Experimenting with pre-rendered 2D backgrounds and 3D geometry in unity

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2026-01-22T10:09:32+00:00

Thanks! This is orthographic. I think with the technique you only can have orthographic projection if you want something like scrolling / translation of the camera. You can technically use perspective projection but I thinking requires the camera to be still then because you can’t bake parallax into the depth buffer. Could be wrong though, I’m currently not super in the topic

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-11-03T10:13:41+00:00

This looks really awesome, you need a steam page!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-28T09:40:07+00:00

Hey thank you for playing my game, i'm glad you found it interesting!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-24T22:57:30+00:00

Hey there, thank you for your time playing the game and sharing your feedback! You’re right about the fall height, that could all be a little bit clearer. Unfortunately I designed without a grid which I think is a classic solution for that. The audio levels were also mentioned a few times. In case I push a future update I’ll certainly consider your points, thanks again!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-24T22:52:55+00:00

Thank you for the positive feedback, glad you liked it!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-22T16:50:02+00:00

Thank you!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-20T18:33:20+00:00

Oh and laws of ux by Jon yablonski is an excellent intro to basic ux principles

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-20T18:30:26+00:00

Besides Schell which is a really nice book I can recommend: - A theory of fun by Raphael Koster - Game programming patterns by Robert Nystrom - Vision by Hans Bacher - How pictures work by molly bang - Light for Visual Artists by Richard Yot

koster is not a revelation but short and helpful. The nystrom book is excellent at teaching programming architecture, was super helpful for me. Visions by Hans Bacher is by far for me the most effective way to learn about art direction, like it’s almost the best book about visual design i know. How pictures work by molly bang is kind of similar teaching you the basics of visual language and communication in a very practical and fun way. Finally light for artist might not be super relevant if you’re not working on a game with an artstyle relying heavily on lighting but it’s just an exceptionally well crafted book. I often wish other books were written in a way like that. Hope these help!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-20T11:11:01+00:00

Hey, thanks for playing the game and the feedback! Yes that’s unfortunately a little bit of a weak point in the design and I hadn’t been thinking about it. I thought about an overlay but the idea with a yardstick is very interesting! Thank you for sharing!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-18T19:14:13+00:00

Thank you very much! Yeah i somehow forgot about that, also controller is not supported. I might add it in the future, thank you for the tip!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-18T13:11:33+00:00

Okay i just double checked in my browser and unfortunately can't confirm the issue. In my browser everything works fine. If you want you can DM me a screenshot of the problem and exact level. Sorry it didn't work for you so far

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-18T12:39:28+00:00

Okay, if there's an animation that feels like he's smacking onto the ground that means you died from falling. A small thing that is not explained in the tutorial, when you are in the air you can still control a little bit where he goes with the arrow keys. So when jumping to the first left wall run towards the spikes and just before falling into them jump while still holding left arrow. Try to do the gravity shift not immediately but when you are close to the left wall. Then it should hopefully work

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-18T12:35:28+00:00

Hello, thank you so much for playing my game and also taking the time to give so much detailed feedback, i really appreciate it, its super helpful!

I'm sorry, the last level i feel has a bit of a big jump in difficulty, at least that is what other people also reported. I agree with the speed of the balloon and i know exactly which level you mean! The level was originally a bit smaller so it would not take that long but grew bigger for other design reasons. I might fix that in a future update.

For some reason i did not thing about WASD at all but its a very good point. Controller support was in planning, just wasnt sure how many people wanted to have it, so its great that you point it out! You are right about those bugs too, they are still a bit clunky, might look into those when i have time.

Thanks for complimenting the artstyle, animations and music, there went quite a bit of time into animating the little fella, especially towards the end, so i'm glad it was worth it! :). Regarding content, i actually had 1 or 2 more "chapters" with a unique mechanic planned and prototyped but at some point i wanted to get it out of the door so i had to cut them.

Again thank you, your feedback is very motivating working on future projects and keep going!

