Adaptive Timing System for Smooth Gameplay

Challenge

One of the most critical aspects of difficulty scaling was the speed mechanic—levels required players to react within a set time window, represented visually by a countdown line animation. However, implementing this system came with several technical challenges:

The countdown animation needed to be tightly synced with the actual game timer to reflect how much time the player truly had to respond.
Unity’s animation and update timing can vary slightly depending on the device's performance, which meant that the animation might finish too early or too late on different devices, leading to a disconnect between what the player sees and what the game logic enforces.
Additionally, the animation duration had to account for ease-in/out or smoothing curves for visual polish, which could introduce subtle delays if not handled correctly.

Solution

To ensure consistency across devices and provide a fair, visually coherent experience, I implemented a synchronized timing system that kept the animation and gameplay timer tightly linked.

Difficulty Profile System

Each level used a difficulty profile defining:
- Required number of gestures
- Allowed response time
- Whether prompts were straightforward or deceptive
This made difficulty modular and easy to adjust or expand. 2.** Timer & Animation Synchronization**
Created a shared timer controller that both the countdown animation and game logic referenced.
The animation was no longer hardcoded but dynamically scaled to match the timer value, ensuring they always finished together, regardless of animation speed or easing.

Device-Dependent Timing Adjustments

Accounted for potential frame rate or performance differences across devices by:
- Using unscaled delta time for consistent timer progression
- Adding a** buffer margin** to animation start/finish times to absorb minor performance variations
- Performing runtime speed calibration on startup (or periodically) to ensure UI animations stayed in sync with logical timeouts

Smooth Transitions Without Gameplay Lag

Ensured animations felt smooth with proper easing curves, without affecting the underlying logic.
Any delay introduced by visual polish was pre-compensated in the timer logic so that gameplay fairness was never compromised.

Result

The end result was a tight, responsive speed system where the visual countdown matched exactly with the time the player had to act. This created a high-trust experience, where players could rely on visual cues and engage with the game more confidently, even as the difficulty increased.

By accounting for both animation behavior and device performance variability, the system remained consistent, polished, and fair across a wide range of mobile devices.

Cube Not Not