Thermal Trailer [Video]

This student-made game was created in Fall 2024 by students in Cohort 34, as part of SMU Guildhall’s Team Game Production I curriculum.

Thermal is a 2D, top down, action-adventure mobile game. Themed around an alien organism, Thermal highlights the use of thermal energy to travel around outer space and to look for your lost children. Enemies will block your path to make your mission harder. Over the course of 10 weeks, our team of an artist, two level designers, and two programmers, created the game design, made all the art assets, programmed the gameplay systems, laid out levels, and continually balanced the feel of the game to make a fun and engaging experience.

We chose the central theme of thermal energy because we liked the idea of heat being a resource. Using it for health, movement, combat, as well as other key game mechanics, Thermal becomes an intricately balanced game where every decision has meaningful positive or negative consequences. Also wanting to create a unique visual style, the theme of Thermal allowed us to explore a colorful and abstract look to our game. We are especially proud of the visual conveyance of heat in our game. Because heat served as the central resource to the game, we knew that every art asset needed to reinforce the player’s understanding of their relationship with heat. With bright, colorful, shifting colors and flowing movement of shapes, we wanted to give the player the feeling that they were looking through a thermal filter while adding our own personal style. Additionally, we created systems to dynamically adjust these colors both as a representation of the player’s health, but also to reinforce feelings of calmness or stress depending on what the current game situation called for.

Being hands on within Unity while experiencing a simulated production pipeline, each of us were able to grow in our experience in our respective roles while practicing communication and coordination between different skillsets. We are incredibly proud of our game, Thermal, and thankful for the skills we learned through the time making it.