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[PetterBergmar]

Amazeface is a game where you play as a magenta-colored face navigating mazes made of blocks. It is a tile based puzzle game with stylized 3D graphics. It has deliberately simple mechanics and clean graphics.

Edit:
Windows version is now released, get it at http://amazeface.com

The game is also on Steam Greenlight. If you like it, please vote "yes": http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=792804586


Mechanics

Basic movement and goal



Reach the pink goal to win. The face moves in four directions, and you can only change direction after you hit an obstacle.

Blocks

Wall It's a wall. Available in different colors.

Bouncer Will propel player or crate sideways.

One-Way Can be passed only in one direction.

Door Can be passed only when open.

Crate The face can push one crate, but not two or more.

Plates

	Button Opens a door while an object is over it, and closes it when not.		Switch Will open or close a door when the player or a crate passes over it in the right direction.		Stopper Player or crate will stop when on top of this. Player can change direction after stopping.
	Pusher When an object is over this, the player and all crates will be pushed in the arrow direction.		Teleport Will teleport the player or crate over it to another teleport.		Goal When the player reaches the goal, the level is cleared.

I have redesigned the plates since the original post:

Original post:

Who am I?

In 2006 I founded animation studio Good Motion (goodmotion.se for the curious) so animation is my day job, but in my spare time I've always dabbled in games. I started making games as a kid with Klik & Play and qBasic and now I use C# and Unity.

Current state of the game

I've been working on this game on and off for a while (since 2013  ), originally in Game Maker, but now a completely refactored version is finally coming together in Unity. All game mechanics, graphics and a level editor (Yes, the level editor will be in the game) are done. I might polish things but it's working and I'm happy with the way it looks. What's currently missing is the last 25 levels (My goal is 80 levels), some UI and packaging. Oh, sound and music needs to be done as well. Right now the game is mute.

Hope someone finds this interesting, if so please comment! Thanks for reading.

[PetterBergmar]

Mini update:

This is what the level editor looks like. You also get an idea of what a complete level looks like and what the color palette is.



Edit: Here's a GIF too.

[TheWanderingBen]

It's clear you're an animator -- the face's stretching, squishing, and bouncing looks fantastic! From the short GIFs you posted, the level editor looks easy to use, too. I'm excited to see where you can go with this concept! Good luck!

[EmilMeiton]

Remove the door, crate, button and switch and I've got an infinite level generator for you (can also be used in the level editor as a way to check if a map is solvable and presumably a value for how tricky it is)

Just as you I started on a similar game years ago and also started converting it to unity but my project lost steam

[EmilMeiton]

Oh and if you want a combination of hand placed blocks with generated ones then that's not a problem for the algorithm either 

[Screen Head Media]

I really like the games graphics and the simple concept.
The concept might not be new, but its presented in a great way 

I'm also a great fan of level editors, which allow you to create levels that look like pixelart :D

[ambo100]

Looks really cute. The jelly-like animation is really satisfying to watch and I love the level editor, it looks really simple and easy to use.

I'm also really impressed with your portfolio, I have no doubt this will be a successful game.  I can see this game doing very well on mobile platforms in particular.

[PetterBergmar]

Thank you for the kind words, makes me even more excited to finish this thing!   Telephant: That does sound really cool but I will definitely have handcrafted levels, introducing new mechanics as you progress. Also most of the levels will be made to look like.. stuff.

Will be back tomorrow with an update.

[PetterBergmar]

Hello again! I have fixed a few bugs and worked on some levels that I wanted to put in my first demo.

Here is an early version of the level editor that will eventually be in the game, along with some levels that you can try. All shortcuts should be in the menu, except these: left click to draw, right click to erase, scroll wheel to zoom in or out, use arrow keys to set the direction of a block. When you play a level with crates you may need to restart if you fail, to do so at this point you need to press Enter twice.

http://www.amazeface.com/builds/Amazeface_0.2.zip
Windows only for now, since it's made in Unity I will release it for more platforms later. If you want it for Mac or Linux right now, just let me know.

I know there are some minor bugs in there still, and some features like selections and moving are still missing. Anyway if you do try it, please let me know what you think! And if you find a bug I would really appreciate if you could report it below. Also, if you want to share a .amaze level file you made that would make me so happy!


Screenshots of some of the levels in the demo:



I will keep working on the levels and get back to you about my process and the challenges of designing this game. Thank you for reading!

