Developed as part of an Unreal Engine Technical Designer Test, this simple game involves placing a series of mirrors to reflect a laser beam into a goal.

The design approach was to create a puzzle-like game with a scoring system based on golf and football. Core to this would be having a function calculate the expected least possible number of mirrors needed to score a goal. Goals could then be scored differently based on the number of mirrors used, just like golf is scored relative to the par.

A number of small tweaks could consolidate the game as puzzle-like or take it in a more arcade-y direction. Generally promoting a slow approach, having a set number of mirrors, tricky mirror placement and interesting obstacles would be a solid foundation for a puzzle game. Alternatively, speeding up the action would make it feel more arcade-like. Moving actors, such as sliding obstacles, a rotating laser spawner and some timer mechanic such as a countdown to the laser being shot would help.

Also, by implementing a vertical tilt to a mirror one could reflect the beam up and down, possibly creating more interesting levels by having to go over and under obstacles. This would also allow to score the goal differently depending on the area of the net hit, i.e. normal score for the centre, higher score for the top bins.

Something that feels flawed with the current design is the "concentric" nature of the rooms. Extending rooms in mostly one direction, possibly with the goal on one side and the laser spawner on the opposite would improve complexity. As it is, it feels like most of the arena is not "involved" in a level unless the obstacles are placed manually or procedurally specifically to force a certain path around obstacles.

Difficulty-wise, restricting the number of mirrors available, reducing the size of the goal, introducing and requiring usage of a vertical dimension to the game, having time limits and reducing the amount of information the laser preview gives the player are all possible ways to implement various and scaling difficulty in the game.