Un-Paint

A 2D Puzzle Mini-game made for a Prototyping class in 2020.

Take Aways

This was my first assignment that I’ve returned to, and updated to be a fully functional game. By returning to this project, I was able to gain perspective on my growth as a designer, as well learning how to update projects that have been long since abandoned.

Un-Paint was the small game I created for my Prototyping class, where the goal of that class was to create a new prototype each week. With each week having a new design constraint and technical requirement to consider.

Un-Paint was created for the third prototype of this class, the design constraint was to make a Card Game, Crafting or Point N’ Click Adventure, and we had the technical requirement of using Interfaces. I focused on crafting as my design constraint.

Un-Paint was made in Unity in the span 6 days, and was updated from its original iteration afterwards, to include sound effects and a cleaner visual look.

Initial Ideas

Before starting the project, I first did research on various crafting games, so that I could brainstorm a unique mechanic.

My research summed up to two version of crafting games

1. Complex Crafting Systems

   1. Consisting of Survival games, that had a complex crafting schemes to directly build certain items

2. Item Production Games

   1. Had a variety of simple recipes, that all function the same

   2. Fast paced, requires the player to stay on top of crafting and their resources

I decided to pursue the Item Production genre of crafting games.

Rough Prototyping

For this stage of the prototype, I concentrated on the pure functionality of the game. I created a way for the player to “Disassemble” full-objects into component objects (Paint Jar)

This iteration also included a simple system that tasked players to combine components into new objects.

The iteration had a problem with its communication, it was hard for the player to contextualize what they’re doing.

• They had no way to understand what components that were being used

• They had no way to understand what the tools were and what they did

Returning to the Project

After completing the assignment, I put this project to rest, and hadn’t looked or considered for months. Until randomly, while looking over past projects, I consider this to be worth updating.

As a whole it was short-game, that had all its components both functional and visual, completed. Returning to the project allowed me to add new knowledge, in the form of simple UI and Sound.