Prototype and Development

Once we had decided on our main gameplay idea we then developed a quick prototype to test it and also started developing rough sketches of our set up.  Below is the prototype.  Move the character with the arrow keys and press space to switch between the light and dark worlds. To test the dark world time limit there is a 5 second limit on being in the dark world. Grey blocks are 'safe' blocks which exist in both places:

In building this prototype we discovered that this was definitely a viable concept with a range of possible tricks and puzzles that could be used to develop the gameplay. We then discussed the theme a bit further and settled on the concept of dream and nightmare rather than life and death, as this opens up a bigger variety of things we can use for design. To progress through the game the player will have to enter the 'nightmare' world, the ending concluding in the character waking up. One of the main concepts behind the nightmare world is the use of risk, forcing the player to take risks in order to progress, and so as well as representing dream and nightmare, the game can also be seen to represent the encouragement of risk and opportunity taking in order to succeed. In order for us to begin working on this concept properly we decided the first step would be to begin setting out what our level for the demo project for the presentation would look like, and from there we would be able to work our way backwards and develop the project according to that specification. We had already decided at this point that we wanted to do this game as an upward vertical platformer with some horizontal side scroll as this fitted with our theme and also provided extra scope for gameplay e.g. platforms being off screen where you can't see them. Below is a quick sketch we did to start thinking about object size and proportion in regards to the level size.