Worldsaver

Overview

This is a top-down dungeon crawler, featuring puzzle elements with static and moving mines, "upload" and "download" files that prevent moving down or up respectively, and the need to collect the Caps Lock Key, Num Lock Key and Scroll Lock Key to unlock access to the win condition, a floppy disk with which you (in a literal sense) save the world. The theming is based on old software, favouring flat colours and repetitive gradients as well as a whole host of bevelling effects; this theming was inspired by the "tutorialcore" aesthetic of old YouTube tutorials (the sort with loud trance music and simple instructions typed painstakingly slowly onto Notepad), hence the inclusion of the highlight circle around the mouse.

Video Playthrough & Commentary

Documentation (GDD & LDD)

Contents

⬤ Introduction

• Summary

• Key Features

⬤ Game Mechanics

• Core Gameplay

• Health

⬤ Level

• Overview

• Level Elements

• Pacing & Flow

⬤ Interface

⬤ Art & Audio

• Artwork

• Animations

• Sound

Introduction

Summary

In this top-down dungeon set in a Windows 98-esque software world, the player controls a mouse cursor character through a labyrinth of files on a quest to collect the three Lock Keys to unlock the path to the Floppy Disk and use it to save the world. To do so, the player must avoid hazardous mines, otherwise the cursor will run out of health, freezing and bluescreening the game world.

Key Features

This prototype features one level with 11 main rooms, 3 of which contain Caps/Num/Scroll Lock Keys to collect. These rooms also feature dangerous mines that explode for contact damage, cards of hearts that restore HP to full, “upload” and “download” files that constrain movement like a wind or gravity effect, “load” files that remove these constraints, and some slanted terrain that can be used to counteract the constraints. The player moves the cursor character freely with the WASD keys, arrow keys, left thumbstick or d-pad, and otherwise only presses the spacebar in the win or lose screens to proceed.

Game Mechanics

Core Gameplay

The core gameplay of Worldsaver is carefully navigating the cursor character through danger using a keyboard or controller as described above. The character’s speed has been selected to avoid being slow in long corridors, while still allowing for precise positioning by tapping directions carefully, which is required throughout to avoid touching the explosive mines.

The player starts in the “load” state, freely moving up, down, left and right from the top-down view, including diagonals. However, coming into contact with an “upload” or “download” file causes the cursor’s aura to turn green or red respectively. The green aura signalling “upload” prevents downward movement by pushing the player upward at their movement speed; to stay still, the player must now hold the down direction, and if they let go they will always ascend, completely unable to descend. The opposite is true with the red “download” aura, pushing the player downwards instead. Touching a “load” file returns the player to the “load” state to move freely again.

The only way to move down during “upload” or up during “download” is using diagonal slants throughout the level while keeping a hold of the opposite vertical direction. By pushing into them horizontally, they can push you up or down like stairs.

The Caps Lock Key, Num Lock Key and Scroll Lock Key are scattered throughout the levels, which the player must collect by moving into them. With these, they can unlock the lock at the end of the level and reach the Floppy Disk. Touching the Floppy Disk means immediate victory, displaying the victory screen with the option to play again from the start by pressing the spacebar. However, if the player reaches the lock without all three Lock Keys, it will barricade the player from reaching the Floppy Disk and display a text prompt on-screen, cryptically telling the player to collect all of the Lock Keys first (supported by the graphics of the lock itself, which hints at needing the three keys with red scribbles).

Health

On colliding with a Minesweeper-esque mine, the mine explodes and disappears at the cost of 1 damage to the player. HP is displayed in the top left corner using 5 box-drawing characters that count down your 5 total HP by becoming dithered. If the HP reaches 0, the game briefly freezes and then goes to the lose screen, which is a bluescreen. The player restarts with full health at the cost of their progress through the level.

There are Solitaire-esque cards in the suit of hearts dotted around the level, usually in challenging locations, that reward the player with a fully refilled HP gauge back to the maximum of 5 health. These are the only way to regain health throughout the level, and they’re rare compared to the damage-inflicting mines, so the player must be very careful to avoid damage.

Level

Overview

The level features eleven main “rooms” or areas, which are mostly linear in their progression along the golden path. Getting to the final lock before the final room takes visiting seven rooms at minimum (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9), while nine rooms are required to be visited to get to the lock with all three Lock Keys for successful entry (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

The first and second Lock Keys are in challenging rooms off to the side of the main path to the end (rooms 3 and 6), but visual cues and rewards are used to strongly encourage the player to visit these rooms before continuing on. The third Lock Key is in a room that must be passed through (room 8), making it more difficult to miss. One room (room 10) is exclusively for backtracking from the final area to an earlier area, ensuring free movement around the map is possible for grabbing any missed Lock Keys.

