I have created a new maze game, and I am disappointed in myself.

I have created a game called, Science Search. In this game, you walk around as a scientist, trying to get materials for creating a chemical compound. This chemical compound is known as benzene. The materials that you need to collect are an iron pipe, ethyne, salt, and sodium carbonate. Once you get all the materials, you win the game. There are losing conditions as well. There are chemical spillages throughout the map, and touching them, will be an instant game over. Then the major threat, the countdown. You only have 2 minutes to complete this, if not done before then, another instant game over will occur.

When I was first designing the game, I planned it to be better than the first one that I created. But once I had heard that it was a maze game, I thought about how I had already created one. The new maze had to be related to an educational subject, which my previous one was not. I set my goals high, but sometimes something is too high to reach.

My idea was that you would go around a science lab, searching for materials. Once all the materials were found, you would win the game. Another part of it, was when the character would move around, they would face the way they are walking. The final one was to create an explosion when the countdown reaches zero, and you would lose the game. I was able to do everything, except for the third one, because of a coding issue.

Something that really drew me back was creating my own sprites for blocks. Because there was nothing I could use except for two tiles in the gallery, it was hard to make a good looking map. Like most people, I claim that I am not good at art. There is no “however”, I really am bad at art.

A problem that I had while creating it, was the point system. Each time you would reach a lab material, you would get a point. But you could get the same material again and again, for the entire game. I did this by making fake tiles. I had done this before in my previous game “Dungeon Fall“, so now once you get a material, you can’t get it again.

The game might seem difficult, but there are workarounds. If you are trying to get one material, you might find chemical spills. You could go that route, risking a game over, or you could spend a little more time, going to a safe and alternate route. This is what balances the game, which is why I will not change the difficulty.

The map in Science Search is a lot smaller than the one in Dungeon Fall. In Science Search, I had 1024+ tiles. In Dungeon Fall, I had 3200+ tiles. The difference is huge. I could have put more effort into this game, if I could make it my own. The reason I worked harder on the last one, was because I was making a different game than my classmates. But when we all had to do the same game, I felt I couldn’t do something unique and amazing. This is why I like to do things where I can make whatever I want to.

The game could be better, but I’ve decided to leave it in it’s current state. This is the final, and there was never a beta, unlike my previous game. In my own time, I’m creating a new game. This game will remain a secret until it is ready for it’s beta testing. But I would like to introduce you, to Science Search…