Shift

Inspiration

Shift was inspired by multiple puzzle-platformers, mainly Thomas Was Alone and FEZ. I see Shift as a sort of hybrid, using a similar visual aesthetic to Thomas Was Alone, and gameplay inspired by FEZ's way of playing with perspective.

What is Shift?

The goal of the game is to navigate your triangle to the flashing end triangle, by moving around and jumping. This is quickly escalated in difficulty by the addition of new abilities, such as changing color or rotating the entire stage.

How it was made

Shift was built in Xcode using Swift 3. I had a bit of experience in Java beforehand, but with the help of numerous youtube videos and forums, I was able to learn the language and interface and create a project more complicated than anything I'd made before. Everything from the physics engine to the animations were created from scratch.

Challenges I ran into

There were countless challenges and roadblocks in the development of Shift, and there will certainly be many more as development continues. Some notable ones include:

• Figuring out how to draw shapes on the screen (way harder than you think)
• Discovering view controllers and scenes, and how they work
• Creating an efficient physics engine from scratch (took 3 tries)
• Using calculus to make movement smooth and not frame rate reliant

What I learned

Overall, this whole ordeal has been a great learning experience for me. Through the creation of Shift, I now feel confident in using the model-view-controller control structure, I understand and can utilize hitboxes, I have the experience of creating a game from nothing but an idea, and a whole lot more.

What's next

Shift is not completed, I consider it to be in early beta. There are still many more features and gameplay mechanics that I wish to add, and many more actual levels are necessary, as well as the mountain of polish and animation currently missing.

Built With

• sprite-kit
• swift
• xcode