Coolor

Room with large stone walls, looking at six colored cubes. From left to right, they are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. On the right, you are holding a black gun with two blank white cubes on it.

Project Summary

Coolor is a short puzzle game inspired by The Talos Principle and Portal, built around placing and mixing colors. The final game takes about 10-20 minutes to play through, and consists of five levels.

My Contribution

For this game, I was working alongside four other Computer Science majors, and so we all shared the task of writing the code for the game, as well as working on some of the visuals.

Some of my specific contributions include:

  • Developed an crosshair for the HUD that shows the color makeup of the object you're looking at using a Raycast.
  • Integrated features that my teammates had developed, allowing them to interact with each other.
  • Created the first person player controller with the ability to walk, run, and jump.

Accomplishments

I would say our main accomplishment was creating a robust and polished experience. Our puzzles were designed to prevent cheats and exploits, and we made efforts in our code to make certain glitches impossible.

Additionally, our team had some issues collaborating and organizing ourselves, but we did eventually overcome them.

Personally, when our team had conflicts, I think I did well at resolving those conflicts and ensuring that every member of our team had a fair say in our final product. This is what I am most proud of from this project.

Shortcomings

I would say our biggest shortcoming for our project was our overall organization and teamwork. We didn't spend enough time coming up with clear plans and schedules, and at times there were conflict and drama. Some members of the team probably ended up having too much say in the final product, and some probably ended up having too little.

What I Learned

The most valuable things I learned during this project pertain to working with groups:

  • If someone in your group is problematic (i.e. too controlling), address it early instead of letting it simmer. It's okay to ask your professor (or boss) to help you with this.
  • Always create clear plans, and delegate responsibilities clearly. Even if your teammates insist that it's not necessary.
  • Don't be overly attached to your own ideas and code, just focus on what is going to be best for the project, even if it means getting rid of your work and replacing it with someone elses.

Future Goals

Sometimes, I can be a little bit of a perfectionist. Going into this project, I knew that I had more knowledge on Unity than my groupmates, and so I made a purposeful effort to not be controlling and let my teammates take the reins a little bit.

This project gave me great perspective on the difference between being a leader and being a dictator when working on a project. In the future, I would like to strike the balance and be more of a leader: encourage us to plan, schedule, and delegate. At the same time, I don't want to be quick to shut down the ideas of my teammates.