This is a submission for the June Solstice Game Jam
🌌 Lunar Fling Solstice Odyssey — Game Jam Submission🌚🌝
Video overview: 📽️
https://youtu.be/oVm40E8mE-g?feature=shared
What I Built:
Lunar Fling Solstice Odyssey is an atmospheric, multi-module physics and cryptographic space sandbox celebrating the astronomical June Solstice. In a retro-futuristic dark mode interface, players guide unique space creatures across solar winds, crack deep-space radio ciphers, and cultivate bioluminescent specimen arrays inside a protected lunar conservatory.
The application is structured into three elegant, interactive core screens.
interactive core screens:
The Solar Fling Cannon (Physics Sandbox):
Players pull back mechanical slingshots to launch adorable space creatures toward the orbital gravitational pull of the Moon. The physics simulation features real-time trajectory trails, active orbital space debris/asteroids that deflect course, collision feedback, and high-contrast vector particles. Landing outside the target orbit still rewards players with collectible celestial resources (such as Lunite Crystals, Helios Amber, and Meteorites), while a direct bullseye collects essential ship-repair parts.
The Alan Turing Cryptographic Receiver: A game-within-a-game celebrating cryptographic history. During Solstice alignment peaks, stars emit unique deep-space rotational signals. Players use an interactive decryption interface to break ROT-13-encrypted words. The module includes active, expandable translation grids and educational decryption script snippets to teach players the underlying algorithm. Deciphering the code correctly will unlock a piece of the spacecraft for the build process.
The Dark Side Dome & Bio-Matrix Conservatory:
A mystical laboratory housing exactly 10 genetically distinct bioluminescent species (ranging from crystalline geothermal dragon eggs like Ignis Aurum to celestial space-born flora like the Chronos Resonance Lotus). Players use smooth, interactive sliders to fine-tune each specimen's shape, color composition, complexity, and solstice resonance. The specimens are rendered using mathematical, procedurally animated canvas visuals and high-detail SVGs.
I also cleaned up browser microphone permissions and streamlined runtime modules, ensuring a lightweight and browser-compliant game client that launches perfectly on the link without prompt interruptions!
How I Built It:
Built in React with TypeScript and styled with Tailwind CSS, the architecture prioritizes high performance, interactive feedback, and strict scope discipline:
Physics Engine & Dynamic Trail Rendering:
Constructed using standard HTML5 Canvas. A native collision pipeline maps bounding circles for orbiting obstacles, applying real-time path updates, bouncy rebounds, and particle explosion structures without external engine overhead.
Microtonal Web Audio Synthesis:
Implemented native browser-synthesized micro-oscillators. Actions like dragging the launcher to full power, scoring a bullseye, or unlocking a cipher generate custom, atmospheric sine-wave sound elements in real time.
Mathematical SVG Bio-generators: The dome specimens are rendered based on procedural coordinate generation. By altering simple sliders, the React state dynamically rebuilds custom geometric paths (spirals, crystalline polygons, spikes, and ripples) wrapped in glowing SVG radial components.
Full-Stack Signal API & State Sync:
Built a robust Node.js server to handle incoming API requests for the cryptographic simulator, issuing unique random puzzles and validating answers on-demand via cryptographic endpoints.
Prize Category🏆 Best Ode to Alan Turing
This game pays direct tribute to Alan Turing's legendary foundation in cryptography with the Turing Cryptographic Receiver. Including a minigames, players must decipher real substitution ciphers in real-time. The interface behaves like an educational terminal, supplying:
A visual double-row substitution map (A ↔ N) to physically translate character alignments.
A mathematical explanation of the ROT-13 shift algorithm.
A beautiful source code block in the UI showcasing how programmers implement modular substitution functions in active scripts.
💫 Summary of Final Polish with issues I encountered and Verification:
To guarantee a flawless experience for the competition's panel—
Link Stability: The production bundle serving static assets was refactored. The routing handles standard environment tags seamlessly, completely curing 404 errors on the link of my application, meaning it is permanently stable and ready for real time usage.
Microphone Permissions Decluttered: The application's metadata manifest (metadata.json) was lightened by fully removing unused permission requests. Viewers will no longer see security pop-ups regarding microphone access- example being–I initially had in the build for colour change aspects in the bioluminescent colour matrix section.
Build Check: Fully compiled and vetted using automated TypeScript checks, ensuring the application code is clean.
Some optimising is still needed although I am proud of my build this far.
I had so much fun designing and through the iteration process. I hope you enjoy.
🎯👾🚀Game Link:🚀👾🎯
https://ais-pre-pk4lpw4ghnq6pnfotdsabf-142058924679.asia-southeast1.run.app/
Thank you.
Megan Lawther 18.06.2026
