Calculimit
Puzzle Game
A slow paced puzzle game about using a broken calculator to craft the equations
For this project I wanted to try my hand at a puzzle game. I had the basic idea years ago for another class. The original concept had you fighting robots in a fast paced setting, akin to typing games.
When I approached the idea again, I decide to shift the structure more towards casual word games like Wordle, which I think helped with the game's pace.
For puzzle design, I went by hand personally, then later on I experimented with randomly generating them. The system generates the keys, combines them randomly, and gives the result as the prompt. The player essentially has to work backwards to figure out how the answer got there. The results were pretty random, there was nothing to scale difficulty so there was nothing stopping it from adding prime numbers and calling it a day.
I kept the option but labeled it as experimental. I still used it as a tool for me to generate levels to fill out the selection, personally curating them. This helped a lot when creating puzzles later on.
Art-wise, I branched out from my usual 16x16 limits. I took inspiration from A Little To The Left and went for a more animated hand drawn style. It was both less complex than my previous work and way more experimental for me.