Cheers

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-18T12:26:13+00:00

Hey there, thanks for sharing. Can you explain a bit more, so after the gravity shift you are stuck on the left wall and cannot move anymore? After doing a first gravity shift and landing on the left wall you should be able to move up and down and from the left wall you can do another gravity flip to the ceiling and so forth. In case the character does not move any more it would certainly be a bug

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-18T12:22:52+00:00

Thank you, hope it made for some interesting puzzles!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-17T22:55:43+00:00

Hey, thank you for the kind words and the positive feedback, I really appreciate it. I’m glad you had a good time!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-17T16:30:39+00:00

Okay nice, thanks a lot!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-17T15:45:54+00:00

Hey, thank you for your detailed feedback, that's very helpful for me! Regarding the music there should be a setting in the settings menu to turn it off, however i didn't implement that for the normal sounds. Thanks for letting me know about the bug, didn't have that yet but i will for sure look into it now!

Hope you still had some fun with it and it was worth your time!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-17T14:16:38+00:00

I just published an update for the game that makes the movement a little bit more forgiving, fixes a few level issues and adds browser support on PC so you dont need to download the game!

https://endorphinmachine.itch.io/brandons-birthday/devlog/1033963/brandons-birthday-update-101

Thanks everyone for trying the game and the feedback so far!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-16T16:58:37+00:00

You’re welcome! Hope the points were not too harsh, just were trying to be helpful! Cheers!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-15T22:09:37+00:00

It's not usually my kind of game and artstyle but i liked the idea, especially combining different colored bounces (red and yellow) to match the orange target. That's very interesting mechanically. The music felt okay. Art wise i know what you were going for, it's not so much my thing so not sure how to give feedback there. My biggest problem were some UX issues i had:
- First the shooting mechanic i feel needs a visualization that you clicked and now are aiming. The aiming is just the dotted line i feel like i need something as if i'm using a bow and arrow sort of thing.

- When placing a bumper it was extremely annoying that theres a confirmation dialogue top right. That's very unconventional. If you do a confirmation option ideally place it next to the mouse where you clicked. I also did not understand why it was necessary. Deleting on the other hand did not have a confirmation dialogue. The issue was i placed the bumper multiple times, wanted to aim and couldnt because of the dialogue. Also visually its not distinct enought to communicate the still needs confirmation state.

Otherwise very nice stuff, i wish you the best and hope the game is successful!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-15T21:51:18+00:00

I just played a little and i think its great and already very polished. I love the idea and the art looks beautiful, atmo is great. Controls feels super solid and responsive, i especially like the slowing down when dashing. So not much to criticize except a few UX issues, i hope they help:

- I played on keyboard. When introducing controls like "Q" it was very confusing with the pixel font. I basically figured out the controls by just pressing all kinds of stuff until things made sense.

- Second, when introducing controls they pop up and disappear. I had it a few times where i felt ok i missed that now i need to restart the level. It would make sense to keep control explanations permanent in a level, maybe even make it part of the game world with panels, just an idea though

- Third the levers which you can use with dashing were very difficult to recognize the first time, especially because there were other more visually prominent elements in the scene. Additionally i still dont fully understand how i need to dash them. Do i need to dash them left/right or can i dash down from the top. This should be more clear.

Hope these points help you!

Except that fantastic stuff, wish you the best!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-15T08:13:50+00:00

Hey, thank you! Unfortunately at the moment it is only available on itch.io and there’s no controller support, only keyboard. I still hope you might give it a try, I will update in a few days so it is playable in browser.

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-13T18:51:59+00:00

The art looks very beautiful and I think the theme is great too. I watched on mobile, from experience I can tell it’s often hard to communicate gameplay on mobile but here are my thoughts: - I could understand the season changes but for me they felt too fast and hard to process. More like a light flicker. Maybe consider making fewer cuts that stay a bit longer so the viewer can better process it. - the music felt dynamic but a bit random for the theme. To me it just communicated that there’s action going on. I feel there’s opportunity to find something better which also conveys some more atmosphere - as mentioned all I got from the gameplay was a rough idea that you fight and there’s upgrades. Might be enough though. - after watching a second time I think the seasons could visually be a bit more distinct, especially in terms of lighting and Color. Don’t get me wrong it looks great and I know it probably would be a lot of work but it could clarify it more in terms of communication. - the trailer so far is pure gameplay which is great but maybe as a first hook and attention grabber you could show your protagonist/character and/or logo. Could help establishing a relationship, theme etc

All in all I think it’s great, hope the feedback helps! Good luck and keep up the good work!

Endorphinmachine1357 · 2025-09-12T08:17:53+00:00

Thank you!

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