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(9 edits)

Ok, here I go.

My intention is to finish Sam & Sara, a simple 2D platforming game I've been working on, off and on, the last couple of months. The idea was to build something, start to finish, in 38 hours of actual work. My reason for this is to test out a time schedule I wish to implement during game jams.

I asked what to make on Twitter and got challenged to 'make a game about challenging yourself'. I translated this to a game in which a man named Sam or a woman named Sara constantly races towards their goals but get hindered by their own past.

Game play wise this means that every time you reach a goal, a ghost of the past appears that performs the exact same actions as you have done before. Hitting a ghost equals losing the game. A high score system keeps track of how many goals you could reach before getting hit by your past.


I am now 29 hours into development, meaning I still have 9 hours left to go. My goal is to use these 9 hours to tidy up loose ends and polish what I've got so far. Beneath are some screenshots of the progress up until this point.

Good luck to you all, and for god sake, FINALLY FINISH SOMETHING!








This looks cool, looking forward to giving it a go

Thanks

Fascinating concept. I can't wait to play it! Good luck with that timeline

Thank you

This is great! And you work so fast! Will the player be allowed to place the pickup in the final version?

(3 edits)

Well thanks!

No, I played around with that idea at the beginning of the process and it stuck around for quite some time but in the end I decided to switch to a randomly placed goal (from a predetermined set).

I did this for a number of reasons :

  • Having to set the goals really messed with the flow of the game.
  • Players became confused by this sometimes.
  • Clever players figured out ways to get high scores in cheap ways to often, making the game less fun for everyone involved, even them
  • It gives me more agency over the level design. I can force players to pass through certain difficult paths.
  • It adds a level of randomness that allows for weaker players to beat a high score every now and again. This doesn't happen often but when it does it's real cool for them.

Although it fitted the theme of 'challenging yourself' very well, all these reasons ended up being more important to me than sticking to my initial idea.

Thanks for the thorough reply! I'm using the same or similar method for pickups in my game (using the predetermined set) without thinking too much about it (I'm focusing in other aspects of the game), but that design choice piqued my interest. Maybe it could work in a game with a different goal. Anyway, I love to think about metaphors for mechanics, so it's food for thought.

(1 edit)

I think it might work well in a setting where the player gets rewarded for placing a goal further away, while also increasing the risks involved to get there (like perma death and harder enemies along your path). This way you encourage the player to really challenge themselves while also being realistic about their own skills. This would also facilitate longer play session in between goals taking away the problem of flow loss in between 'rounds' as a breather from time to time would be a good thing I guess. It still leaves the problem of level design, but there's certainly a solution for that once you know the setting of the game.

If I ever come across such a design, I hope I'll remember this thread.
If not, I hope you do. :D

What are you making this in / on? I love 2D platformers, just trying to work out my 2nd platformer soon, but I fear its become more of a side scrolling space ship kinda 2D game recently haha )
I'm using Java personally, with Eclipse.

(1 edit)

I'm working in Unity with C#.

Unity has a lot of 2D tools in recent years that make working with sprites, 2D physics, etc... way easier.

The platform character controller is something I made myself though and migrates from project to project. This way it gets updates on a regular basis. This time dash and double jumps were added for example.

Good luck on your game!

Thanks SimoensS this helps alot, I'll look into Unity (is it free?... I'm sure a quick google search will tell me haha)

I guess I have these great code gaming engines in java currently, that's the main reason I'm clinging to it perhaps as I have so much flexibility and control with gravity / damage / hits / tilemapping etc