Embedded Files
A puzzle game where you play as the dungeon's enemies, and try to guide the hero to the next floor
(https://kayleighforeign.itch.io/clear-the-floor)
This was my first ever game jam game, made completely on my own. This jam was hosted by Mark Brown's GMTK, and this year the theme was "Roles Reversed". I interpreted that as taking the role of the enemy inside a game, but instead of flipping the goals as well, the player still aims to get the hero to conquer the dungeon, they just have to do so by using the enemies, guiding the hero to the door.
This game was made in Unity, and all of the assets and scripts were made by me, in a span of 48 hours.
Introducing the Concept
Introducing the Concept
Presented with this scene, the player is most likely to press left or up to move the hero forward, and as the slime moves, it subverts their expectations. Without any text, the player is then able to figure out that the slime can be used to guide the hero if it enters her line of sight, and after killing the slime, she'll walk to the door automatically.
I only ended up making three levels, and the second one is already a pretty big jump in difficulty. In hindsight, I wish I spent a bit more time to make levels for tutorializing the mechanics. I still had a lot of time after I first uploaded the game, and there's quite some features that aren't immediately apparent to the player.
Making Levels a Bit Too Hard Early On
Making Levels a Bit Too Hard Early On
In the next level, the player has to use four slimes to get the hero around a wall. The way to turn the hero around is by hitting her from the side, depleting a heart from her health bar.
If I made another level before this, where the hero is looking up at the start, and has to kill two slimes, that would teach them about the turning mechanic. Another level could introduce them to having to kill all slimes in the level to be able to continue, and another level could teach them about slime preservation; leading the hero into a spot without making her kill the slime, so you can use it to turn her around from there. With all that setup, this level would serve as a good test of the player's skill.
For a first game jam game, made all by myself in just two days, I think I'm pretty happy with how it turned out visually and mechanically, though there are some rough edges I would've liked to see smoothed out, like reworking the movement system, adding sound effects, some particles for the door, and - most importantly - adding a lot more levels to aid onboarding.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse