reMark: 2D Puzzle Game

Inspiration

My first thought when entering this hackathon was to make a videogame, since that's sort of where a lot of my passion lies. I also wanted to dedicated myself to making a game for this hackathon because in the past I've had a bad habit of starting projects without finishing them. By doing this, I hoped to force myself to finally make a finished project that I could show off in its entirety.

What it does

It's just a pretty simply 2D, fixed-camera puzzle game. The main mechanic it features is the ability to mark a location and teleport back to it at any time. It has a handful of levels, and hopefully offers a complete experience in a small, ~5 minute package.

How we built it

I primarily used the Godot game engine to build the game itself, GIMP to do all of the visual artwork, sprites, etc. and Audacity with a combination of various sounds and asset packs I've accumulated over time for sounds and music.

Challenges we ran into

I've never actually made a 2D game in Godot before, so there were some things I was unsure of how to do that required me to consult the documentation. I also came to the obvious realization that to make a good puzzle game, you need to be smart enough to make good puzzles. I think I did a pretty good job with it, but had I more time I'm sure I could construct some more complex and interesting scenarios. Audio is also tough, it's probably the aspect of presentation you think of the least, but when something is missing or "not quite right" like a button not making a sound when you expect it to, you notice it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

In the first day, I already had a "completed" game, start to finish, which I was quite happy with. Granted, it didn't have any audio, and there was one placeholder level I wanted to flesh out later on, but I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly I was able to prototype and iterate on my game to get it to a good state by the end of the first day.

What we learned

Obviously I learned a lot more about using Godot, and now I have a lot more experience with game development and design that I can take with me to hopefully participate in future hackathons/game jams and apply to my own personal projects. I also learned some good lessons about designing a game in terms of setting expectations and deciding scope. I thought my idea was a little too simple and I'd actually not have much work to do, but working on this game pretty much perfectly took me the 24 hours (minus 7 for sleep). Since this was my first time working in 2D, I also learned about the 2D Godot workflow, like how to use spritesheets for animation.

What's next for reMark: 2D Puzzle Game

If I feel like it, I could probably touch up and polish some of the game's presentation elements, and I definitely want to throw it up for free onto a few sites like itch.io so others can play it. Beyond that, not much, this game was always meant to be pretty simple so I could make it within the 24 hours, and I don't have many big ambitions for it. I think if I were to publish it there are a few key features to add for a broader release, like settings (volume adjustment, remappable keys, adjustable window size, etc.), as well as building the files for other systems if possible like Mac.

Built With

• gdscript
• godot