Project
Xquation
Overview
This is a game made in less than one week for the Chili Code Jam #4. For this jam I made a fusion between math and a roguelike top-down arena shooter. The key feature is simple: the player can shoot bullets but can also shoot a laser beam, and the particular thing is that the player builds a mathematical function throughout the run, and the laser beam follows that function’s trajectory! (I used Desmos a lot!)
Between each wave, the player can choose from 3 functions/variables to Add, Subtract, Divide, Multiply, or Compose into their main function, this panel is called the Function Lab. X is the main variable, but I also added a variable called t for “Time”: a value that ping-pongs from -10 to 10, making the laser beam completely chaotic!
At the start of the jam I thought the theme was “Wave”, and only near the end did I notice on the Discord server that it had been updated to “Grow”. A bit unfortunate, but it still fits, a growing mathematical function works!
Gameplay
- Gameplay 1
- Gameplay 2
Math Functions/Variables
- X
- T
- Constant
- Sin(X)
- Cos(X)
- Tan(X)
- Asin(X)
- Acos(X)
- Atan(X)
- Log(X)
- Sign(X)
- 1/X
Arithmetic Operations
- +
- -
- *
- /
- Compose (wraps the main function in parentheses)
Feedback
One piece of feedback I got was to add a preview so players can see what the laser beam will look like before confirming their choice in the Function Lab. I had actually thought of that myself but ran out of time. It would definitely make the game easier to read and more fun to experiment with.
Github
You can check more in detail on my Github
What I learned
- More math