GLITCH WORLD
Game Jam project
Game description
'Glitch world' is a platformer puzzle game. Player will play the role of an agent who is investigating the strange phenomena occurring in the city. On the way, you found a mysterious entrance and came to an unknown space. Embark on a journey to solve the mysteries and find your way home. Hardcore gameplay and complex puzzles will give players an unprecedented gaming experience.
Single player
Player number
Platformer puzzel game
Game type
Independent project
Insperation
Game jam theme
Glitch world is the project which I made individually during CIGA game jam 2021.The theme provided by the organizer is this photo of a man pulling a train with a rope. My first thought of this picture was the connection between each carriage, and my second thought was the function of the train, which for transport people and goods. After brainstorming, I came up with a puzzle game that can embody these two features of the train. This idea of the game is that player need to get from point A to B, on the way there will be many obstacles, such as tall walls, large gaps etc. Player can use moving platforms to get over the obstacles, these platforms can move in different directions, also they can be linked together. The goal for the player is to figure out a method, that can combine independent platforms into one platform and help player get to the point b.
During the design stage I got some inspiration from design philosophy from the most famous puzzle game 'portal', the core mechanism of the 'portal' is very simple, but this mechanism will produce many different effects through interaction with different props and maps. This is what I hope this jam game can achieve. Therefore, I decide to make my design direction towards making a game that have simple mechanism also can repeat many times in the game.
Game Mechanic
Mechanic 01- moving platforms
The platforms will move according to the direction of the arrow.
The platforms will move according to the direction of the arrow.
Mechanic 02- rebound wall
Literation process
Version 1.0
Before
After
I added in the moving platform system and rebound wall in the first patch, and during the trial these two systems worked as I designed. Also, I added a function for player to pick up and move the platforms, this function only works with the platforms inside the radius, and I highlighted area to prompt the player the range for this function.
Version 2.0
In the second patch I updated some map elements and two new platforms to increase the playability of the game. The first update is laser trap, laser trap can kill the character immediately if character touches it. In order to avoid being killed by the laser, the player can use the platform to block the laser, so that the player needs to adjust the position of the platform to adapt the design of the scene when placing the platform.
The second map element I added is gate, these gates can prevent player from entering the next session of the map, to open the gate player need to find the keys in this area. The location of these keys is often set in the places that are difficult for players to reach. For example, in this picture, the position of the key is much higher than the height of the player’s jump, under this condition, the player can place the platform like in a ladder shape to get the key. The purpose of these map elements is to make the game more challenging, and more importantly, to allow players to try different methods to solve puzzles instead of using fixed ideas.
Laser
Gate
The green platform can change the gravity when its active
The red platform can reverse the sequence of the set and only can be placed at the end. For example, if there is a set of three platforms, the order will be platform1 then platform2 then platform3, after the last platform have been used the order will repeat. But if player puts red platform in the end of the sequence, it will change the order to 3,2,1 instead of 1,2,3
Version 3.0
In more difficult levels of the game, in order to enrich the game experience, I added multiple elements to the same puzzle. More complex puzzles cause the size of the puzzle to become larger. Therefore the player’s perspective cannot show all the content in the puzzle, which badly affects the game experience. In this version, I have optimized the field of view of the game. After the player enters a big puzzle, the game will change the display from the camera on the player to a fixed camera in this puzzle to increase the field of view, and player will get the full picture of the puzzle.
Level design
This picture is the first half part of level 3, which is made of three puzzels . The goal of this map is to let player aware of the importance of the layout for the platform set. In the previous level in order to pass, player only need to get the platforms in the correct order and don’t have to worry about the layout. But from this stage onwards, players are familiar with the basic mechanics and the game is starting to feel lack of challenge. In order to increase the difficulty, I have added some complex terrain and map elements, which leads to players needing to adjust the platform layout to deal with special situations.
Layser
Active machine
Moving wall
In this puzzle player need to use the platforms to block the pawn from the laser, and when player reach the moxing wall, player can use the stop function to stop platforms moving and wait for the opptunity when tha wall opens again.
Swap to the next platform
Buttom to open the gate
Gate
In the third puzzle player need to press the buttom in order to open the gate.According to inertial thinking, players will most likely put the platform in a straight line or a square shape, but a straight line is too long, it will be stuck in the lower left corner. If it is a square shape, it will not be stuck by the gap but will be caught in the middle by this yellow block. At this time, the player needs to jump out of the inertial thinking and divide the platform set into two parts, so that it will not be caught by the yellow block nor will be too long for passing through the gap.
Programming
Swap to the next platform
Swap to the next platform
Swap to the next platform
Swap to the next platform
Active platform& Determine the order of platform triggering
Set moving direction of the platform
Trigger the function of current platform
'Glitch world's is made based on side-scroller game template in the ue4 engine. In the template, I added the functions of platform displacement, moving the platform, determining the order of the platform, and triggering the next platform.Among these functions, determining the trigger sequence of the platform is the most complicated one. I thought of many ways. At first I wanted the player to determine the order by numbering the platform, but it was too complicated to do so. Finally, I decided to determine the order by the distance between each platform. The system will add all the platforms placed in the activation machine to an array, sort each platform from near to far based on the position of the first platform. This can simplify the player's operation, but if the two platforms are close to each other , it's not easy for the player to judge the order. I originally wanted to add a system prompt player the trigger sequence when editing the platform layout, but due to time issues, I couldn't make more optimizations.
Demo
