Live on https://reflectiongame.github.io
Puzzle games are one of my favorite genres, and the specific idea to have bouncing light is from a board game which I saw a long time ago, where there is a piece that shoots lasers which bounce around, and mirrors are used to reflect the laser. After thinking about ideas for a while, I thought that it would be very cool to implement light and reflections into a puzzle game. Also, the nexus texture is inspired from Starcraft.
Reflection is a puzzle game where you choose to fire light from specific pieces in specific orders in order to get a light beam into the nexus. The light beams bounce around mirrors, and they can be used to destroy obstacles. There are 10 levels to complete which ramp up in difficulty.
Reflection is built in Godot, an open-source game engine. It uses Godot's Python-like programming language, GDscript. Levels were designed through the help of Microsoft Excel.
Working with new platforms obviously presents many challenges to work through, all of which I was eventually able to solve. A couple of the larger ones I ran into were that I couldn't figure out how to import custom fonts, which I eventually solved with a lot of Googling, and that I couldn't figure out why changes to the win screen function weren't working, when I realized that I was changing the lose screen function!
Overall, I am very proud of everything I have done with my project, but I am specifically proud of the way in which I implemented new levels. Following object-oriented programming principles, it is very easy for me to create new levels through inheriting from a main level class, or essentially reusing large chunks of code. All the pieces are implemented in other classes, and I only need to specify where to place them for each new level class. I am also proud of the level design. I like the way the difficulty increases and feel that they present a decent challenge.
This was the first time I've ever used GDscript, and I learned a lot about navigating through Godot to create a larger project than most which I have completed before. Many aspects of GDscript are different than previous programming languages I have used (overloaded functions are not in GDscript, which left me scratching my head for a bit as I couldn't figure out why there was an error!). I now feel much more familiar with GDscript, the Godot engine, and how they connect, and I am sure that I have the ability to create more complex projects with my new skills. Additionally, I have learned a lot about skills not directly related to programming, primarily graphics and level-design. I drew all textures and background images in paint.net, which is another tool which I had to learn to wield effectively. For level-design, I had to get creative and think about what challenges I would like to see in a level. I realized that it's best to show level features slowly and build upon them level by level. Ultimately, creating this has been a huge learning experience which I am immensely greatful for. Thank you to the Triton Hacks team for putting together such a great event!
I would like to add sound effects and better graphics to Reflection. Particles for events such as light bouncing off mirrors, destroying rocks, or making it into a nexus would also be cool! Obviously, new levels will be made as well. Maybe even new pieces will be added! I would also like to create a custom level creator.
Montserrat font by: Julieta Ulanovsky, Sol Matas, Juan Pablo del Peral, Jacques Le Bailly Dancing-Script font by: Pablo Impallari
The GitHub pages website (reflectiongame.github.io) is configured to run the game using Godot's HTML5 export feature. The MediaFire link contains compiled binaries for Windows, Mac, and Linux.