Design Statement
The track sounded playful and elusive to me. I struggled at first because it didn't quite match my style. I prefer making games built around a system that both the designer and the player can explore, with the designer curating interesting, meaningful, and/or emotional consequences of that system.

While experimenting, I remembered that I had wanted to work with a boids algorithm for some time. As I was tuning the movement of the boids (including the player), I noticed that movement alone, without additional mechanics, could create levels that vaguely speak about experiences of connectedness, volatility in relationships, and surrendering to others.

I usually make games where there is one path to the goal. This time, I allowed multiple solutions, but tried to make the paths that evoke particular feelings the most intuitive or easiest ones to follow.

Game Instructions (launch steps, controls, and gameplay overview)
Use WASD to move, use R to restart, use F11 for fullscreen.

Gameplay walkthrough video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ilIRNG_51s

Trailer / Other Additional Video Material (Optional)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ilIRNG_51s

Did your project use any AI tools or assets? If yes, please specify.
For this project, I experimented with a new approach to game development. I provided Claude Code with a Markdown file describing my coding style and conventions.

I used it to generate boilerplate code, development tools, and implementations of technical details that weren't central to my design goals. This allowed me to speed up development while focusing on the aspects of the game I wanted to explore myself. I also implemented the core gameplay loop by hand.

I relied heavily on Claude Code to generate tools for tuning different aspects of the game, including physics parameters, shader uniforms, and other settings. These tools allowed me to experiment, iterate, and refine the game's behavior much faster.