'Templo Trek' is a hyper-casual mobile game I developed for mobile devices on the Unity Engine. The game was initially designed for the Con Latinidad ($30K in Prizes): Celebrating LATINX HERITAGE MONTH! game jam hosted from September 15th to October 15th, 2023.

The idea for the game was something that I played on a custom Overwatch 2 game mode called 'Infinite Staircase.' This was a mode that I and some friends got really into. I wanted to re-develop it as a mobile game. I needed a new theme since I couldn't copy Overwatch. I wanted to create a game aligned with the game jam period, so I got to work with that.

The game is simple; there are two buttons. Jump forward and Jump around. Use the jump forward button to jump to the platform ahead of you, and jump around to jump to the platform behind you. You are always moving up, and if you stop for too long or jump in the wrong direction, you fall off and have to start again.

Game Theme

So, the theme was "Tu Latinidad - Your Latinidad," meaning our heritage, culture, and traditions are part of our daily lives. They define us, from how we cook to how we speak, what music we listen to, and who our idols are. Now, I had to find a way to fit that into the gameplay that I wanted to incorporate. Fun Fact about me: I almost always have an idea for a mechanic for a game before coming up with the "lore" or theme. 

I was immediately reminded of the trips to Mexico I've been to where I would go visit multiple Mexican Landmarks. One I remember in particular was when I went to visit Chichen Itza. The whole landscape of the area, as well as the pyramids, was something to behold. I wanted to reflect that somewhat in my game, and since the pyramids have many stairs, I wanted to reflect on how it might feel to climb those stairs.

Platform Generation

So, the platform generation was something I was particularly proud of making. 

It works by initially generating the first platform of the staircase, and it has a 50 50 to go left or right. However, the following platforms have a higher chance of continuing to go in the same direction as before. That way, the platforms have a pattern instead of a random scatter. However, the further the staircase moves in one direction, the higher the chance of continuing until it changes direction, and the process resets again.

The way platforms are spawned is also handled using object pooling. This means that the creation of platforms uses a set of already initialized objects kept ready to use rather than allocating and destroying them on demand. This helps with performance with mobile devices; that way, the game feels quick and responsive at all times since the game is moderately fast-paced.