Genre: Casual 2D Puzzle Game

Features: Upgrades, Achievements.

Project started on: April 11th 2013
Project completed on: April 14th 2013
Approximate time spent on project: 15 hours

My goal with GridDrill was to learn how to use basic Unity functions such as drawing things on-screen, using UI elements such as Buttons and ScrollViews and things like that. Everything in this game is very simple, there are no complex animations and the music was taken from existing games.

That being said, an exhaustive achievement system and upgrades available after each levels are completed was added in order to complement the basic systems of drilling blocks and clearing levels.

Screenshots

About the game

The Goal of GridDrill is simple, get the treasure locked at the bottom of a grid of various tiles. To unlock the last row of each map, you need to collect a number of keys scattered across the grid. After you've collected all the keys, the row is unlocked and you can attempt to find the treasure. Along the way, you'll find other helpful things such as money and more oïl to help you drill some more. Monsters and hard blocks will hinder your progression as well.

Controls

Left/Right: Move GridDriller to the left or the right, if there are blocks in that direction, you will move them at a small oil cost. You can't move blocks if there are metal blocks in that row.
Down (hold): Drill down. By doing so, you destroy most blocks at a rate showed by a percentage above GridDriller. Some blocks are made out of metal and require twice the drilling to get through.
- If you go to the bottom row of the screen, you will be warped back at the top.
Spacebar: Pings your radar, you have a limited number of radar use. Radar pings reveal squares all around your character.
Mouse: Nagivate the menus, buy upgrades, collect rewards from achievements, pick levels.

Type of squares you can find

Money: Gives you some money, money is used to buy upgrades that get unlocked after you beat levels.
Oil: Allows you to drill longer without failing.
Radar: Gives you an extra radar ping to be used in that level.
Hint: Reveals the location of one key. If all keys are revealed, the hint will move you closer to the column where the chest is.
Bomb: Blows up a whole row. Doesn't destroy chests and keys.
Jump: Makes you jump up until you hit a block
Shuffler: Shuffles the whole grid around
Hard Block: Takes twice as long to drill, prevents you from moving rows
Monster cage: Releases a monster in the row below, the monster will kill you if it hits you sideways, you can kill the monster by drilling down on it.
Key: Collecting all the keys in a level unlocks the bottom row of the grid. Collecting all the keys also refills some of your oil.
Chest: The goal of each level is to collect the chest, you get some money when you do so.

Achievements

The achievements in GrilDrill are tiered and based on simple tasks you perform in the game. Some of them are more obscure than others, but otherwise they are all straightforward and should be possible to accomplish simply by playing the game a lot.

Drill 1/10/100/1000/5000 blocks
Collect 1/10/100/1000/5000 money/oil/radar/jump/hard blocks/shufflers/bombs/hints/monsters/keys
Get to level 10/20/30/40/50/60/70/80
Use 1/10/100/1000/5000 radars
Warp back up 1/10/100/1000/5000 times
Finish a level by drilling exactly 1/7/49/65/90 times
Play 1 minute/1 hour/6 hours/24 hours
Buy 1/10/50/100/135 upgrades
Kill 1/10/100/1000/5000 monsters with bombs
Get 1/10/50/80 achievements
Play the game 2/5/10/20/50 times

Upgrades

The upgrades affect various aspects of the game. Some are simple stat-boosting upgrades that only have numerical effects but some have more deep and meaningful changes to the whole gameplay of GridDrill.

Increase drilling speed (6 upgrades)
Chance to not spend oil when moving sideways (5 upgrades)
Increase the number of radars you start with (5 upgrades)
Increase the value of money collected (4 upgrades)
Increase the value of oil collected (4 upgrades)
Chance to survive monster collisions (5 upgrades)
Increase the money you get by killing monsters (5 upgrades)
Chance to survive running out of oil (5 upgrades)
Chance to not spend radar pings when you use them
Increase the money reward at the end of a level (4 upgrades)
Gives you free drills at the beginning of a level (5 upgrades)
Increase the value of radars collected (3 upgrades)
Chance to break blocks above you when jumping (3 upgrades)
Increases rewards from achievements (4 upgrades)
Adds more jump/coins/oil/hints/radar/bombsG blocks to the grid
Unlocks the fake and true ending (7 upgrades)
Increases your starting oil on already completed levels
Gives bomb a chance to give you money for each block destroyed (5 upgrades)
Decreases the cost of upgrades (4 upgrades)
Chance for hard blocks to be destroyed immediately (4 upgrades)
Chance to drill really fast (5 upgrades)
Chance to get two hints at once
Chance to spend less oil when drilling (3 upgrades)
Increases gold reward from levels already completed (6 upgrades)
Chance for bombs to clear more than one row (6 upgrades)
Allows the player to press UP to warp randomly, consuming oil
Makes hard blocks give money when drilled
Makes destroyed monster cages give money
Slow down the initial shuffling process (4 upgrades)
Increases reward if the level is completed quickly (4 upgrades)
Increases starting oil if the player just died (4 upgrades)
Increases the range of the radar
Chance for your radar to reveal blocks (2 upgrades)
Makes the drill build-up power when the player is not drilling
Adds floating number to everything
Adds a scrolling ticker for achievements close to being completed
Increases the value of oil, money and radars if the player is low on them
Removes hard/monster blocks from the grid
Chance for blocks destroyed by monsters to give their effects to the player
Bombs now explode in a cross shape
Chance for the drill to drill more than one block at once