Posted July 30, 2021 by Thomas Olsson
Armless Kairo was made 3+ years ago, but it is now available here!
It's another 48h made game done for Ludum Dare 39 (compo), and I figured I'd let it chill here with the other prototypes.
The theme of LDJ39 was Running out of power.
As you may see, that theme was not deeply explored in this rather generic platformer. It can be tough to get out of the comfort zone, and as often, I made a minor main mechanic on top of very common systems. I tend to focus on feel good, coherence and pacing as its what naturally interests me, and it was never natural for me to make original mechanics and iterate them in interesting ways.
It bugs me sometimes, as designers I admire focus on depth first, and figure out pacing and feel good once they have something solid. I wish I was good at that too.
Nowadays I want to get out of that comfort zone more often. Digging that old game makes me think that there's been progress, but I'm still far from doing something I really like. A long road!