This project was my first game jam. I just came back from my first Game Design class and I wanted to apply my new knowledge, especially with Unity. A simple platformer seemed the best to begin with, and I liked the idea of powers linked to colors. Soon enough, with the help of my best friend Alex, the idea of Gray was born.

We first imagined all the color-mechanics we could use. We generated tons of different ideas, but tossed the ones we couldn't make for our two-week deadline for the game jam. We kept it simple, and re-used a lot of previously crafted pieces of code. We chose these color-mechanics to start with:

• RED: Red blocks makes you jump to a precise location !
• ORANGE: Press space to jump !
• YELLOW: Touch a yellow platform to activate it !
• GREEN: Run on green platforms to swing them !
• BLUE: Blue blocks are tunnels !
• VIOLET: Violet circles are teleporters !

Then came the level design. Our constraint was that the game should be finishable in ten minutes. It was barely doable, but still. I wanted the players to experience frustration, difficulty, but ultimately, to succeed by persevering and trying over and over.

I first imagined a very flat level:

After starting to implement it, we realised that it was very linear, and boring to go back and forth to explore new possibilities. We tweaked the level, putting areas above others, letting the player a bit guided but not too much: they'd have to explore the whole level at the end to find the exit (see picture below).

We didn't manage to get selected by the jam's organizers, but this project is very important to me: it is the first I ever made as a game designer. I had an experience in mind, the one of a difficult (and somewhat frustrating) platformer game, that the player would quit or try again and again until completion.