Key Points: highlighting some of the key areas I worked on

GAME DESIGN

Given the Mini Jam's theme of Darkness, I pulled from my love of cryptids and "creatures of the night" to make the player character the Dark Lord and vampire known as Allowen.

As the jam's limitation was You Are Your Worst Enemy, I decided that none of Allowen's "foes" should pose any real threat to him. Rather, a quirk of his character should be his only downfall and could be represented in the narrative and gameplay.

Hence, Allowen, the vampire with an insatiable and self-destructive appetite, was born.

The theme and limitation in the narrative

To make Allowen feel like an unstoppable force against his enemies, I employed "Game Feel" as he morphs into a wall of billowing dark matter with the ability to lunge forward and engulf foes attempting to flee, the first game mechanic.

Using the lunge ability (3 times/red tokens per level)

The ever-looming threat of Allowen's appetite destroying him is represented with a constantly decreasing hunger bar that creates a sense of urgency. Thankfully, Allowen can momentarily pause his cravings with his second ability and game mechanic before having to munch on more monsters to survive.

Using the pause ability (3 times/blue tokens per level)

ENEMY DESIGN

To account for Allowen's hunger and movement abilities, certain foes were designed with special characteristics and counters.

PINKY

Pinkies cannot move making them the perfect enemies to easily snack on to reset the hunger bar or use the lunge ability to narrowly avoid death

SQUIB

Squibs are fast making them difficult for Allowen to catch! As such, they incentivize the pause hunger ability to give Allowen more time to catch up without immediately croaking

DUCKY

While not as speedy as the Squibs, Duckies can evade Allowen (unlike the Pinkies) meaning Allowen may have to use one of his two abilities to catch up

LEVEL/PUZZLE DESIGN

Together, the two abilities and different enemies combine to create a strategic experience where players have to decide when to use their finite powers and who to use them on

Do I lunge at the Squib now or save that ability for later?

To further compel this way of play, the locations of the enemies are placed like pieces on a chess board so that progression is tied to critical thinking and ability resource management

Here are my first sketches of the enemies!

On level 2, as seen in the original sketch above, there is a large gap between the first and second enemies... Allowen would die of hunger before reaching the Pinky without using his pause ability multiple times as seen in the gif below