Chinkana is a simple puzzle game, where you have to find your way out of a maze-like building. There are no hazards, but different collectables and mechanisms that will require you to explore the levels with attention.
The project was made to experiment with Panic’s handheld console, the Playdate. The device is a throwback to the early Game Boy, so it brings back some of its limitations in spite of the introduction of gyroscope and the crank. On top of that, i decided to use Playdate’s Pulp engine, intended to give developers a quick start on the device. But that engine comes with its own extra limitations! So I took it as a creative challenge, and it was fun!
As always, my process starts on paper. Preferably grid paper! It made it simpler to account for the grid, pixel and colour limitations of Pulp. Everything I’d layout in paper would be very close to the actual in game results.
I also sketched the challenges of the game, which are the simple locks and mechanisms puzzles on paper and wrote much of the logic of the game before going into pulpscript.
For the sounds and soundtrack, I was inspired by my appreciation of what is know as Psychedelic Cumbia.
So, I adapted an old composition I had to match more that style of guitar playing and based sound effects on notes from that scale. Having only 4 melodic channels to use, with no mid instrument was difficult, but Pulp’s music editor was an challenge I was not expecting.
Later, I adapted two more songs from Peruvian tradition. El Condor Pasa and Virgenes del Sol.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1B59sc3clzJU65zovuIwdY?si=245154869f0b44f5
I managed to get the core game working in about a month. Then, I sideloaded it to the device and got friends and family to playtest it a bunch of times. Polishing and bug fixing in my spare time took about 6 months, but in actual hands-on time, I guess it was about 40 hours. Which goes to show how simple Pulp and pulp script is.
