Contrast Castle

During the Global Game Jam 2022, my team of four created a 2D top-down puzzle game called Contrast Castle. The theme of the jam was “duality”, and our game explored that by allowing the player to switch between two versions of the same castle after discovering a mysterious artefact. Using this power, the player must solve puzzles and ultimately find a way to escape.

Our goal for the jam was to experiment and let everyone try something new. None of us had worked on a top-down pixel game before, so we decided to take on that challenge together. It was my first time creating pixel art, and I was responsible for designing the tileset for the environment and implementing it in Unity. In addition, I illustrated and lightly animated the menu and end screens using Unity’s animation tools, as well as handled the UI elements and their technical setup. The playable character and item sprites were designed by other members of the team.

I really enjoyed working on this project, partly because we didn’t take it too seriously and focused on having fun and experimenting rather than stressing about perfection. This made for a relaxed jam experience without any all-nighters. I also enjoyed getting to explore pixel art for the first time and taking on a bit of a technical artist role within the team.

In the end, Contrast Castle turned out to be a small, simple game, with a lot of charm. I’m proud of what we achieved in such a short time and thankful for the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone on a small scope project.

The game can be downloaded and played for free here: https://crookedcatstudios.itch.io/contrast-castle