I Died In A Cave
I Died In A Cave was a project created as a submission to the 2021 GMTK Game Jam. A few friends from School and I teamed up to partake in the game jam. The theme for this jam was "Tied Together". We were given 48 hours from the announcement of the theme to create a game around it. The experience of participating in a game jam was a priceless one that spawned a project we were all proud to have been a part of.
I Died In A Cave was made with Unreal, and is a single-player platforming game, where the player not only controls the main character but a "soul" that is tethered to him. The main player character is controlled with the WASD keys, while the soul is controlled with the mouse. You are able to hover the soul over different Mushrooms, granting it abilities that can be discharged with the left mouse button. These basic concepts allowed for a lot of interesting and unique gameplay elements to come to life. Our submission wound up coming in 29th overall out of nearly 6000 submissions.
Following the game jam, we decided to continue working on the project with the goal of releasing it as a full game! You can find more information on my roles, and showcase videos of different mechanics I've worked on as of yet below! Furthermore, you can check out idiedinacave.com to sign up to your newsletter and recieve updates on the project!
You can also download and play our submitted game jam build by clicking the button below, which will take you to our itch.io submission.
About the Project
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My Role
During the game jam, my role was mainly to design levels, as well as create different systems such as platforms and puzzle mechanics. During the full project, however, I have worked much more as a generalist, dedicating time a variety of aspects of the game such as:
AI - So far I have worked on various different pieces of AI for I Died In A Cave. You can see a video showcase where I go over one of the most noteable - the small mole - below.
Systems Design - I have worked to design and implement multiple different systems for I died in a cave, such as some of the various shroom abilities, damage system, and more. You can see a detailed overview of one of my favorite systems, the fuse, below.
Editor Scripts - I created an editor widget to help with the ongoing process of level design for I Died In A Cave. The editor widget makes blocking out levels and object manipulation incredibly easy. You can see a detailed showcase of the editor widget below.
Play Testing - Although we have yet to conduct official playtesting, oversite and planning for playtesting has been one of my main priorities for the project. Playtesting is an essential part of any project, as it is the best way to determine if your game and mechanics are fun. I have laid out a plan of action, and worked with the team on preparing for playtesting going forward.
