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Overview
Deep Dive is a 2D platformer game developed in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 48 using Godot Engine 3, which was my second game jam. The player must escape underwater dungeons along with the treasure. Whenever the character carries the treasure, the character sinks, but whenever they are not, they will float.
Design
The jam comes with a theme "deeper and deeper" and can be freely interpreted by the participants. The game jam did not require the players to strictly follow the theme, but it is highly encouraged. As I found having a theme to be beneficial for the creative process, I decided to follow the theme. I interpreted the theme as "going deep into the underwater dungeon to get the treasure."
My vision in this project was to create a game based on a simple but highly expandable mechanic. The time limit also contrained me to work in 2D, as working in 3D is considerably more challenging than working in 2D and requires more time to produce a high quality game. With those constraints set in place, the design process was started.
There are two most common game views in 2D: top-down view and side-scrolling view. Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages; top-down games allows the player to freely move around a map, similar to third-person games in 3D, but losing the ability to interact with gravity, while side-scrolling view adds some verticality while losing the more open feeling to the game. I believed gravity to be a fun mechanic to tamper with, so I went with the side-scrolling option.
An obvious choice for a 2D side-scrolling game with gravity is the puzzle/action platforming genre. It is highly popular, easy to understand, and loved by a lot of people. In order to add some originality to the game, I need a unique mechanic twist added to it. Thanks to the theme that I had interpreted earlier, I found a matching mechanic: the gravity works normally when the player is carrying the treasure, but the gravity will become upside-down without the treasure, simulating the floating and sinking feeling.
I worked as a programmer on this project and primarily utilized external assets for the visuals, making slight modifications as needed. The game received praise for its unique design from other participants and achieved a high ranking in the innovation criteria, placing in the top 5%.