Last Updated: 10 June 2023

Snake IO

I developed a hypercasual like Snake.io game in Unity, featuring multiple levels that increase in complexity as players progress. The game offers a simple yet addictive experience, where players control a growing snake, avoiding obstacles while trying to outsmart opponents. The different levels introduce new challenges, keeping the gameplay fresh and exciting.

Challenges

As the game progressed, several challenges had to be addressed to ensure smooth and engaging gameplay. With each new level, there were unique obstacles that required careful consideration for both the player experience and the performance of the game. Key areas that needed focus included maintaining smooth movement, balancing difficulty, and optimizing performance. These challenges had to be solved in ways that would keep the game fun and engaging while ensuring it remained fluid and responsive even as complexity increased.

Ensuring the snake’s movement was smooth and responsive as the complexity of the levels increased, especially with added obstacles and competitive gameplay.
Balancing the game's difficulty while keeping it fun was a major challenge, especially with the rapid increase in obstacles as the game progressed.
Managing the game’s performance with numerous moving obstacles in later levels while keeping the game responsive was a key challenge.

Solutions

In developing this game, there were several key challenges that needed to be addressed to ensure a smooth and engaging experience for players. These challenges involved balancing gameplay elements, maintaining performance, and providing a fun, progressive experience across levels. The following solutions were implemented to overcome these obstacles and enhance the overall gameplay experience.

To tackle the challenge of smooth snake movement across increasingly complex levels, I implemented a dynamic movement system using Unity’s physics engine. This allowed for fluid controls even as the game’s difficulty ramped up. The snake’s turning mechanics were optimized, ensuring that the movements remained precise and responsive. I also fine-tuned collision detection to prevent unnatural turns, which could have otherwise disrupted the gameplay experience.

To address the challenge of increasing difficulty without frustrating players, I designed an adaptive difficulty system. This system gradually added more obstacles, increasing both their number and frequency, while giving players enough time to react. In addition to the escalating obstacles, I introduced power-ups to help offset the spikes in difficulty, giving players a sense of progression and maintaining a fun experience.

For the challenge of maintaining performance with multiple obstacles, I used object pooling for obstacles, which significantly reduced the overhead of constantly creating and destroying objects during gameplay. I also minimized real-time calculations, further optimizing performance. These efforts ensured smooth gameplay, even on lower-end devices, maintaining a balance between complexity and responsiveness.