Level Elements

1) Walls, slopes and steps: These serve as barriers to movement that keep the player constrained within the map. Slopes and steps add decorative flare, often highlighting danger or the way to go with the slopes’ points and the steps’ light-to-dark colour gradients, and serve as obstacles mainly when in the “download” or “upload” states, able to be climbed past in certain directions as discussed in the Core Gameplay section.

2) Mines: These are damaging obstacles littered throughout the level. When made contact with, they explode and disappear, so with enough health and confidence, one can clear a path through busy rooms of mines to make it easier to safely traverse later. Based on feedback, some mines move various distances vertically at various speeds to add a time constraint to the player’s careful movement.

3) Heart cards: These can be picked up to restore the player to full health.

4) Load file: Puts the player into the “load” state, where they can freely move in any of the four directions.

5) Upload file: Puts the player into the “upload” state, where downward movement is removed and upward movement is automated.

6) Download file: Puts the player into the “download” state, where upward movement is removed and downward movement is automated.

7) Starting arrows: Visual element. Shows the player at the start of the level to use WASD, arrow keys, etc. Disappears on inputting per direction.

8) Danger symbol: Visual element. Roughly highlights five of the more dangerous areas in the map, inflicting caution in the player.

9) Lock Keys: The Caps Lock Key, Num Lock Key and Scroll Lock Key can be picked up to become collected by the player. All three are required to unlock the lock at the end of the level.

10) Lock: A physical barrier at the end of the level that prevents access to room 11 and the Floppy Disk unless the player has collected all three Lock Keys.

11) Floppy Disk: The final goal of the player, leading to a victory screen as it holds the capability to save the world.

Pacing & Flow

The intended Golden Path of the level covers all rooms except for room 10 which is reserved for backtracking. While rooms 2 and 5 offer choices between getting the Lock Key and proceeding without it, and while the player is free to go from room 9 to 10 even if they have all three keys, this makes the play experience very linear and consistent despite offering the illusion of choice.

These choice-offering rooms are the most open and empty rooms with the least difficulty to them, serving as mini-hubs where the player naturally takes a break, creating contrasting increases in pace when a narrower, more challenging room is entered (specifically rooms 3, 4, 6 and 8 offer this thrill, and room 10 to a lesser degree). Room 8 offers one of the larger challenges in the level, so room 7 is a more transient room that eases you from the hub of room 5 into the immediate danger and confusion of room 8.

Interface

The HUD is in the top-left of the gameplay screen. It displays HP as a health bar using 5 box-drawing characters, dithering each block as it depletes. Beneath, three indicators show whether or not you have collected each of the Lock Keys. It is kept simple and text-based to fit the OS theme of the game.

Art & Audio

Artwork

I created all of the artwork for the game myself, using simple shapes, gradients and bevelling in the program paint.net. The design of various sprites is helpful to the player for understanding the game. For example, the “load” file is more of a pun on “download” and “upload” than a clear concept, so I used an old hourglass loading shape instead of the modern loading circle to create triangles both facing up and down, which mirror the single triangles of the upload and download files to represent the vertical directions you can move in each state. Other basic artistic concepts are used, such as mines being spiky to signal danger, and most other elements being quite square to show stability in the static level. But mines are circular as well, since they’re the only element of the game that moves other than the player’s mouse cursor, which is similarly surrounded by a circular highlight representing cursor highlighting in old video tutorials. The only artwork I didn’t create was the font used throughout, Courier New.

Animations

I animated the cursor character by using an atan2 function to point the cursor in the direction of axis inputs, to make it clear what direction the player moves in. This was as a result of feedback that the previous cursor animation, which snapped to up/down/left/right inconsistently, was making it difficult to tell if the player can move diagonally. Otherwise, the only animation in-game is particles of X symbols when mines explode, and some shiny particles coming off of the Floppy Disk at the end.

Additionally, there is a bit of an animation to the bluescreen death scene. The time scale is set to 0 to pause the state of the game, then a transparent white overlay briefly appears as if the program is frozen or not responding. Then the screen cuts briefly to black before displaying the bluescreen lose screen.

Sound

In response to feedback, the game features music and a variety of sound effects all from CC0 sources. The background music is a retro-style electronic track to fit the old computer theme as well as the intense precision the player requires to avoid mines. On top of this, harsh retro explosion sounds come from mines exploding, and similarly clicky card pickup and key press sounds are attributed to heart cards and Lock Keys respectively (the final lock also shares the key press sound when unlocked with the Lock Keys). The load file has a strange retro effect noise, while the upload and download files feature ascending and descending flute-like noises reminiscent of old operating system sounds. There are fittingly-themed negative and positive tones added to the loss and victory screens as well – the loss sound is mostly there to dissipate fears of an actual crash or bluescreen, and the victory sound is a celebratory booming brass sound to celebrate the suddenly-revealed scale of saving the world.