Tempest Trails

Tempest Trails is a fast-paced, good looking, feel-good 2D platformer built at StormHacks. Sprint across tilemap-crafted levels, chain refined wall-jumps, and launch off “flower jump” boosts.

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Inspiration

We wanted to learn Unity from scratch during the hackathon and ship something that feels good to play. Platformers give instant feedback: tight jumps, readable camera, and a clean start flow. So we set ourselves a simple goal: build a small 2D platformer while exploring tilemaps, Cinemachine, and Unity UI in the spirit of StormHacks. The project reflects this learning focus: tilemaps + rule tiles, player movement, UI/scenes, Cinemachine follow camera, and collisions.

What it does

Tempest Trails is a fast paced 2D platformer with:

  • A Start Menu + Options (master volume) so players jump in quickly.
  • Refined player movement with wall-jump and tuned wall friction.
  • A boost “flower jump” for satisfying vertical bursts.
  • A Cinemachine follow camera with boundary confinement so action stays centered and readable.

How we built it

  • Engine: Unity + C#.
  • World: Tilemaps with Rule Tiles for fast level painting.
  • Camera: Cinemachine follow with Confiner 2D to clamp the view to the level shape.
  • Input/Player: Unity Input System, movement/animation controller, and collision.
  • UI: Main menu and Options (volume slider). Scenes wired so MainMenu loads first.

Challenges we ran into

  • Tuning wall-jumps & friction: getting “stickiness” right without feeling sluggish took iteration (hence the “fix wall jump” and friction tweaks).
  • Camera bounds: making sure the camera never shows outside the map required setting up the confiner with the right bounding shape.
  • Menu plumbing: hooking the Options panel and volume control cleanly into the gameplay flow.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Shipping a polished start flow (Start + Options) within a hackathon window.
  • Implementing Cinemachine follow + confiner for instantly better readability.
  • Adding signature mechanics (wall-jump, flower jump) that make traversal fun.
  • Learning a lot. From tilemaps, rule tiles, UI, prefabs, to collisions, all in one sprint.

What we learned

A ton about Unity’s ecosystem in a day: tilemaps & sprite sheets, rule tiles, character animation, Input System & movement, Cinemachine, UI/scenes, prefabs, and terrain/player collision. (These are exactly the skills we documented in the repo.)

What's next for Tempest Trails

  • Pause Menu (resume/restart/quit) and checkpoint/respawn to keep players in flow.
  • More juice: screen shake via Cinemachine Impulse, landing/damage SFX, subtle fades.
  • Options polish: separate Music vs SFX sliders, save settings.
  • Level design pass: a short level set that ramps difficulty and showcases the flower jump + wall-tech.
  • Music and sound effects for a more immersive experience.
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