Puzzle and Level Mechanics - Ice

Similarly to the Forest section, the Ice section has several small puzzles incorporated into the levels design. As well as a few small level mechanics that have been implemented to create more of a challenge and to give the game more depth.

The first things that were done was to script and implement the less complex mechanics; the moving platforms, water level and the breakable ice platforms. These were fairly simple to get done as for the most part they consisted of just controlling the position of each object and moving it accordingly. Below is a screenshot of the breakable ice platform in action:

Another key mechanic in the game was the falling icicles. These are environmental hazards that are triggered to fall from the ceiling when the player walks below them.

This has been achieved using a combination of trigger colliders and raycasting. The raycasting has been used to fire a ray directly down from the source icicle to detect whether the player has walked underneath the icicle. Once this trigger has occurred the icicle will begin to fall. It has two triggers attached that will execute the code to "kill" the player if the two collide. 

Similarly to the falling icicles that are hazards, we also have another special type of icicle that allows the player to wall jump from them to progress to the next section of the level. The code for these is effectively the same, however they will not harm the player. The wall jump icicles are also part of a slightly bigger puzzle. They have been position too high to reach normally, so to reach these the player has to interact with the environment to free a block of ice that can be position to give you a height boost to reach the icicles.

The final and most complex puzzle in the Ice section of our game is the torch and ice wall puzzle. This puzzle consists of four main elements. Two collectables (a stick and some flint), a torch and a wall made of ice. The player will collect the flint and stick during their play through and will eventually come to a wall that is blocking their way. Using the stick and flint the player can light the torch next to the wall which will melt it, allowing them to progress.

The effect of the wall melting has been achieved by manually modifying the walls scale and positional values. This gives the impression that the wall is shrinking. In the final version of the game particle effects will be used to create steam to improve the visual aspect of the puzzle.