After being unable to attend the first 48hrs of the game jam, I reconnected with the rest of the team and heard the feedback they got on their original prototype. Following the jam's theme of "Through another's eyes", they built a co-operative game where two players controlled a pair of robots that had to escape a series of deathtraps. The catch was that they controlled one robot's body, but the other's head.
Feedback likened the game to Portal, and the team's first instinct was to alter the robotic nature of the two protagonists... but jumping back into the creative role, I offered another solution; slightly alter the gameplay and player motivation - and dress everything in a wildly different style and story!
Game Design
To escape the deathtraps, players had to navigate a room to find the exit. By adding the goal of moving boxes from A to B, the strategic navigation mechanic remains the same, but the motivation changes.
The boxes even posed a new challenge by blocking line of sight.
World-Building
I built out the world, where our head-swapped robots are new victims of an industrial accident in the post-apocalyptic, Chinese owned, Mexican guacamole factory where they work.
Additional characters all stemmed from that decision - including the sentient avocados.
Art Direction
The colours, animated style, and music were all carefully chosen to give the game its own distinct style and flavour.
I worked on many character, environment, and prop concepts, from rough sketches, to detailed drawings.
