Get a Grip!
Project Information
In this short PC dexterity game, the player controls two snakes simultaneously and use their jaws to transport, combine, and deliver candy pieces into a collection bucket as efficiently as possible, following the goals at the bottom of the screen.
| Genre | Dexterity / Physics-Based Puzzle Game |
| Engine | Unity |
| Platform | PC |
| Development Period | April 2025 – September 2025 |
| Duration | 6 Months |
| Team Size | 5 Students |
| Project Context | University Project (2nd Semester, HTW Berlin) |
| Primary Role | Gameplay Programmer & Game Designer |
Project Overview
Get A Grip is a 2D physics-based dexterity game developed as part of my second-semester university project at De:Hive.
The game challenges players to control independently and simultaneously two snakes, moving their head as their bodies follow. Each snake is controlled by a joystick of the controller. The snake moves in the direction the joystick is pushed, and retracts when the joystick is pushed in the direction of its body.
With the bumpers, the snakes can grapple, transport and throw around candies of various shapes and colours popping around the level. Candies remain mobile around the head of the snake through an elastic joint, which allows for the player to build momentum to throw the candy at a distance.
The goal for the player is to gather a certain amount of candies in the bucket, the colours and shape of which are determined by the goal at the bottom of the screen.
Players are encouraged to optimize their performance and improve their completion times, with the game storing the best recorded run.
Ultimately, the challenge for the players is to understand how to throw the candies in the bucket in the first place, and then to understand what candies to merge and how in order to fulfill the goals of the level.
Some levels contain an additional level of challenge and gameplay mechanics, among which :
- Canoons: Candies falling ot the central platform would pop up again in cannons, and then be shot at full force aorund the level.
- No floor: the player should focus on their ability to catch candies mid-air and/or use the snake body as a rigid object to influence the trajectory of the candies.
- Limited amount of candies: only a few candies would pop, forcing the player to merge or get rid of candies in order to have candies of the right colour pop up.
- Bombs: After a certain amount of time, bomb candies would pop in the level, exploding where they fall and throwing candies around in their area of effect.
Main Goals
- Create a satisfying, unusual movement: having the snake feel like a real slithering tentacle-like body was a main goal to enhance the gamefeel of the controls.
- Build challenges around dexterity and coordination of the two joysticks at once.
- Make interesting levels with additional dynamics that demand adaptation from the player.
Constraints
- 2D project.
- Developed in Unity.
- Six-month development schedule.
My Contribution
- Game Design: I actively participated in the early ideation phase and contributed to design discussions throughout development. I designed game loops, built analogic protoypes for early gameplay ideas.
- Snake Movement System: our goal was to ensure that moving remained intuitive and predictable despite the technical and scripting constraints. My team and I iterated to balance gamefeel, dexterity and accessibility (especially for amateur players).
- Candy Merging System: I designed and implemented the shape-merging logic in-engine. I managed to modify the object in itlsef while preserving its interactions with other objects during and after the transformation, through scripting and iterating.
- Explosion and Merging animations through particle effccts manipulation.
- UI Implementation: Assisted with the implementation of gameplay UI elements.
- Production: maintained a calendar consistent with our deadlines and objectives, focused on our goals through development.
- Technical Support & Bug Fixing: Diagnosed and resolved technical issues and gameplay bugs.
Gallery
Gameplay Screenshots
Development Process
Different types of analog prototypings : level layout sketched, early design iteration
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