Project Pace started as a reimagined 3D version of the tabletop dexterity puzzle Ball-in-a-maze; 1 month into development, it became something quite different.
Players use their mouse to tilt the board and move the ball, while using the keyboard and mouse-buttons to jump and attack. The original ball-in-a-maze concept was to include different obstacles and traps. The drastic change in our game’s direction started when I built an obstacle that would charge at the player when they enter a certain range, and that obstacle became the seeker enemy. My teammates and our playtesters loved that new dynamic; it opened the door for more combat-oriented gameplay, and to what the game is now. The code for the original seeker enemy became the inherited behavior for all enemy types, available here.
Each level was first drawn up before it was built in the editor. See the additional images for an example of the mockup.
To play “Project Pace”, you can download it for Windows and Mac.
