JAM GAME - THEME “Failure is Progress”
SOLO PROJECT - MUSIC & Character Animations provided by friends
Februaryu- 2021
Inspired by meta jokes from games such as the Stanley Parable, I wanted to make a game which played off expectations and common design tropes.
A full gameplay playthrough is included to the right.
Post Mortem
The game is divided up into 3 key acts, each neatly placed into their own Unity Scene. The first act portrays the game as an amateur made infinite runner, in which the player has to constantly run and jump to the right.
As the players continue to run to the right, the gaps they must cross will constantly increase in size, until the gaps are literally un-crossable.
There is an invisible barrier at the end to prevent any glitches the player may use to continue.
Once the player finally falls down a pit they are spawned into the next area. A clockwork contraption with a much darker tone. Artistically the art style was taken from Limbo with strong parallax effects and moving parts.
In this area the player explores around, including a machine for creating more players.
Finally, the player lands inside the Unity Editor, as they have slowly continued to break out of more and more levels of the game. At this point, all players are immediately re-assured that they are on the intended path, and are invested in ending the game.
Earlier in the game, in the Clockwork area, the player had to interact with an object to unlock the doors. This object had a tutorial next to it, and subtly resembled the start menu. Now when the player approaches the actual start menu, they know exactly how to use it, and are able to navigate down to turn off the computer, ending the game.
In the final area, the player leaves the “playable” area, and is out of bounds, or so they think. An issue throughout this project was player retention. I needed to ensure that players would want to continue playing the game, and progressing throughout the numerous layers of the game. In this level I spawned Unity editor elements such as these diamonds. This indicated to the player that despite appearances, I did want them to be there. Additionally these objects fell down a pit, which was the direction I wanted the player to walk.
Response and Self-Assessment
The game achieved a score of 10th for Creativity and 22nd for overall, out of 1,020 participants, of varying quality.
The response to the game has been overwhelmingly positive. The main issue involving the game has been encouraging other people to play it. Due to the multiple layers of humour, ruining the joke of any one may spoil the game.
I’m proud of the game I made, I feel the artwork was done efficiently, and with a nice look, using very few assets, allowing me to instead focus on the design aspects.
The platforming controls are not quite as tight as I would like. The character’s descent is faster than the ascent, however the player cannot control their jump height by holding down space. I also believe my “isGrounded()” method could use improvement. However, were this a prototype, I believe these complaints would be irrelevant for me as a designer. One day I will create a platformer controller with tight controls for a game jam.
Play online
If you would like to play the game for yourself, you can click the link below to be taken to the Itch.io page, and run it in your browser.