One Rule A Day Game

One Rule A Day

Every day, the rule changes.

Project Overview

One Rule A Day is designed around a simple but replayable idea: the player faces a different rule every day. Instead of only testing platforming mechanics, the game challenges the player to understand the daily constraint and adapt their movement strategy.

The project includes five rule-specific levels. A daily loader scene selects the level using the current day of the year, which allows all players to receive the same daily challenge. Each level is built around one core rule, and breaking the rule immediately triggers a failure state.

This project was developed as a team-based Unity mobile game project. It demonstrates gameplay scripting, modular Unity component design, mobile UI interaction, 2D physics, scene management, and event-driven rule logic.

Key Features

Daily rule-based gameplay rotation
Five rule-specific 2D platformer levels
Android mobile touch controls
Keyboard input support for testing in Unity Editor
Player movement, jumping, landing, facing direction, and respawn logic
Event-driven rule violation system
Win and fail triggers
Pause, hint/rule, restart, win, and fail UI panels
Background music and sound effects
Walking dust, landing dust, and fail flash visual effects
Android native share functionality for sharing completed challenges

Gameplay Rules

Rule	Description
No Jumping	The player fails if they jump.
No Moving Left	The player fails if they move left.
No Stopping	The player fails if they stop after movement begins.
Only One Jump	The player may jump once; any additional jump causes failure.
Reverse Controls	Left and right movement controls are reversed.

Rules rotate through a five-day cycle using the current calendar day.

Tech Stack

Engine: Unity 6
Language: C#
Platform: Android
Systems Used: Unity 2D Physics, Unity UI, TextMesh Pro, Scene Management, AudioSource, Particle Systems

Technical Implementation

Daily Level Loading

The project uses a DailyLevelLoader script to select the active level. The selected level is based on DateTime.Now.DayOfYear % numberOfLevels, creating a simple daily rotation system. A manual override option is also included for testing specific levels in the Unity Editor.

Rule Management System

The RuleManager controls the active rule for each level. It connects to the player through events such as:

OnJump
OnMoveLeft
OnStop
OnLand

This event-driven structure separates the player movement code from the rule-checking logic. As a result, movement remains reusable while new rules can be added more easily in the future.

Player Controller

The PlayerController handles:

Horizontal movement
Jumping
Ground detection
Touch input
Keyboard input
Reverse control mode
Facing direction
Respawn behavior
Game-over input locking

The controller supports both Unity Editor testing and Android mobile gameplay.

UI System

The UI system includes:

Rule text display
Rule/hint panel
Pause panel
Fail panel
Win panel
Restart buttons
Mobile movement and jump buttons

The HUDController manages game states such as playing, failed, and won. When the player wins or fails, the game pauses and displays the appropriate panel.

Audio and Visual Feedback

The project includes several feedback systems to improve the game feel:

Background music loop
Walking sound
Jump sound
Landing sound
Win sound
Fail sound
Button click sound
Walking dust particles
Landing dust effect
Fail screen flash

Project Structure

OneRuleADay/
├── Assets/
│   ├── Animations/              # Player animation controller and clips
│   ├── Audio/                   # Music, player sounds, and UI sound effects
│   ├── Prefabs/                 # Environment, player, UI, VFX, and SFX prefabs
│   ├── Scenes/                  # Main menu, daily loader, and rule-specific levels
│   ├── Scripts/
│   │   ├── Audio/               # Music and sound effect managers
│   │   ├── GameUtilis/          # Level triggers and moving platform logic
│   │   ├── Player/              # Player controller, animation, and audio scripts
│   │   ├── Rules/               # Daily level loader and rule manager
│   │   ├── UI/                  # HUD, pause, menu, touch controls, and sharing
│   │   └── VFX/                 # Visual effect manager
│   └── Sprites/                 # Background, buttons, doors, platforms, and player sprites
├── ProjectSettings/
└── Packages/

Main Scripts

Script	Purpose
`PlayerController.cs`	Handles movement, jumping, input, ground detection, reverse controls, and player events.
`RuleManager.cs`	Applies the active daily rule and detects rule violations through player events.
`DailyLevelLoader.cs`	Loads the daily level based on the current calendar day.
`HUDController.cs`	Manages rule display, win/fail panels, restart logic, and game state.
`TouchMoveButton.cs`	Handles mobile left/right movement buttons.
`TouchJumpButton.cs`	Handles mobile jump button input.
`LevelTrigger.cs`	Detects win and fail trigger zones.
`MovingPlatformController.cs`	Controls moving platforms using two target points.
`SFXManager.cs`	Plays walking, jumping, landing, fail, win, and button sounds.
`VFXManager.cs`	Plays dust effects and fail flash effects.
`ShareManager.cs`	Uses Android native share to share the daily challenge result.

How to Run

Open the project in Unity 6.
Open the OneRuleADay Unity project folder.
Load the MainMenu scene.
Press Play in the Unity Editor.
Click Start to enter the daily level loader.

How to Build for Android

Open the project in Unity.
Go to File > Build Profiles.
Select Android as the target platform.
Switch platform if needed.
Make sure MainMenu is included as the first scene in the build settings.
Click Build to generate the APK.

What I Learned

Through this project, I gained practical experience with:

Unity 2D game development
C# gameplay scripting
Mobile touch input implementation
Event-driven gameplay logic
Scene loading and build configuration
UI state management
Audio and visual feedback systems
Team-based game development workflow
Designing a replayable game mechanic around simple rules

Future Improvements

Add more daily rules and levels
Add a level selection/debug menu for testing
Save player completion history
Add daily streak tracking
Add more polished character animations
Add better onboarding/tutorial screens
Add online leaderboard support
Improve level variety with more obstacles and interactive objects

License

This project uses the MIT License.