Polar Platformer

This is a small demo exploring what a platforming game could look like in polar space. It is programmed in Java using the Processing framework.

I made this demo as part of a monthly four-hour hackathon put on by my college’s makerspace. I felt inspired by a game named Hyperbolica, a puzzle game that has the player navigate through a simulation of non-euclidean space, and I wanted to do something on a smaller scale that captures a similar sense of mezmeration.

Initial sketch of my idea

My favorite part of this project (and coincidentaly the most challenging) was the formula I derived to describe the relationship between the depth of the platforms and their radius when rendered to the screen. I knew that I didn’t want that relationship to be linear; there would be no illusion of depth and only very few platforms would be visible to the player at a time. I settled on relating the radius to the square of the depth below the player. (Scaled and translated with constants)

Function used for rendering the platforms

This has the effect of making the rate of change large initially but much smaller as the platforms move further below the player. This allows the player to see platforms that are far beneath them without distorting the platforms they are currently interacting with.

The resulting visual effect

Polar Platformer won Most Popular at Hackberry’s September 2024 hackathon! I am very happy with how it turned out and I am planning on developing out this idea more in my off time.