responsible for the level design and programmed mechanics as well. I mainly worked together on this prototype with Ömür Can Güngören (programmer), he and Marcel Bloemendaal (programmer) set up the core of the game logic. Other involved parties were Rombout Casander (game director) and Coen Neessen (game director) who gave guidance on the design direction and Zoë van Dijke (3D artist) who offered art support.

Design process

I started out by making a list of the things that the player needed to know to be able to play the game. The list consists of the following:

• Standing on top of a pressure plate, activates that pressure plate.
• When pressure plates are activated, objects that are connected to them do something.
• You can collect bots by walking in a circle around them.

In order to to accomplish those points, I isolated the player in a starting area so that they had to interact with the pressure plate to continue. And I ensured that the player understood that they can rotate around bots by placing a half circle shaped wall behind the bot. That shape stimulates the player to circle around it. In addition there's also a UI element that fills up when you rotate around a bot.

Initially I wanted the level to have a more linear approach, because I did not want the players from other companies to get overwhelmed and get stuck. But after I got feedback that I didn't account enough for the congaline movement and that the level felt too linear, I chose to make a completely new level focused on supporting snake-like movemet. I placed various obstacles inbetween locations that the player would travel to, in order to force the player move with curves.
Furthermore I felt like the player needed another goal to work towards to in addition of growing the congaline, so I added some more height difference to the level and making the highest point of the level the endgoal.

Programmed mechanics

Unused mechanics