Welcome to Protect the Blue Rectangle!

Hi everyone, welcome to Protect the Blue Rectangle!

This is one of my first prototypes that I'm showing off on itch, how exciting!

I just wanted to write this devlog to tell you about this project, what went into making it in its current state, and where I see this project going forward.

I always had an interest in physics and sports, so cricket was naturally very interesting to me. For some reason, it was satisfying to see a bowler hit the stumps and the bails go flying off into the distance. I wanted to take the experience of being the batter in that situation and apply it to this weird space where blocks are constantly threatening to knock down a blue rectangle. Why is it blue? It just sounded cool. 

Getting the physics just right was a little bit difficult, because in while projectiles will bounce off of walls and the bat standing still just fine, when the bat is in motion, objects didn't bounce off the bat in a satisfying or expected way. Also, you couldn't lift blocks off the ground, as they would just phase through the bat. It took a while to get it right, but thanks to some time (and a lot of math), you can finally launch things away like you would a regular bat!

I also decided to make this a level based game instead of an "endless runner" type game. I feel levels can help me be a bit more creative in the various ways to protect the blue rectangle.

Things are kept bland for now because I haven't fully decided what the visuals of the game should be, but I'm thinking this would be a very pixel-ish game, set in a futuristic box of some sort.

As you can tell, I made this game to be pretty chaotic, and that's just the first level. Over time, I'm planning to add even more chaos to the game, as well as new shapes and projectiles. Ideally this would be a game that you can play when you're looking to kill some time. I'm also looking to make some additional music to various levels, as well as make an endless mode that gets progressively harder the longer you play.

There's a lot to look forward to for me, and I'm excited to keep working on this prototype and eventually make it into a full-on time-sink. But for now, I'm pretty proud of what I made so far!

Enjoy!

- R, Duckling Interactive