Makeshifter

Fantasy platformer. 2D Platformer roguelite with lean crafting elements. steam store link

Nutshell
  • Survive the randomly generated platforming labyrinth, rife with mutants, cyborgs...
  • Collect and combine items, reforge them into useful tools, consumables and weapons.
  • Through your actions, narrative-ish-event-impacting decisions occur even if you don't realise it. Attempt to trigger an ending.
Mechanics
  • 3 item slots, 1 combination slot
  • pick things up, combine them, dismantle them back again, eat/use them as weapons/utilities... e.g. spring + stick = pogo
  • spawn in rng level, monsters, hazards, random events, puzzles, bosses
Design mission
  • Through mastery of the equipment combinations and traversal controls, player's gameplay options should open up in unexpected or satisfying ways.
  • Replayability.
  • A brute-force approach to the possible equipment combinations.
  • Core mechanics of: pick-up, combine, store, use/consume, drop... should apply to as many of the objects in the game world, for as many aspects of play as possible to make outcomes intuitive and emergent.
  • Players should have a variety of methods to approach goals, preferably defined by themselves as they seek out fun, not just to find the exit, but also to find an exit. An endgame scenario could be, for instance, to befriend a dragon, or it may be to get out of the last door, or to save a princess... try to make the game react a little.
Inspirations
  • Spelunky
  • Terraria

Developer notes The first game I made publicly available... an exercise in forcing myself to finish something alone whilst learning to code. Ironically unfinished, released through steam greenlight early-access after the collapse of desura. Life got in the way of me finishing it. I do want to some day finish it, and have begun... have rewritten the game's engine in more modern languages and frameworks (don't ask). Learnt a lot from many naive design mis-steps, and will replace the vast majority of this game before resuming it.
Copyright © 2012 - 2024, Squirrel Physics™. All rights reserved.
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