STAY IN THE LOOP

Stay In The Loop in a puzzle-platformer submitted to the 2024 GMTK Game Jam under the theme: loop. The player is in a time loop with various others wandering around the randomized levels. You must find and run into the single NPC in each level who is in the timeloop with you by analyzing everyones movements until you find one repeating the same set of actions over and over. Avoid running into all other NPCs as they will set you back 15 seconds. You must do this before the time limit runs out or else your time loop will break!

Solo Project, 2024 GMTK Game Jam Software: Game Maker Studio 2, Paint.NET, Audacity Roles: Game Designer, Artist, Programmer, Level Designer, UI Designer Unique Systems: NPC Decision Making, Movement System

PROJECT DETAILS

The five day development cycle was focused on player movement, NPC behaviour, designing levels, and visuals such as UI and animations. I needed to make sure players had movement options to accurately avoid the non-loop NPCs. I have the player a jump, walljump, and a grapple mechanic allowing them to shoot towards grapple points in the level. The NPC behaviour I developed is split into three types: preset, random calm, and random energetic. All NPCs in each loop are randomly chosen as each of these, except for the one always has a predetermined moveset that loops. That moveset is chosen randomly from a list of movements I defined. I designed the UI and visual style to be as simple and responsive as possible to allow players to focus on watching the NPCs movements. Screen transisitions are fluid from one to the next concealing the seams between levels.

I learned and grew a lot during this game jam. During game jams I tend to unintentionally leave little to no time for playtesting. With each game jam I participate in I hold it to myself to break this habit. This time around I managed to hold a couple of playtests halfway through and on the final day. It's not where I want it yet, but it's an improvement and something I'm excited to keep working on.

LEVEL DESIGN

Levels are designed to accommodate many NPCs while allowing the player to enjoy traversal and easily and locate the target. I used a grapple point mechanic to allow players to soar over the NPCs giving them a dynamic traversal option, the choice to stay in the air, and a chance to aim for the right NPC. Grapple points were each intentionally placed based on many tests on each map to see where I might have a hard time reaching the correct NPC or avoiding the rest of them, and where they were the most fun to use.

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