Dark Times
A side-scrolling puzzle-platformer where every teleport spawns a mirror version of you that retraces your path.
What I did
- Gameplay mechanics, including the Teleportation ability and its mirror-self consequence.
- Player character movement and input.
- Level design, level-driven mechanics, obstacles and puzzles, and overall pacing.
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 consequences that he will have to adapt to while traversing the dangerous path ahead.
In this 2D puzzle-platformer, made for a game design and development class, I was responsible for the gameplay programming and technical game design, as well as the level design.
You, your powers, and… you?
To overcome challenges along the way, such as blocked paths, our hero can teleport short distances, 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, back to the starting position. John and his mirror entity are linked: if one dies, so does the other.
Weapon ability trajectory
Mirror self behavior
Teleportation and mirror reality
A focus on level design
By keeping the gameplay mechanics simple and limited, the variety and complexity of the game must come from the level design. That’s how we ask the player to use those mechanics to their fullest. Celeste is the perfect example of expanding immensely on a small set of mechanics through level design, and that was my approach for this game.
