Yùtù: Hare-izon
DESCRIPTION
An endless runner where you play as Yùtù (aka the Jade Rabbit) and must make use of a unique mechanic: flipping the horizon, or swapping heaven and earth (the void and the ground). Carrots are worth bonus points, and magical pearls will grant you temporary powerups.
Developed for the Pizza Jam 10 and the 1-BIT JAM #2, which were both running simultaneously.
MY ROLES
Game Design
Programming
Composition
GENRES
Endless Runner
Platformer
TEAM SIZE
2
JAM DURATION
8 days
Core Mechanics
While appearing to be a standard 2D endless runner at first glance, the game is centred around a unique horizon-flipping mechanic I designed. This mechanic was intended to add an element of puzzle-solving to the gameplay while also forcing the player to navigate obstacles via a method other than jumping or dodging. The game is entirely 1-bit (bar some user interface), using either black for the foreground and white for the background, or vice versa.
Powerup Design
I quickly decided that the addition of temporary powerups would help add some much-needed variety to the gameplay. I ended up designing four different types of powerup:
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Jump - allows the player to jump considerably higher
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Multiplier - gives the player twice as many points per carrot
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Mirror - flips the screen horizontally
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Slow time - slows down the player's speed by half
Additional Features
While I originally composed a single track made up of both orchestral and electronic samples, I eventually decided to create two versions of the same track which use the same melody and chord progression but using samples of each type respectively. The version of the track which plays at any point during gameplay depends on what side of the horizon the player is on, changing every time they flip. The strong similarity between the two tracks bar the instrumentation means that they transition smoothly between one another without being too distracting during gameplay.
Late into development, my teammate also pitched the idea of including 'easter eggs' in the game for fun. The player would be taken to a secret room after entering a certain code during gameplay. I ended up designing four different easter eggs, each of which is accessed via its own unique code.
Post-Mortem
This was the first game project I ever programmed coroutines for, as they proved a vital tool for handling features such as the duration of each powerup.
While the game in its final state still contained some bugs and I did not have time to flesh out the level design as much as I was hoping to, the general concept and selling point is conveyed well. I also consider the game to be solidly presented, with minimalistic but effective visuals as well as a stylistic user interface which matches the 'Chinese Zodiac' theme which was used by one of the two jams the game was submitted to.