Description

Box Game is a 2D Platformer prototype  I designed by myself in two weeks. It features fast-paced gameplay and is designed  around its central and empowering mechanic - blink.

The player can walk sideways, double jump, swing a sword, and most importantly warp a short distance forward. The goal is to reach the end of the level while avoiding or defeating enemies and collecting stars along the way.

Blink

Blink teleports the player forward to the location of the small black dot. It can be used to get to the other side of walls,  clear difficult jumps, or just to get to where you're going a lot faster.

When used, blink freezes the player's position for a very brief moment (even in mid-air) to create anticipation, and to make the mechanic easier to learn. At the same time, a worm hole-like particle effect is created before teleporting the player forward. Upon arrival, another particle effect creates the effect of the box character having teleported at the speed of light. The camera  moving  quickly towards the player also adds to the sense of speed.

Blink can be used at any time and has a very short cooldown time, indicated by the box character's "nose" turning red when the ability is charging.

Jumping

The gravity is very high to increase the  speed of the gameplay, the tension of its verticality, and the difficulty of the platforming. The blink  mechanic is very useful because of the high gravity and makes it not only easier but also more rewarding to clear certain gaps and obstacles.

Because jumping is faster and more difficult than in most platformers I decided to make it easy to know just how many jumps the player has left on their disposal. The cube's main body changes color from green to blue when the player jumps once, and from blue to gray when jumping in mid-air.

Melee attack

The melee attack is an instantaneous sword swing reaching a short distance forward. In line with the high gravity and already fast gameplay, I wanted this attack to feel like a super fast assassination sword stab that the player can use just as fast as they can click.

Its short distance makes it necessary to get very close to enemies in order to hit them, promoting heavy use of the game's movement mechanics in order to defeat enemies.  It  has no cooldown other than only being usable once per frame, which makes it very fast and very easy to use.

Blink + Jumping

Combining blink with jumping is what makes traversing the game fast and fun. Blink also makes it possible for the game to feature brief puzzle-platformer segments.

For instance, in this area of the game, blinking and double jumping has to be used in the right order to get to the star. Since the player can not get past the wall without blinking first, they have to use their first jump to gain height, blink past the wall, and finally use their double jump to reach the next platform.

Blink + Melee attack

Blink is a great way to get to the other side of enemies. Future plans for the game involves exploring different kinds of enemies with weak spots in their backs, enemies with movement patterns that makes blink necessary.

Video walkthrough