After two months of studying game dev, I submitted my game to GMTK’s game jam, where we only had 48 hours to build a game from scratch!
The theme was “Joined Together.” 🙏
With limited time, I decided to create a Metroidvania-like game where you play as a mother trying to escape a zombie-filled dungeon while keeping your little baby safe! 👻
Initially, I thought of having a generic hero to save the baby. But I realize having a mother and a baby is more efficient in establishing a quick but deep relationship between the characters (without having to use much dialogue.)
This is the same concept used in Anthropomorphic animal cartoons like Looney Tunes. It’s easier to build stories when you use already understood relationships. Like in a show where a Mouse is the protagonist, a Cat character will automatically be its antagonist (i.e. Tom & Jerry). 😆
The same goes for a mother-and-child relationship. When you put these two characters in a dungeon filled with zombies, the objectives of the game will be apparent from the get-go.
This character choice is not only practical (due to the time limit of the contest) but also fits very well (I think) with the theme Joined Together. 🤔
Aside from being physically joined by carrying the baby through the dungeon, I was hoping to convey the “Joinedness” & “Togetherness” of the two through their in-game mechanics and interactions.
Carrying the baby might seem a burden to the mother/player, but hugging the child heals the mother from her injuries.
This makes the two of them dependent on one another. They cannot escape the dungeon by themselves. They literally and figuratively have to be Joined Together in order to escape. 💡
Also posting some of the kind feedback from other players!
