Fig 1. Logo of the game
In the end of January 2023, I decided to embark on yet another Game Jam adventure with the Codin Blocks '23 jam on the Itch.io platform. This is a relatively small game jam compared to other major events, with "only" 23 teams having submitted a game by the end. It lasted for 3 days, with one extra day added by the organizers because of confusion during communications, for a total of 96 hours available for developing a game following the theme "Everything is backwards". This was the first game jam I participated in that happened completely remotely, organized and participated in by total strangers, so it was a new experience for me !
On top of this, I also wanted to add some extra spice, some extra challenge, to push myself and see how far I was truly able to go on my own. So, I chose to enlist in this event as a Solo Developer. This was pretty scary, as it meant I had to keep myself focused on my own for the entire event, as well as take all major decisions quickly, and fully trust myself in these decisions. This also obviously meant that I had to make every single aspect I could of the game by myself : programming, designing, testing, balancing and, as I decided as well, all the visual assets of the game.
Fig 2. Title of the Game
As expected, with all these decisions at hand at the start of the project, I had put quite a load of pressure on myself for this project, but I firmly believed I was able to do it and make a game that I would be proud of.
With all the bases set up, I could now begin the event, and started right away with the design phase. I chose to interpret the theme "Everything is Backwards" as regarding disobedience, and following the reverse of what the player would be told. By connecting this idea to robots to consolidate the meaning of instructions, Disobey_Protocol quickly came to be. The player would control a little ball-like robot navigating through a sort of factory and disobeying the instructions given to it to progress onwards.
Fig 3. Walk Cycle of the little robot
In order to be achievable during the small time-frame, I chose to make a 2D platformer in a pixel art style. The game has pretty classic mechanics for a platformer : jumping, moving left and right, pushing boxes, activating levers and buttons to open doors and move platforms... However, with the design I came up with for the little robot guy, I had the idea to give the player the ability to roll into a ball to add a bit more character to the robot, and add some more unique puzzle options.
Fig 4. Examples of assets made for Disobey_Protocol
The next step was to design puzzles and their elements. It was an interesting challenge for me, as I already had designed puzzles and concepts for problems to solve for a player, however, I always had the occasion to confront these ideas with a team to adjust, gauge reactions, and make sure they were clear. As I would find out after the Game Jam ended, I didn't do too well on that last part.
As puzzle elements, the pieces I had available that I made were :
- Treadmills : these would move objects (and the player) in a direction that could be switched;
- Levers : activated and deactivated directly by the player, each state would trigger its
own commands;
- Buttons : simple press to activate a sequence;
- Pressure Buttons : activated and deactivated by the player pressing physically against it or not;
- Doors : able to be opened and closed by elements;
- Lifts : platforms able to go back and forth from one point to another when activated, vertically or horizontally;
- "Spitters" : machines able to spawn boxes on activation;
- Boxes : able to get pushed, can activate pressure buttons;
- One-Way Platforms : platforms only solid from above (can be jumped through);
- Breakable Platforms : solid platforms that would break if hit with enough speed with the player rolled in a ball;
- Appearing text : text triggered by proximity or actions to guide the player by giving it instructions to disobey to.
With these various elements, many complex puzzles could be assembled, and I settled on making 4 different "rooms" for the player, all connected in one world.
Fig 5. Extract of the 2nd puzzle room
As shown in the screenshot above, I chose in the end to add a visual element to help the player. When activating something (a button, lever, pressure area..), a yellow path symbolizing a cable being activated would light up. This way, it became easier for players to comprehend what element would affect which machine.
Later, I also added a "showcase" element, which allowed to temporarily steal focus away from the robot to focus the camera on another part of the puzzle. Thanks to this, the puzzle shown in the figure 5 became much clearer, as early players couldn't see what was happening on the treadmills on the right without it.
In Disobey_Protocol, inspired by games such as Limbo and Inside which I personally take a lot of inspiration from in narration, I wanted to add a bit of storytelling elements to make the player think a bit about the context of the game. Through the game, the player discovers other robots just like it discarded away, whatever gives them instructions seems to be trying to hide something, towards the ending they start to see assembly lines, and (spoilers) end up triggering for another robot the machine which made them begin their adventure.
With that final "twist", I found it could also double down on the Game Jam theme of "Everything is backwards" as the player spends their adventure to end up the cause of its beginning.
In the end, my sumbission to the game jam was flawed and did have bugs I couldn't iron-out in time. However, despite not ranking very high I did manage to get a respectable rank for a solo project among many team submissions, and I am proud of what I managed to do for this event!
If you want to get a better idea of the project, you can play it on its dedicated Itch.io page, but I also made a trailer for it, I hope you enjoy!
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