Quintessence

Channeling the cosmic forces of the universe through an alchemy table, align the celestial bodies to change the lead into gold.

Overview

In 2013, while studying abroad in Montreal, Canada, my friends and I participated in the GAMERELLA Game Jam. The theme was simply the word "Alchemy" and our group set out to create a simple puzzle game within the 48 hour time constraint. As alchemy, historically, has been referred to as the changing of different metals into gold, we decided to explore that possibility. In the end, we came up with this simple spatial puzzle game.

As is my design philosophy, simplicity and elegance were our motivations for many of the aspects in this game. To that effect, the board space fits entirely on screen, the game can be played with only a mouse and the up and down arrow keys, and the solution to the puzzle is displayed on screen, as well. By doing that, the game became less about finding the location for each marble and, instead, about maneuvering them around each other.

Around each of the marbles is a planet-like silhouette, each with varying radii that may or may not extend into other rings. Because of this, the player cannot simply move each piece one at a time and must consider how planetoids being placed would interrupt their attempts later on. Once each marble was put into their place, the metal under the candle would turn into gold and the player would progress to the next level.

Intent

Our initial goal was to keep it simple because we had, at this point, limited experience in coding. Once we began work on our delegated tasks, however, I soon found myself 'finished.' For the rest of the project, my roles included general debugging orcode-helping for my friends as well as polishing the game's aesthetic (with shaders, particles and post processing effects). We soon found ourselves making something of a relaxing and atmospheric experience.

My Work

Our team was composed entirely of Game Designers and, of us, I was one of the stronger scripters. Because of this, I had my hand in almost every piece of code that went into Quintessence , be it the writing of the code itself or helping my teammates think through the problem's logically. Otherwise, these were my primary responsibilities:

Postmortem

After the grueling 48 hours, our game was received very well. Of the dozens that were at the event, many commended us for the beauty and calming nature of our game. One woman even approached us after the event and thanked us, saying that our game helped alleviate her of her anxiety while she played. The judges based their decision of each game on certain awards they were giving out, and we were awarded the title of "Most Relaxing Game."

Not only that, but one of the judges, after seeing both our work ethic and prowess, contacted the Assistant Director of the Montreal campus to coordinate an internship for myself and one of my other group members. We were, at the time, fairly new to the Unity Engine and and there are a number of bugs in the game. However, given the time constraints and our skills at the time, the game came out far better, and more beautifully, than any of us anticipated.