Train Lines

Inspiration

The game MiniMetro and it's easy going play style were a great source of inspiration.

What it does

The player uses their mouse to find the best possible path while having a limited number of tracks. Left-click to place tracks and right-click to remove tracks.

How we built it

We used a framework called Love2D and the scripting language, Lua to code everything.
Our sprites were drawn in Libresprite which is an open-source drawing software.
The music was acquired from the Creative Commons at FreeMusicArchives.com
The cloud background was from the **CC0 backgrounds pack by Stealthix **on itch.io.
The game consists of files acting as scenes which point to one another through buttons
The level files contain a grid data structure filled with tile objects. Tracks are added and removed from a stack data structure.

Challenges we ran into

Everything was done without a Graphical User Interface and that made minor changes difficult
Difficulty building the rail drawing system from the ground up and having the images be reactive to their position relative to other rails.
Learning how to use the framework.
Very difficult game logic
Inadequate sleep
Problem with making sure the graphics all fit together aesthetically.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a completely responsive rail track system!
Creating multiple levels
Not using a game engine.
With the exception of a couple background files, all of the code was written by us.

What we learned

Frameworks are great but not good for collaborating code and ideas with a team
You cannot avoid sleep. It will come for you.

What's next for Train Lines

Adding more than two stations for more complex puzzles.
Adding a timer to increase challenge.
Better graphics.

Built With

Submitted to

TigerHacks 2022

Created by

I helped with the design of the sprites used in our game, as well as contributing to the design of the levels and some game functions, which did not all make it to the final version. This was my first time using lua or love and was a good opportunity to expand my knowledge!

KeatonTerry
I also created a good amount of sprites for the game. They all didn't make it to the final cut but most of them ended up being slightly changed for the final rendition.

caleb-iliff
I taught team members how to use the framework and built the UI elements such as buttons and the main menu.
I also polished up the game for final submission.

Noah-Eben Mwasanje
I was the main contributor to the logic of the game, implementing the data structures, object creation and display, track image reactivity, etc. Nearly all of the code found in the level files was mine.

James Ferguson