Chinnestre

Title Screen
Gameplay Screenshot 1
Gameplay Screenshot 3
Gameplay Screenshot 2

Inspiration

The game is primarily inspired by the deckbuilding roguelike video game Balatro, replicating its aesthetic and the idea of building upon an existing classic game. The theme for this Hackathon is Connection, so the idea of building upon Connect-4 came almost naturally.

What it does

Our project is a video game where the player has to make chains of similar colored Connect-4 chips. Chips placed at the bottom of the board begin chains of that chip's color. From there, similar colored chips that touch those chips of the same color in a chain will also be added to the chain. Only chips in a chain are scored, so the objective is to make the largest chains possible. As the player plays and progresses, they can select upgrades for chips that'll boost their score or facilitate more chains.

How we built it

We built it in the Unity game engine and Github for version control. Supplementary software includes FireAlpaca for 2D art & animations, and freesound.org and sfxr.me for sound effects.

Challenges we ran into

We often ran into Github merge conflicts from accidentally working on the same game scene or Unity prefab at the same time. In addition, neither of us have sound design knowledge so we had to find sounds online which took up a not-insignificant amount of time. Programming the game itself came with time consuming issues, namely the game's chain scoring system.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite the game's relative simplicity it is surprisingly fun, satisfying, and looks good for a game made in less than 24 hours by two people. The code infrastructure is designed to be easily expandable and follows good programming practice despite the inherent rushed nature of Hackathon projects.

What we learned

We learned how to cooperate on creating games with Github version control and the Unity game editor. In addition, our lead programmer learned how to practically apply mathematics and graph theory to video game programming, as well as efficient code organization.

What's next for Chinnestre

If we find the time, polishing the game and rereleasing on a platform like itch.io to be seen by a bigger audience is likely for Chinnestre since we've grown attached to the game over the course of its 24 hour development.