Level Design

This project initially started as a small, physics based 2D platformer in which the player guided a ball through hazards. At some point I accidentally connected the code controlling the ball to the level itself, and found that concept of rotating the level to be a lot of fun. From there, I redesigned the project from the ground up to be about this concept, with the player being able to rotate the level and control the ball at the same time. It ended up less of a game and more of a fun toy, but designing a level that can work in 360 degrees of rotation was an interesting challenge.

The player starts in a neutral area so they can get to grips with the controls. They rotate the stage with up and down on the arrow keys, and move the ball with left and right. From here, they can head in three directions. To the right are some tight mazes, where the player can bounce the ball off of walls while rotating the stage to reach the other side. Going left branches off into two more directions. Down left is another maze, but this time including red squares that will obscure the player's view of the ball. Up left leads to a straightaway where they can gain a lot of speed followed by an obstacle laden corridor. The player can also turn the level upside down to head straight up form the start, where they can encounter more red blocks as well as moving yellow blocks to bounce off of.

Each section is designed to loop back around to the central hub in multiple ways, with every "entrance" also possibly serving as an "exit. There are areas focused on just bouncing around and others where the player needs to be more considerate about their movement. There are no hazards, however, so the player can explore at their leisure and just have fun. Designing sections that could work at any rotation was a fun challenge in and of itself, and I think it turned out great.

You can play it in your browser right here: https://gravity-queen.itch.io/ball-physics-game