Orion is a puzzle game inspired by the act of stargazing from sunset to sunrise. It is a work in progress. This is the status of the game after four weeks of development. It was made in Unity for CS 248 (Interactive Computer Graphics) at Stanford. It will be released for iOS in Spring 2018.
Players create constellations, trying to get the longest distance between stars, forming loops to get bonuses, and using power-ups — based on references to space in pop-culture — to increase their score. The only rule, much like with actual constellations, is that paths between stars do not intersect.
All elements of the game were made by the artist with and without the help of online tutorials. This includes art — including animations — design, and engineering.
The game is intended to be minimal, simple, beautiful, and meditative.
Remaining work to be done: optimization of the points system, more modes of the game, a few new power-ups, more visual and haptic feedback, as well as accessibility modes.
Below: animations used in the game. From top down: The Monolith (powerup), The Sputnik (powerup), The Supernova (powerup), and Stars.
