The way back

The download link: https://samzuno.itch.io/the-way-back

The way back is a 2D platformer game. In this game, the player will control tiny elves who return to the door of his house and find that he lost the key in the deep glacier. The player needs to pass through the glaciers, find the key on the other side of the map, then get back from the original road and open the door of his home at the starting point.

The player must push crates to create a path forward and carefully cross the unstable platform. Beware, the player also needs to go back to the beginning of the level, so the player needs to make sure he still has a path to go back. If the player gets stuck, he can restart from the level's beginning without penalty.

What we want in this simple game: Emphasizing "failure."

It is common for anyone to head forward without preparing a retreat in reality and games. Although there are some puzzles during the departure trip, it is not difficult for players to overcome them. However, when skilled but reckless players arrive at the critical place and begin to return, they will soon realize a truth: they might have already made the returning way impossible to cover. After the failure, they must focus on every mechanism to ensure they can pass the puzzle and leave the possibility for returns. There is no compulsory death in the

whole game, but players will restart their game frequently if they find their situation a "failure."

Level design:

Although this game only has one level, our team did our best to design the level to let the player familiarize the control, understand the mechanics, and enjoy the challenge.

The core design pillar of the level is to emphasize failure. We expected a new player may get stuck in specific points of the level and spend several retries to figure out each challenge in the level. Once the player understands the whole structure, they will know how to use each level's mechanics to plan the way back and succeed in the game.

Here's the design sketch. There are several points to explain the logic of design choices. The image is large, so you may click the link below to zoom in and have a better view.

Design sketch image link

My Role:

I was responsible for designing the level and the user interface, including the main menu, credit screen, pause screen, and corresponding functions for the pause and quit games. Also, I added some sound effects to boost the feedback of player interactions.

Programming side, I finished the corresponding logic for pausing and quitting the game to ensure the game looked like a well-polished demo. Although the demo only contains one level, creating a complete structure that the typical game has is necessary.

On the UI side, I designed three UIs and used the font and buttons that match the game's art style to maintain the game's overall feeling.

I also added sound effects, including opening the door, picking up the key, and the collapse of the unstable floor.