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Interlinked
A 2D puzzle platformer game prototype where the player is a spider-esque creature trying to reconnect villagers using their string ability to fight enemies and lead them to each other.
Available for PC at: https://stofie.itch.io/interlinked-prototype
Or try it on here by clicking the button below!
Made using Unity.
Solo project. Responsible for all work (art, audio, scripting, etc).
*This project was initially completed in December 2024, but has been in semi-active development during free time since then.
Work-in-progress can be found at: https://github.com/stofiee/Interlinked
(Some features are missing from this version; please visit the itch.io link for a full downloadable build with everything included.)
Design Overview
The player is a spider-like creature, searching for their friend after a swarm of mysterious demons invade their forest village. Along their journey, they have to help the villagers reunite with their partner villagers. The player must navigate through the levels, creating and connecting strings to connection points and walking on them to reach platforms that cannot be reached by walking or jumping. They have to approach a villager and ask them to follow them around the level, bringing them to their partner and reconnecting them, completing them.
The game is of the 2D puzzle-platformer genre, and is targeted towards casual young adult and adult audiences who enjoy platformers.
The core mechanic centres around the string that the player character can create. It has multiple uses including:
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Creating new paths for the player, as well as characters such as the villagers and enemies, by connecting the string to connection points, primarily located on platform corners and sometimes, background objects such as trees.
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Eliminating enemies by connecting a string through them.
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Blocking enemies from reaching the player temporarily.
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Can be destroyed / snapped to prevent enemies from following the player by cutting off the path between two platforms.
The gameplay involves the player repeatedly creating, connecting and destroying strings to reach platforms and kill enemies if needed, with the objective of guiding two villagers to one another. They can move and jump between platforms that are near each other. They can also use the string to block enemies temporarily, though the enemy will begin to sabotage and attempt to destroy the string that is blocking their way. Collectables can be gathered throughout each level that may provide temporary upgrades that last for the rest of the level until it is completed.
Game Design Document (December 2024)
Process
Interlinked was originally created for a university final class project with a limited ideation and development time of about 14 weeks. Initially, it was going to be a two-player puzzle platformer, where players choose between characters with different abilities and work together, using their characters' specialties to complete the level.
However, I decided to not continue with this idea as I thought I would have had to either place harsh restrictions (such as limiting the characters that can be used in a level) and / or create carefully designed levels that suited multiple characters. In addition, having different mechanics for each character made it difficult to define a core mechanic. Switching between characters with different abilities could have been considered the core mechanic, but I personally found it was too broad and complicated to work with - especially under the time restrictions I had originally.
Afterwards, I returned to the ideation phase. I maintained the same genre (puzzle-platformer), but decided to make it single-player and have the player control a consistent character throughout the game as this would make level design easier to balance and players could become familiar with the character's controls and mechanics. The target audience that I settled on was casual players within the young adult and adult range who enjoyed platformers. I conducted some research on gameplay and mechanics, after which I decided to focus on creating one core mechanic with multiple uses. Eventually, I landed on the string mechanic idea.
There was originally an additional evolution mechanic based on butterfly cycles planned to be incorporated, where the player would gain more abilities and bonuses as they defeat more enemies, such as being able to glide and decreased knockback from taking damage. However, this was scrapped after I tried explaining it to others and how difficult they found to understand it, and I considered that it may overcomplicate the game for casual players - so I decided to primarily focus on polishing the connecting strings mechanic.
After deciding the core mechanic, I moved on from ideation in week 3 and returned to prototyping.
Below are multiple videos from various stages of development.
Key Design Decisions
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WASD keys were originally used to maneuver the string's position. After self-testing and playtesting with others, it was changed to be controlled using the mouse by default as it allowed greater preciseness and was considered easier and faster to use.
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Originally, the X key was the only button for connecting strings, but during testing, some players accidentally clicked the left mouse button to connect the string instead of pressing X. As a result, the ‘connect string’ and ‘destroy string’ actions were assigned to the left mouse button as well to give the player more flexibility with the controls, allowing them to use whichever input was more comfortable for them. In later stages of testing, some players switched continuously between the X key and mouse button throughout playing, while others stuck to one.
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In earlier stages of development, multiple playtesters would press the 'P' key multiple times before the string they intended to snap would be destroyed if there were multiple strings within close vicinity of each other, considering it annoying. I realised this was due to a lack of ability for the player to specify which string they wanted to destroy. Therefore, I made it so players can specify which string they wanted to destroy by hovering their cursor over the string and clicking either one of the 'destroy string' inputs. If the player does not specify which string is to be destroyed, then the string closest to the player would be destroyed under the assumption that the player would be near the string they want to destroy.
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The 'connect villager' mechanic depends on the player's distance from the villager rather than the villager following the player after comments were made that it felt strange to have to move so close in front of the villager to get the pair to connect. This also added a sense of familiarity for new players, as when the player makes a villager follow them, they have to approach the villager in a similar fashion, and makes the interaction focused around the player rather than something beyond their control (the villager).
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Villagers lack idle movement unlike enemies, as it would make interacting with them tougher for the player - which is necessary for completing each level's goal. For enemies, the idle movement adds more strategy to the gameplay as players can observe their movement patterns to plan out how to avoid them or kill them.
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Knockback was added to make it harder for enemies to attack repeatedly in quick succession due to the extra distance, possibly making it easier for the player to move away from enemies when being chased.
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Enemies and villagers are unable to jump off platforms. This makes it easier to escape from enemies, but harder to navigate villagers to other villagers without engaging with enemies, making it harder to achieve the win condition of connecting villagers together.
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Enemies are able to destroy / snap strings that the player creates as a form of sabotage to make it more difficult to navigate through levels and give an additional behaviour outside of chasing that engages with the player.
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The player is unable to jump when on strings to make it more difficult to avoid enemies and limit their movement.
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The player is unable to snap / destroy strings when they or another character is on it, requiring the player to think more strategically about string placement if they are for example, being chased by an enemy.
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