Two cranes. Two wrecking balls. One shared keyboard. Swing until somebody's tower comes down.
Game concept
Wreck their tower before they wreck yours
GetWrecked is a two-player physics game played on one keyboard. Each player runs a construction crane on top of an unfinished skyscraper, with a wrecking ball hanging from the end of its arm. You control only one thing: which way the arm swings. The chain, the weight of the ball and the crash are left to physics.
The brief was to make a game where physics is the mechanic, not decoration. I wanted something two friends could pick up in seconds, shout at each other over, and still never fully control, so no two rounds play out the same way.
Brief
Physics game, NID
Genre
Local versus brawler
Platform
PC · Unity 2D
Players
2, one keyboard
Design pillars
Two keys each
Physics does the work
Every hit is felt
Best of three
Core loop
Swing. Smash. Topple.
A match is best of three rounds. Every round opens on a countdown (3, 2, 1, WRECK!) and both cranes come alive at once.
You swing the arm back and forth to build momentum, then bring the ball down on the other tower. Blocks crack, break and knock their neighbours loose, until one tower is gone and the round goes to whoever is still standing.
Core mechanics
Two keys, one crane
A
D
Red crane
Swing the red arm left or right.
←
→
Yellow crane
Swing the yellow arm left or right.
Esc
Pause
Stop the match and pick it back up.
Swing the arm
Holding a key drives the crane arm around its hinge. Let go and it goes slack, so knowing when to stop matters as much as when to start.
A ball on a chain
The ball hangs from a jointed chain. It lags behind the arm, swings past where you aimed and lands with a dead, heavy thud instead of bouncing.
Tower blocks
Every block in a tower has its own health. Hits draw cracks across it and a red bar shows how close it is to breaking.
Chain reactions
A block that breaks shoves and damages the blocks around it, so one clean hit can bring down half a tower.
Losing a round
You lose the round when your tower is wrecked, or when your own crane or chain hits the ground.
Best of three
First to two rounds wins. The score sits at the top of the screen and every round win gets its own banner.
Game feel
Making every hit hurt
The rules of GetWrecked fit in one sentence. Most of the work went into the half second after the ball connects, so a heavy ball actually feels heavy.
01
Hit-stop
On a big break the game freezes for a split second, so the impact lands before anything moves again.
02
Camera shake
The shake grows with the speed of the ball and settles quickly, so small taps stay small.
03
Slow motion
When the last block of a tower goes, time slows down and the camera eases in to watch it fall.
04
Debris and dust
Chunks, dust and sparks burst out of every break, scaled to how hard the block was hit.
05
Cracks
Cracks are drawn onto each block from the point of impact and branch further with every blow.
06
Sound
Metal clangs, pipe bangs and a low thud when a tower breaks, capped so a big collapse never turns into noise.
Visual world
A fight on the skyline
The match happens high above the city, on two skyscrapers still under construction, one in red steel and one in yellow. Behind them a low sun sets over a 1930s-style skyline. The backdrop stays in soft purples and peach, so the two team colours are always the brightest things on screen.
Red crane
Yellow crane
From grey box to sunset
The first playable had the cranes, chains and towers working on a flat background. Later builds layered on the sunset city, the cracks and impact effects, and the best-of-three match with its countdown and round banners.
First playable, December 2025
Final build
Background explorations
Blueprint skyline
Construction city
Closing reflection
Thanks for swinging by
GetWrecked taught me how much of a game lives outside its rules. Swing, hit, knock the tower down: that part worked early. Making a hit feel like a hit took time
Physics game brief, NID. Made in Unity 2D.
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