Puzzle and Exploration Platformer – Fall 2015
The earthquakes trapped you inside the concrete cave. Your packmates have gone in search of food and safety without you. You’re on your own in the ruins of the city. And wondering why. There are currently two levels to the game, with a third in the works. To play the game on Project Spark, go here!
For this project, I first played and analyzed a platformer and discussed it’s pros and cons. At the time, I had just recently played the The Fall by Over the Moon Games. What really appealed to me was the need to explore your surroundings, the lack of emphasis on hectic jumping, and of course, the meaningful story behind the mechanics. I wanted to design something that was similarly an exploration and narrative platformer.
My major mechanic was crouching (Yes, crouching). When crouched, they player could Scent certain objects and get some information from them. They could also fit in smaller places. When standing, players moved faster and could Jump and Dig. My level was very linear. Some backtracking came into play, but mostly, you moved to the right, however, like in The Fall, players didn’t start as far left on the map as they could possibly go, this gave a more real sense of space and made it a bit less linear.
Final level 1 sketch with pull outs
After sketching, I built the greybox in Project Spark, “koded” up my mechanics (making an elevator in Project Spark is pretty difficult, I tell you) and did a commentary walkthrough that you can view below before moving on to fully filling in the world of the level. And of course, the final walkthrough with commentary, which you can see at the top of the page.
I have one more level left to add to the game.
My Role:
- Level Designer
- Writer
- “Programmer”
Team Size: 1
Tasks/Responsibilities:
- Designed 2 levels from concept to build
- Programmed mechanics/player abilities
- Scripted world events
- Designed Puzzles
Skills:
- Project Spark
- Koding
- Creative Writing
- Level Sketching
Inspirations:
- The Fall