Gameplay / Narrative Design
The challenge
To have the narrative and gameplay play well with each other and for them both to be good on their own.
The solution
All of the mechanics in the game is directly tied to what the story is. To put it briefly, the players in game buddy has been trapped inside a video game and it is their job to rescue them, this is indicated by a note on the physical computer on the main menu.
The player then starts the game and realizes that they can't complete the first level and they just die when they try to. After dying once the cursor comes in and opens up a new path for the player, basically cheating the game INSIDE the game.
The cursor can help the player by interacting with the environment, a few examples would be: throwing stuff at enemies to slow them down, click switches to interact with the environment, make noise to distract guards and more.
At the later levels the game starts cheating back. It starts placing out enemies that can actually see and capture the cursor and walls that the cursor no longer can go through.
At the end of the game you escape with your buddy through a portal that leads into the back of a computer, when you then finish the level and come back to the main menu you can now see him sitting next to the computer.
Level Design
The challenge:
Create the most difficult level in the game with new game changing mechanics.
The solution:
Add in enemies that can spot the cursor and have walls that it can't go through.
The last level of the game which I was solely responsible for includes new enemies and a new type of environment.
Throughout the entirety of the game before this level, the cursor can go through anything it wants since it acts like a normal cursor would and it wouldn't be spotted by enemies, allowing it to roam freely wherever it wants. The difference in this level is that all of those options are now taken away from the cursor and it's options are now limited. It can still interact with the environment and, open doors and enable traps, it just has much more of a difficult time in doing so.
The map is also split up in two lanes, making it so you're almost playing a co-op game with yourself. Both the cursor and the player character need to reach the exit of the level in order to complete the level. Throughout the level they open doors for each other so it is physically impossible to go throughout the level without the help of the other.
To follow through with the narrative with the game itself cheating against the player, I decided that it should be shown through how the map looks as well.
The maps surroundings is covered by green code and all the walls that the cursor can't pass through is also green code. This is to indicate that the game is rapidly trying to build new levels to make it harder for the player so they can't complete them, not allowing the game to make it look like a normal map.
