Jex in Space is a physics-based mobile runner game with a one-touch recoil mechanic and time-looped death system. You shoot in order to move. Recoil pushes you back and spins you. So with one single tap: you aim, shoot and move (based on time reflex).
My goal was to learn Unity/C# and publish a fun little game you can jump into in seconds and play in quick sessions while waiting in line or on the bus. A free game with some rewarded ads at most.
In early 2024, I set out to learn Unity and C# so I could bring my own game ideas to life. Jex in Space was my first solo project,
and it taught me not only a programming base, but also how UI gets implemented at engine level.
Looking back, I’m still amazed I built this. Code, design, UI, animations, etc. I got a lot more appreciation for developers and
sharpened my skills as a UI designer.
- Designing an anthropomorphic cat character
- Designing and editing a game trailer with no prior video experience
- Designing a one-tap control that allows you to move, aim and shoot all in one input
- Creating an immersive UI that fits the sci-fi tone (augmented HUD and holographic console)
- Making the UI scale well across different screen sizes
- Balancing difficulty across multiple screens (taking advantage of PC/Tablet screen real estate)
- In-game economy design
- Implement a weapon cooling system inspired by the one in Chicken Invaders games
- Implement upgrades for each weapon - learn how to handle and save data
You must help Jex survive hordes of rogue asteroids and space junk while adrift in space. Lose all your 9 lives and get thrown back in time to try again.
Trapped in a time bubble adds just a tad of roguelite feel to the game. You earn credits from destroying objects and use them to unlock weapons and upgrades.
I needed a cat character. One that looks friendly and fun to appeal to a younger audience but suitable for any age. I'm not a character designer, therefore, I had a really hard time making something decent looking but i kept trying and eventually i got something that i liked.
Each character parts are separated. A bowl that shatters, a face to animate, paws used to animate a reloading animation (done in Unity using a timeline).
The tail sprite actually has bones and its moving afloat using physics which adds a satisfying sense of being pushed around in space.
Character evolution
Exploring character face expressions
Early Concept
Final Design
The pawlet, a cheap trinket sold in space markets, is rumored to hold ancient power. Kara, a debt-ridden pilot entangled in space piracy and bounty hunting, picks it up and gives it to Jex. When an industrial planet explodes, Kara and a crew rush to scavenge the chaos, only to be caught in a storm of rogue asteroids. Their ship is struck and destroyed, the crew escapes in a pod, but in all that rush Kara realises too late that Jex was left behind. The energy from the ship's explosion activates the pawlet which saves his life while getting thown off the ship and adrift in space.
The entire UI consists of an augmented HUD and a console, both provided by the pawlet. The Console as a holo projection and the HUD as a neural augmentation. This allows me
to use the pawlet as an "excuse" for being able to pause the game: the pawlet has the power to stop the entropy around you.
Throughout the game i used small cat motifs like little
ears you can notice on the HUD (middle top) or even the console top tabs look like cat ears.
While a helmet augmentation is a diegetic UI, i used it as a non-diegetic UI HUD overlay. Jex doesn't necessarily sees this, is just my representation of the HUD.
You don't have to take your eyes off your character to know if your health is low because the bowl will start cracking when you have less than 3 lives left. So you can focus on the character and gameplay when it's most important. First crack tells you got 2 more lives left. Second crack tells you got 1 more life left. Then the bowl shatters. Also included a meta type of UI using a pulsing green or red screen glow when you gain or lose a life.
I designed the holo projection UI specifically for mobile portrait since that was my intended experience. But this makes it locked to portrait since on landscape mobile the holo is way too small. On bigger screens the paw coming from right hand side needs to be longer to keep the holo centered on the screen. Which is weird.
To be able to use the halo on bigger screens i made a handler script that checks the screen orientation and switches the paw with just the pawlet. This makes it so the halo is always centered on any screen size. Sure i could dismiss the paw entirely and only use the pawlet but i insisted on keeping the paw as i like the immersion it provides.
The holo is tall and made for portrait screens but i'm fine with not supporting landscape on mobile since it's not my indended experience. Although it would be nice to have a more flexible UI design so i'll keep that in mind for future projects that i might change my mind about screen and orientation support.
Multiple weapons you can unlock using earned credits. Each weapon having it's own unique projectile and upgrades such as projectile speed and cooling system.
Explosive Bullets - unlocked by default
Blue Plasma - a cold plasma that overheats slowly
Lasers - very fast with a normal overheat rate
Homing Rockets - easy to overheat but makes each target easy to destroy
Triple Red Plasma - hot, overheats fast but shoots 3 projectiles at once.
There are different types of objects constantly coming towards you. Each with different properties. They come at different sizes, different speeds, sometimes can get you overwhelmed by their number. Sometimes you must choose to lose one life in order to survive a wave.
Currently fleshing out details, fixing small bugs, improving level generation and finishing the last polishing layer.
- Get to know the Unity engine, how to make a game and learn C# to make it.
- How to use the UI system and canvases to design responsive UIs and import optimized assets.
- How hard is to design proper economy systems for a game.
- Sprite animation and sound design.
- To always backup your work even if tought unnecessary at certain times.
