First Global Game Jam Challenge entry

Thu, 01/28/2010 - 11:58

Congratulations to Stephen Knightly (The designer of the Kiwi's Tale) for submitting proof of finishing two of the games on the site, as well as providing a game concept.

His idea is simply this:

Actually what I want is a game where the player can "jump back in time", taking with them their health, powerups, knowledge and then play alongside themselves maybe 30 seconds or 2 minutes earlier.

Sounds interesting, probably incredibly tricky to program, but there have been quite a few games across different genres that have done it (Braid, Blinx, Prometheus).

My current line of thinking is to do a bullet hell game, and if you die then you go back 30 seconds earlier in the level, but with your previous incarnation still in play. Basically, you play second player to yourself. I could even put in a twist where not allowing your old incarnation to die causes a time paradox and ends the game.

~~However, the challenge isn't over yet - If you can prove that you've beaten at least three of my games within the next 12 hours, then you can still win.~~

Edit - Calling off the challenge now, not likely to get another entry anyway, but it's only a few hours until the Global Game Jam and I have thought of what I think is a fairly solid concept for using Stephen's idea in a game.

| Tags: GameJam

Comments

Thu, 01/28/2010 - 12:38

Avengingwatcher

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Joined: 12/21/2009

I like his game idea better than mine. I want to see that one happen.

Thu, 01/28/2010 - 14:34

arran4

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Joined: 05/05/2009

Hrm.. I wonder how much you could do with this... There are 2 ways I see it can be done..

1. You fail the mission due to something, but then you can go back and 'intervene' maybe with the AI controlling your previous character.

2. Future missions depend on your actions in previous missions, and you see 'shadows' of what your future self may be like early in the game. (So all scripted.)

Thu, 01/28/2010 - 15:22

Earok

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Joined: 02/06/2009

Cheers guys,

Arran, idea 1 is what I was more or less thinking, idea 2 is sort of like what Prometheus is (Except you don't see what your future self will be doing, you can only see your past self)

Fri, 01/29/2010 - 13:36

arran4

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Joined: 05/05/2009

When you think about it the game is less about programming and more about level design. Especially number 2.