Game Concept

Working Title:

Borrowed Time

Concept Statement: 

A 2D platformer that has the player navigate levels with power to freeze time in an area of their choosing.

Genre or category of game:

Puzzle platformer

The game will involve the player navigating side view levels which consist of platforms and terrain of varying levels which would qualify the game for the platformer genre.

The game will also involve players having to solve puzzles on each level in order to reach the next level and thus qualifies for the puzzle genre.

Concept creation process/area:

Inspiration for the game idea came in the combination of two games I had played previously, those being Iron Danger and Portal: The Flash Version.

Iron Danger uses the manipulation of time as its core feature for how the player approaches combat in the game and while I don’t think I can implement something similar in the time window provided, I believe I can create localized time freezes.

Portal: The Flash Version is a game I played because I enjoyed the casual puzzle solving experience it provided. I believe it accomplished this by having small simple levels that gradually ramped up in difficulty and size while also giving the player a unique power in the form of portals.

Audience and competitive analysis:

The target audience for this game would be people looking for a simple platformer to play when they have free time, most likely young people as older people would have the means to play specific games they want whereas a young person would have to make do with what they find.

I believe the ability to freeze time would attract people to play the game as the mechanic is not done very often which will hopefully provoke curiosity.

Competition for the game would be other 2D platformers with their own spin on the genre however as stated before, the ability to freeze time is not common and thus may provide a fresh experience that other competitors can't provide.

Game treatment and concept art: 

The idea for the game is to have multiple levels containing puzzels that increase in difficulty as the player progresses through them.  The player is given the power to stop time in a area which they can use to manipulate the enviroment so they may solve the puzzel and progress to the next level.  Concept art (1) shows the player freezing a falling platform by clicking near it and creating an area of frozen time thus stopping the platform for the player to use to jump across the gap.

The ability to freeze time could also be used in timed levels where the player would have to stop time running out by using the freeze time ability while also having to use it to complete the level ( example being freezeing a bombs fuse like in concept are (2).

The frozen area of time would be a constantly applied affect as any thing besides the player trying to enter the area would be stopped because the part that touches the area would be frozen in time thus stopping the thing like in concept art (3).

Somethings may behave differently while in the frozen time area then when they are not in the area, for example in concept art (4) the player freezes two rockets that would normally blow up the player however in the frozen time area, they act as platforms.

only the player is able to move within the forzen time area so anything in the area cant be moved even if the player themsleves is trying to move it, which is shown in concept art (5)

References:

Iron Danger

https://store.steampowered.com/app/899310/Iron_Danger/ 

Portal: The Flash Version.

https://armorgames.com/play/107/portal-the-flash-version