Magnetic Square Dancing Wasteland

Magnetic Square Dancing Wasteland was the winner of the November 2013 Alpha Lab Game Jam, a game design club at Columbia College Chicago. The game was developed over a period of two days, using the Unity Engine. The theme of the game was “Delightfully Dark,” and the title was chosen by another team, using a random game name generator.

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About the Game

The game is a forward-scrolling 2.5D game. In it the player must help a mutant navigate a post-apocalyptic wasteland and reach the dance, by dodging dancing square robots. To do this the player uses two magnets to move the robots left or right. The game has three lanes, each populated by robots. When the magnets are activated, the robots are all moved one lane in the corresponding direction. When robots are moved out of the lanes, they reappear on the opposite side (ex. the robots are moved left, so the robots in the leftmost lane reappears on the rightmost lane).

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Role

This was one of the first game jams that I had partaken in at Columbia. I took on the role of designer for this project. I helped in the brainstorming session, coming up with the original idea, and helping develop it into the game. I also designed and built the first level of the game.

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Instructions

  • “A” moves all the robots on the track one space to the left.
  • “D” moves all the robots on the track one space to the right.
  • Remember, any robots that go off the side of the track will reappear on the opposite side.
  • Your goal is to reach the end of the track and reach the dance.

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