Extra Extra! A new hero in town stops crime!
Extra Extra! Is the new hero a criminal mastermind?
Extra Extra! Mayor Henrietta gives the city key to an unknown hero!
Contributions: Level Design, Art, Narrative Design
Short video of the gameplay of the current levels
Gameplay
The player is essentially playing against sensationalistic news outlets that the player is actually using their time-bending abilities to better society by stopping the crimes committed by the Woofers.
In order to prevent the crimes from happening the player has a small time period to come up with a creative solution using the objects around the scene. These objects can be dragged and dropped into strategic places to stop the crimes from unfolding.
The success or failure of the levels is reflected in the sensationalistic news titles.
Mechanics
Drag and drop
In order to better immerse the player and give them the sensation that they are the ones actively stopping the crime, we decided to choose a drag-and-drop mechanic to give the sensation that they are actually picking the object and putting it where it needs to go.
Uncovering objects
On certain levels, the necessary objects are hidden by others which forces the players to analyze better the situation and come up with creative solutions.
Difficulty progression
One thing that can be really frustrating as a player is to be bombarded with a huge amount of information causing paralysis and not being sure of what needs to be done. In order for this game to work properly, there was the need to have a tutorial without looking too "tutorial-ish" but the objective was clear enough for the player.
Originally there were meant to exist five levels in which the difficulty progression would be done by adding more situations that needed solution, hiding the necessary objects, and slightly shortening the time given for the completion of each level. This gives the players time to grow costumed to the mechanic and game loop.
Level 1
The situation that needs to be resolved, stopping a Woofer from stealing Mayor Henrietta's bag, and a clear solution of using the rope to tie down the criminal
Level 2
In this level, there are two situations that need to be stopped in order to be considered completed (1) stop/protect the bear from being shot and (2) stop the robber from fleeing with the bags of money. On this level is also introduced that the players may need to move certain objects around to find the necessary things to correctly stop the crimes.
Levels
Level 1 | Situation
Level 1 | Solution
Level 1 | Fail
Level 2 | Situation
Level 2 | Solution
Level 2 | Success
About the game jam and a little bit about the process
This game was made for the Pizza Jam #9, where there was a long list of themes for the jam. Team up with another person and tempted by the possibility of winning a pizza, we ended up choosing the theme "Crime-Stoppers" and creating a world run by a gang and a hero with the ability to stop time.
The game ended up ranking overall in 8th place out of 38 and in 8th aesthetics wise, and it can be played here.
One thing that was clear from the beginning was that using sensationalistic headlines like in newspapers was a must, creating a clear separation of the different levels by using different colors, and gameplay wise giving the player the sensation that they are actively stopping the crimes.
