Platformer Project: Devlog 1

 I've recently started my very first platformer (unless you count this demo of a puzzle platformer) using Unity. This is one of those games that I started for a game jam and decided I may continue after the fact. Since the game jam requires that submitted games cost money, if anyone buys it I'll feel especially obligated to work more on it. The game jam's goal is basically to make a game that's way too long, so my twist on that is a platformer that has really long levels with no checkpoints--so if you die, you have to do the whole level over again. It's meant to be frustrating or even infuriating, so if I have buyers, I may choose to do a slightly less frustrating version (eg one with checkpoints). I also have some ideas for multiplayer, but I want to wait until I have a solid singleplayer game, because I only have a certain amount of time to submit. Granted, the time period is 90 days, much longer than any other game jam I've ever participated in, but considering 1) this is my first time in years actually making a whole game with a premade game engine and I think getting used to Unity will take me longer than it often takes me to build a game from scratch using JavaScript or Java, and 2) the main goal of this game jam is to make the game super long, so I'll be spending a lot of time on level design and playtesting, I think I'm better safe than sorry.

Without further ado, here's what I've got so far:

Updates:

• Started project in Unity
• Made draft sprites for player and ground tiles
• Basic movement functionality (keyboard and supposedly gamepad)
• Jump functionality (on 2nd iteration)
• Camera follow
• 1st level (may update later to make it harder or more or less tedious)
• Scene progression functionality
• Started a second level

After I implemented movement and before I implemented a player sprite, I realized that the player (a plain square at the time) would roll off of a platform if it fell slowly off of a corner, resulting in it turning sideways. At first I brainstormed some ways to fix this (I think it would be relatively easy), as it would look kind of funny with a sprite instead of a square. No platformer I've ever played has had players that turn sideways when they fall. But then I realized that I kind of liked the image in my mind, and decided to keep it. Once I added a (rough) player sprite, I discovered that I was right. It does look funny. And I love it.

I then decided to actually make this a useful tool for the player. There are now some spots that require a player be sideways:

And others that require the player be right-side-up (or upside down!):

So the other thing I implemented was the W key or up on the left stick to stand up, if the player is sideways. I don't think I'll be implementing a player control to turn the player sideways, because it's more fun if they find out they can do that by falling, or by pushing up against a wall like the one in the second screenshot.

I also fixed the accidental ability to walljump (I may later implement an actual wall jump on purpose, but this one was preventing obstacles from obstacling).

Coming up:

• Actual pixel art for the player character (may commission this)
• Finish second level
• Maybe lengthen first level
• Add additional obstacles like spikes or something
• Add UI
• Mobile controls?
• Stop player from being able to stand up when there's something directly above them
• Change sprite depending on if/how the player is moving
• Fix tiles having lines b/w them in weird places

Feature ideas (may be implemented, may not, I'm just brainstorming!):

• Multiplayer coop where players can use each other's bodies as platforms
• Multiplayer with an antagonist that somehow makes player 1's life harder?
• Going back to the beginning or back a level if you fail a level more than X times
• Different abilities in all 4 different 90° rotations (eg go fastest when right-side-up)

Story ideas:

• Escaping a mental institution/nursing home/etc, or some other story about disability and overcoming challenges that abled people thought you couldn't handle (I think this would make sense with the sideways mechanic, like sometimes it's hard to stand, but it may make it harder to laugh at)

Playthrough of what I currently have: