Developing a Card based Platformer Game
This weekend I participated again in the one-hour-game-jam, and created: CardJump, the card based platformer:
https://idoadler.itch.io/cardjump
The theme of the jam was running, and I thought about developing a runner game where your actions are decided by cards.
Development process
When this idea came to me, I felt that it actually was a horrible idea. I felt that it’s not going to work, that it’s not going to be fun to play, and that it’s not achievable in one hour.
On the other hand I felt that it would be fun to try – that it could be a failure I will be proud to have for a one-hour-game-jam. After all, when else can I give such a crazy idea a shot if not in an 1-hour-jam?
In this video you can see my process while making this game in Unity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHR1IfU-Rc0
Results and conclusions
So, surprisingly I made it, surprisingly it’s kind of fun. But I can see some issues with this game style: it’s very hard to balance, and it becomes a bit too chaotic.
You might notice that the art took as much time as programming for this project.
I learned how to use unity’s new cinemachine 2d camera.
The project files are accessible as usual in github: https://github.com/idoadler/1hgj/releases/tag/1HGJ.211
I’m glad I made it, now I have new tools in my game design arsenal, and perhaps I’ll come back to this idea one day.
Thoughts on how to develop this idea further:
- Deck building!
- Different weapons for different scenarios
- Different loading times for different cards
- Make it an endless runner instead of a platformer
- Make a pipe-dreams style game, where you put the card on the surface
Previous games
If you want to check my previous one-hour games (all of them open source) you can check my itch.io account, or check my other posts:
- tile based maze: I’m late
- 2.5D aquarium game: Feedy Fishy
- Find the correct icon games: Wires and Letters
- and: more
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