Developer's Day Off (Concept)

Take on the role of an unpaid intern as you struggle to cobble together the levels in a broken, impossible mess of a game.

Description

Developer's Day off is a 2D pixel-art platformer where the player takes the role of an intern saddled with the role of ensuring the terribly designed  levels of a buggy game are possible. To do this, they must step outside of the game and manipulate the scene in a faux game engine by assigning components to different objects and changing their values.  Components each have a different set of rules or functions they would apply to each object, such as movement, damage, and player control. Essentially, the game is Baba is You but as a platformer, and with less of a focus on rule discovery and meta mechanics, and more of a focus on platforming and simple puzzles. 

Core Gameplay

The core gameplay consists of two connected gameplay loops: the platforming and the editing. Since one is controlled with the arrow keys and the other is controlled with the mouse, the loops happen at the same time.

The platforming loop is very traditional:

1. Enter a level
2. Run and jump to avoid obstacles and move towards the goal
3. Reach the goal
4. Repeat for future levels

The editing loop is where the core of the game comes from, and can sometimes change the platforming loop in fundamental ways through changes to the player object. It goes as follows:

1. Notice an impassable obstacle for the player
2. Investigate the level and learn about the components on each object
3. Figure out how to manipulate the components to allow the level to be completed
4. Repeat for future obstacles

Game Flow

These two gameplay loops are connected through a (very simple) larger loop that takes place over entire levels:

1. Enter a level
2. Put the level in a solvable state (editing loop)
3. Beat the level (platformer loop)
4. Repeat for each level