For the last couple of months, I’ve been quietly (or not so quietly, if you follow me on Twitter) developing a Flash game. Like a lot of software developers, games were what made me want to start programming in the first place. Finally, after getting a little burnt out and needing a bit of a break, I decided to spend some time focusing on making writing code fun for me again. After about a month and a half of exploration, I finished my first Flash game, and it’s called Chroma Circuit.
The basic idea behind Chroma Circuit is that, in each level, you need to match up colors on neighboring elements. Generally, this is done by rotating them, but some other mechanics are introduced later on. The game works a lot like a jigsaw puzzle, in a way, if a bit faster paced. You need to align the colors for every element on-screen before you can advance to the next level. To rotate an element clockwise, you just click it with your mouse. Hold shift, and it will rotate in the other direction. Several of my testers independently called it “addicting”.
As the game progresses, levels contain more and more elements, and new elements are introduced over time. Three- and four-sided elements that may be rotated are the most basic types that appear when the game first starts. Later, transfer elements change colors and pass colors to different parts of the level to test the player’s spacial memory. Finally, in the last several levels, a new “bomb” element is introduced. Bombs must always match the colors of their neighboring elements, or they will explode, and you’ll be forced to restart the level.
The game contains 18 hand-crafted levels that I spent a lot of time tweaking and play-testing. I had so much fun putting it all together (especially the number of mathematical challenges required to draw the elements programmatically!), and I’m excited to get started on my next game. Chroma Circuit can now be played on my Bowler Hat Games company site, and at various distribution partners across the web. If you think it’s fun, please share it with your friends!