JAM GAME - THEME “OUT OF CONTROL”
SOLO PROJECT - MUSIC PROVIDED BY FRIEND
JULY- 2020
For this jam I wanted to make something where the loss of control was fun, and still a gameplay mechanic. I was aware that some designers would make games where certain inputs where out of your control, and wanted to avoid this kind of gameplay, knowing that it would only frustrate the players.
I opted to go for a story based game, where the player would still lose control, but in a way that would not frustrate the ideally, but rather inform them about the narrative of the story.
The player takes on control of an entity, inspired by Dr Octavius from the Spiderman series, and the SCP articles, during a containment breach. The player has the ability to click on any characters or yellow objects to attack them with their tentacle, doing so will fill up their rage bar.
As this fills up, the players unlock more abilities. Initially these seem helpful, more movement options, but then they start to become more obviously monstrous, whereby now you don’t even need to click to attack, you just attack anything within range. The final upgrade moves the player constantly to the right, removing all need for control, at which point the player sits back and views the destruction they’ve unleashed onto the world.
Response and Self-Assessment
I think the idea in this game showed a great deal of potential, however I was too ambitious for a 48 hour game jam. It needed a considerable amount more design to provide puzzles and a more meaningful weight to morality system.
Overall the game was fun, and a decent little aside, but didn’t have the depth or longevity that other submissions had.
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.