Mark Radocy
In April 2022 I formed the game development company Seafloor Games LLC and will be continuing development there: Seafloor Games LLC - itch.io. The game Vision Soft Reset has been transferred to that account as well.
Below are some thoughts I have on VSR and a few other games I've made.
Vision Soft Reset is a 2D metroidvania where you can see the future. You can rewind time to fix mistakes in combat and solve puzzles, perceive events a second before they happen, and create different timelines to explore different outcomes. This game was a significant step up from my previous projects in terms of scope and quality, as well as being the first game people paid money to play. It was also my first game made in the Unity engine, and while I like to explore other technologies and frameworks Unity has since become my engine of choice for game development.
The Braid-inspired time reversion was an interesting technical challenge. Positions, velocities, and other custom properties of objects all had to be saved each frame to make reversing time possible. There were other issues to be addressed as well. For example, bullets had to be hidden after hitting something instead of being destroyed - because they had to come back into existence if the player rewound time back to when they were shot. This feature had to be considered with nearly every other aspect of the game, which made development lengthy and annoying at times. All this for a feature that most players didn't even really like that much - the game didn't make much use out of it either. I may revisit some ideas presented in this game in future projects, but I never want to implement a feature like this again if I can help it, it's really not worth the trouble.
The feature I'm most proud of is the time tree system, an innovative mechanic that lets players make their own timelines to help them explore the island in different ways before time runs out. It's a puzzle mechanic that deals with route optimization on a large scale. It was a huge relief to find that, even if they didn't enjoy the mechanic, most players still understood it and the direction the game was going for. Even better is that many players did seem to enjoy it, citing it as the most notable and memorable feature. This aspect meshed very well with the reasons why I enjoy metroidvanias in the first place: they're essentially giant Zelda-like puzzle dungeons, or concise adventure games without the extra padded fluff. The time tree system meant that players would be replaying earlier sections often, so tight and efficient level design was essential for the game to not feel repetitive. And while metroidvanias are a dime a dozen these days, especially in the indie space, it's weird that so many appear to pride themselves with how long and expansive they are, which is like the exact opposite of their appeal to me. I think that, even without the time stuff, VSR felt refreshing to many players for this reason.
This is a Unity side-project I worked on while Vision Soft Reset was in development. Ultimately I cancelled the project because it just wasn't very fun, but it was a great opportunity to test out new ideas. These include rough implementations for larger more complex boss fights, camera triggers, and dynamic fluid rendering using metaballs. The most important goal was improved collision resolution made especially for a platformer. This involves an extra step in-between Unity's FixedUpdate calls and internal physics resolution that resolve collisions in a way that's more expected of a platformer, rather than something like Angry Birds. As a result, actors move on slopes and transforming platforms more sensibly.
Cartesian is a game where you solve puzzles by reflecting lasers, completed during my junior year in college. It's made in JavaScript (somehow, today I don't consider myself proficient in JS at all) using the Phaser framework. One cool feature is that this game can be fully played in-browser, similar to old Flash games. I've worked on other projects before Cartesian too, but I don't think they're worth showing. Besides most of them are Flash applications, there's a good chance you won't be able to run them anyway!
Not too much to say about this game. I remember being pretty satisfied with the level design, that's about it. I also made all the in-game art myself, which I won't be doing again anytime soon.
