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Creating My Side-Scrolling Mobile Game

 Developing My First Side-Scrolling Mobile Game – From Concept to Creation

Hi everyone!

Today, I’m excited to share the development process behind my first major game project: a 2D side-scrolling mobile game created during my second year of university. This project was a huge learning experience for me, helping me deepen my skills in both game design and 2D asset creation.

Project Overview

The goal of this module was to design and develop a fully functional side-scrolling mobile game, complete with:

  • Playable mechanics

  • Unique environment design

  • A functional UI - menu page

  • use of modular props

  • clear goal of the game

We had creative freedom over the theme, mechanics, and visual style — which made it a really exciting challenge!

Concept and Early Ideas

At the beginning of the project, I brainstormed different themes that would work well for a side-scroller. I wanted something fun, visually engaging, and easy to control on mobile devices.

Initial Ideas:

First Idea:


Second Idea:

Third Idea:



After some sketching and feedback sessions, I decided to develop a Bakery themed game, focusing on the player takes on the role of a small cookie whose objective is to escape being baked in the oven and flee from the bakery before the shop opens for the day.

Here’s a look at my early sketches and concept art for the game 'Sweet Escape'.



Designing the Environment

I designed the environments using Autodesk Maya, Substance 3D Painter and Unreal Engine 5. I aimed for a style that would be both colourful and readable on small screens.

Key design points I focused on:

  • Bold colours that popped out

  • Simple but distinct environment layout.

  • Using trim sheets and tillable textures that saves me material


My final environment block out on Maya:

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Here’s the environment art, the textures I made and used:





Gameplay Blueprints and Mechanics

Using Unreal Engine 5, I built core Blueprints/mechanics such as:

  • Cake pop Checkpoints and countdowns

  • Brownie booster jumps (With animations)

  • Collecting items (Cookie collection)

  • Avoiding obstacles (Kill zones and fire on the oven)

  • Tracking score and lives (Counting cookies collected and countdown of lives)

I made my own fire flames for the first time using an alpha I created in Photoshop and Substance 3D Designer.

















I faced a few interesting challenges here:

  • Balancing the speed of the game to feel exciting but fair

  • Designing obstacles that were challenging without collision issues

  • Making the touch controls intuitive for mobile players

UI/UX Development
Creating a clean, simple UI was important for mobile playability.

I designed:

  • A Credits page

  • Time countdown

  • Simple health and score indicators

  • Minimalistic home screen

  • Life bar

I wanted the UI to be non-intrusive yet clear at a glance.


Final Game and Reflections

In the end, I was able to produce a fully functional, polished mobile side-scroller! šŸ•¹️
 Some highlights I'm particularly proud of:

  • Smooth character movement and animations

  • A vibrant, layered visual world

  • User-friendly UI that worked across different devices

What I Learned:

  • How important small playtesting sessions are

  • The difference between designing for console vs mobile experiences

  • How small polish touches (like sound and slight parallax) massively boost quality

If I were to revisit this project, I’d love to expand it with:

  • Improvements on prop textures

  • Power-ups and upgrade systems

  • Add an enemy AI

Screenshots of my demo:








šŸ’¬ Thank You for Reading!

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my first major solo game project!
 If you have any feedback, questions, or just want to chat about game design, feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me.

Stay tuned — my next post will dive into creating my Borderlands-inspired diorama!

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