[PetterBergmar]

Levels, levels, levels

Before writing about how I approach designing the 100 levels I plan to put in the game I would like to share a picture, so you can see what I look like when working on this: (Swedish parental leave ftw!)



Btw he is sleeping, I'm a good father when he's awake!

To get to 100 levels I need to create more than 100, since some turn out bad, boring, too easy or too hard. Luckily I'm in no real rush to finish it, I just want to keep a steady momentum. As you see in the picture I have a special build of the level editor/game on my Samsung note. This means I can easily pick up work on a level or start a new one whenever I have free time (read: baby sleeps).

So how do I start a level? Sometimes I have an idea of how to use a mechanic but most of the time it begins with more of a visual concept. I e a level that looks like a cat, pizza or the tigsource logo. Then I put the face and goal in there and press play. Once I have it running ideas usually pop up, and I start moving things around and add plates and special blocks. I constantly try the levels to see what works and what would make them more fun. I try to keep a good balance between visuals and gameplay, create levels that look good and also are fun to play. This is not always easy.

I don't want a tutorial in the game, or any instruction (except arrow keys to move) so now I've started to think about how each mechanic will be introduced to the player and in what order. More on this I'm my next post

[PetterBergmar]

Here's a new level. I like these kind of naive motifs...

[PetterBergmar]

Another level done. This one has the yellow "pushers" in it. They push all crates and the player in the arrow's direction. They're kind of hard to design for but fun when you play...

[sonder]

Sorry, something about the way the smiley face looks and moves is like visual nails on a chalkboard to me.  I don't care if it's meant to be ironic or not, it's just ... gratuitous

[buto]

I really love the colors and the looks of the levels.
Being able to work on levels on the couch while your baby is sleeping is a really cool feature!

Regards,
Sebastian

[Grhyll]

It looks really nice! Those hand-crafted levels are quite gorgeous
(Although I kind of agree with kidfingers, the face on the player cube is a tiny bit creepy, somehow.)

[PetterBergmar]

Thanks guys! Regarding the face - yeah it is sort of meant to have a kind of insane smile and obnoxious colour. I realize this will not please everyone, and neither will the game. I guess the face is heavily influenced by Terry C's VVVVVV. How it animates I'm very happy with but maybe you have to play to really feel it?

Anyway thanks for your comments. Since I'm mostly making the kind of game I like there will definitely be a lot of people who don't like it, but as long as a few do I'm very happy.

Working on the map now. I haven't decided if I want to make a simple super meatboy-ish map or one that actually plays like one of the levels with the same blocks and plates..

[PetterBergmar]

Still haven't decided on what kind of world map I want. Finished some new levels though, I now have 20 finished levels! About half of them are easy and the other half range from difficult to very difficult.

[sonder]

Thanks guys! Regarding the face - yeah it is sort of meant to have a kind of insane smile and obnoxious colour. I realize this will not please everyone, and neither will the game. I guess the face is heavily influenced by Terry C's VVVVVV. How it animates I'm very happy with but maybe you have to play to really feel it?

K.

[PetterBergmar]

I wanted to write a little about my influences when making this game. Here are some games that have been on my mind:

Tetris on Game Boy was the first video game I ever played. I was hooked right away and has played it ever since. While it doesn't play like my game (Tetris is more action than puzzle) it inspired me to make something simple and block-based.

Kwirk on Game Boy. I just like this type of game..

Adventures of Lolo series on NES was one of my favourites as a kid, and I still love it. It inspired me to make something maze-like.

Goof Troop on SNES. The puzzle aspects of this game have been on my mind, though the memory of it is a bit blurred.

Pullblox/Pushmo on 3ds. I played this after I started making this game but it has still been a source of inspiration.

Braid Yeah, I know, entirely different game but it taught me a lot about puzzle design.

VVVVVV I love this game. It's not a puzzle game but it still inspired me in ways that are hard to describe..


I have a couple more levels done. Soon I must start working on that world map...

[PetterBergmar]

'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', work in progress.. The levels will look childish and colorful, but don't be fooled, this will not be an easy game. After some early levels that teach you the mechanics it will become increasingly challenging and by the end very difficult. I probably limit my audience by making a cute but hard game, but as I've mentioned before my goal is not to please as many as possible. I want to make the kind of game I like, and then hopefully those with similar taste will like it a lot.