You And This Dark World
You play as John Though, a very famous man gifted with the ability to teleport who is tasked with one job: save his dystopian world.
Just like the world he inhabits, his powers carry some consequences that he will have to adapt to while traversing the dangerous path ahead.
In this 2D puzzle platformer, I was tasked with the gameplay programming and technical game design, as well as the level design.
Responsible for gameplay mechanics (such as the Teleportation Ability), player character movement, and input, as well as level-derived gameplay mechanics, obstacles/puzzles, and overall pacing.
You, Your Powers, And….You?
In order to overcome challenges along the way, such as blocked paths, our hero is able to teleport small distances and even through objects.
When he does, however, a twisted and almost unrecognizable mirror version of him appears and begins to trace back the path of the teleport executed by John, back to the starting position.
John and his mirror entity are linked and if one dies, so does the other.
Weapon Ability Trajectory
Mirror Version of Player Character Behaviour
Player Teleportation and Mirror Reality Handling
Demonstration of All Previously Mentioned Systems at Work
A Focus On Level Design
By maintaining the gameplay mechanics simple and limited, the variety and complexity of the game must come from the level design.
This is how we get to ask the player to utilize said mechanics to their fullest extent. Celeste is the perfect example of how to expand immensely on gameplay and level design given a small set of gameplay mechanics, and that is the approach I had for this game.
