Rule The Room

[The game is playable on Desktop on this page.Alternatively, you can download the Android version.]

During the Game Jam organized by Gaming Campus, I teamed up with fellow developers, artists, and business students to create a mobile game in 45 hours.

In addition to organized teamwork and project management, this experience allowed us to practice storytelling and level design by working on the game's narrative and the player's progression.

The experience was incredible but exhausting, as we coded non-stop through sleepless nights to build the components of our game. Unfortunately, the final stretch ended in failure: the assembly of the game's functional parts did not go as planned, and the overall game was not operational during the presentation.

I took a few extra hours after the Game Jam to fix our mistakes and make the game functional so it could be presented. Here is the final state:

Game Concept

The theme of the Game Jam was "Children's Games." Our idea evolved into a 2D platformer symbolizing a child's imagination while playing in their bedroom, ingeniously using the objects they have at their disposal.

The game features a story with a narrative inspired by FromSoftware's "souls-like" games. This means players can uncover the meaning and background of the game by reading the descriptions of the objects they acquire.

In summary, the player controls a toy soldier figurine belonging to a child who imagines their father, away at war. Guided by a longing for reunion, the child plays with the figurine on a perilous journey, culminating in a symbolic reunion through play.

The player directly controls the toy soldier figurine. Progressing through the level involves various objects that the player learns to use creatively to overcome obstacles and reach the end. They will soon discover that some objects can be combined to create entirely new items with different functions. For instance, combining a pencil and an eraser results in an improvised hammer.

The objects the player can use throughout the game include:

• A pencil that reveals the correct direction,
• A bouncy eraser that allows reaching distant platforms,
• A hammer to break obstacles blocking the path,
• A ruler to create a bridge or ramp,
• A roll of tape for wall-jumping,
• An improvised airplane that acts as a horizontally moving platform.

The environments were hand-madeby our artist teammate, who first created each model in 3D. The story, narration, design, and presentation of the game were collaboratively crafted with our teammate from the business branch.