He Was Maskin' For It: A Global Game Jam Game
Game: He was Maskin' For It
Time frame: 48 Hour Game Jam
For this project I worked with Isaac White to create a game for The Global Game Jam.
This project was an incredible experience over a 48 hour timeline. I love game jams like this one because it forces us designers to do many different roles!
For this project I was versatile in the different roles I undertook. Such as level design, narrative, story pacing, 2d sprite art, and game design. I learned a great deal about working with time based game design and working on Gamemaker Studio 2.
The game is called He Was Maskin' For It and is on the GGJ website right now. He was Maskin' For It is a time-loop narrative murder mystery game.
Below are some explanations of the design process working on this project.
Level Design was the most interesting aspect of the Project. I had to find shortcuts when designing as we had a time crunch. Creating prototypes, micro maps, molecule maps, and pathing all done within just a few hours. I created many different versions of the map and plenty prototypes, in-engine and out.
NPC and Player pathing was an exciting challenge. I had to create pathing around the level at the same time as creating the timing for each of the characters. We wanted certain moments to happen concurrently to give the player a reason to explore the full level. Our goal was for the player to learn about the timing of the game and to realize that certain things can only be done at certain times. This is why I created a massive timing board. This board has every action separated into seconds to allow the player to search and experience things at certain times.
The timing board had to be adjusted and changed continuously to match the pacing of the game.
The biggest challenge with timing was making sure that the player could do everything in order. We wanted the player tense with the setting and timer, yet still give the player an opportunity to complete the game fairly. For example you can see that getting the gloves and the bathroom key has to be done in 30 seconds. If not, the character in the bathroom will leave and you miss your opportunity. But the great thing is the repeated short time line makes it so mistakes aren't that severe, it only takes a few seconds to get back to the point you were previously at.
He Was Maskin' For it was such a fantastic project to work on, really proving to be an exciting challenge.
In the image below you can see the pathing that we decided on and the mapping we created for the initial level. This was all about spacing and understanding NPC and Player interaction.
In this image you can see the collision and asset worked I did. I created and mapped out the art assets to create deepen the environmental storytelling of the level and to give "clues" to the player. This artistic bread crumbing is a skill I learned from my work on Hermes Runner. By leading the player in this indirect way the player felt as if they were solving things while infact we were dropping hints.
In this zoomed in image you can see how I layered the collision with the walls and floors making sure the player felt as if they could walk up to items while at the same time making sure they weren't going any location's they shouldn't.
I also want to thank Charlie des Robert and Hudson Janow with Sunday Studios for hosting this GGJ.
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