The Valley Rule – Post-Mortem / Design Look

Play the game here!

Hey all! We made a game called “The Valley Rule” for the LD29 Jam which was an insane, but amazing experience for us. This was my 3rd time participating in Ludum Dare and 2nd time in the Jam. I’ll just talk about the design process I took during the making, experiences, and intial vision for it. This is my first post-mortem, bear with me.

Tools: Stencyl, Graphicsgale.

Vision

We had a pretty solid idea of what we were going for. The idea was an exploration platformer set in a temple underneath a valley. I’m a huge fan of Knytt Stories and I love having that freedom of verticality, so wall climbing was a plus. Atmosphere and vibe was also very crucial. We wanted the place to feel alive; to present the lore through creatures, landmarks, and background.

Other than typical power-ups (double-jump / climb) We had an idea for a “clone” ability. The player would throw a seed on the ground and “poof” out grows a plant doll. This “doll” would push blocks around and possibly act like a jump spring to reach inaccessible areas. Yeah, that sounded really cool and would be a perfect fit for the theme. Unfortunately this didn’t make it in the final version and I’ll get to it in abit. (more…)