Endless Mountain is a simple, relaxing snowboarding game. Just two controls, left and right arrows to turn. You score points by passing on the correct side of each slalom gate (extra points for being very close), and your run ends if you miss a gate or run into a tree.
I wanted this game to be very immersive, and I didn't want the player to feel bounded by the edge of the screen. So, I put a lot of effort into making it feel truly endless, and in fact you can explore to the sides of the trail, but you won't find much over there! Getting it all to work flawlessly was quite a challenge. To add to the experience, I implemented a changing day/night cycle, which I think turned out pretty nice. Since I wanted a very down-to-earth feel for this game, I opted for relaxing nature sounds rather than music. Don't forget to turn up the sound a bit
I spent a lot of time on the procedural trail generation algorithm. At first, I was using sine waves with randomized frequency and amplitude, but this method didn't quite have the natural, random look I wanted, so I switched to a different easing method that still allowed me to dynamically adjust the difficulty of the game. If you manage to get up to several hundred points, you'll notice the trail getting more erratic and windy, and gates getting closer together. I'm planning on tweaking the difficulty curve, as I didn't have a lot of time to test this yet. Tree spawning is another thing that took some time to get working perfectly, as it depends on the direction/angle that the trail is going. Figuring this stuff out was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.
There are a few things that didn't end up making it into the game by the deadline (for instance, a powerup that you can grab to temporarily slow down time, making it easier to pass gates precisely. I had this mostly implemented.) I would also like to expand the environment, with more interesting scenery, additional animals, a weather system, etc. I'm looking forward to improving the game after the jam, and I might even try an iOS release. I think the game would be well suited to a touch screen.
Gamejolt link:
http://gamejolt.com/games/endless-mountain/219070
