I hope it works...

It seems to work!

At the same time the character is also being designed

Then this is an interesting bug, not a gameplay 😂

I'm playing everyone's game, and I think the HTML5 version is so cool!

I want to know if I can release the HTML5 version even I released windows version already.

I saw the following sentence on the rules page:

Porting (especially to Web or Windows) can happen after the initial 48 hours. The longer you wait though, the less time participants will have to play your game.

Does it mean I can still release the HTML5?

Hi everyone, I am the designer of Fragments of Memory, and I want to share how I designed this game from the designer's perspective.

From sketch to final

Gameplay

After I know LD49's theme was Unstable, I had several ideas, and finally chose the idea of "jumping on unstable platforms" as the gameplay.

One of the reasons for choosing this idea was that character painting is the strength of our artist's, so I favored an idea with character.

Graphics

Once the idea was decided, our programmer was started writing the DEMO code, and then our artist and I decided what style of art to use.

I decided to make the platform irregularly shaped, so that part of the platform would have a picture, like a memory fragment, also I can add story to the game.

Because I am not good at English using, I would like to use minimum text as possible, and focus on things other than text, such as graphics.

Such a design will certainly increase the art's workload, and finally I decided to use black and white as the main color, in order to reduce the time used in coloring, and it also helped to keep our overall UI simple.

PS: Our artist was so enthusiastic about this game and the character in this game, and I can barely stop her from coloring all the illustrations, that is why we decided to paint a colorful cover instead, after finishing all the illustrations.

The final version look like:

The next content involves a little bit of spoiler content, you can experience the game before reading ~

There is a HTML5 version, a total of 3 levels, the game can basically be completed in 5-10 minutes.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/fragments-of-memory

If I can get feedback from you, I can know whether the things I want to convey is it works, and what can be improved, it will be very helpful to me!

Story design

When I first thought about whether the story should match the theme, I usually associated it with emotionally unstable people, but I didn't have an experience in emotional instability, so I might not be the one who can convey this feeling well, that I gave up on this idea.

I chose something I wanted to express in my recent life:

The world is full of interesting and happy things, and we know this as children, but forget it as we grow up.

Then, the outline of the story came out:

The hero starts out trapped in a world full of fragments of her memories, she doesn't remember who she is, and she gradually recalls herself as she explores and leaves this world.

Chapter I

In chapter I, the fragments show the memories of the hero as a child, mainly happy memories. She recalls herself as a playful, happy girl.

Chapter II

In chapter II, the fragments show the memories of the hero after she enter the workplace, mainly the memories of despair and anxiety. After recalling these, she loathes the world and does not want to return to the real world.

Chapter III

In chapter III, the fragments show the memories related to the hero's hobbies, mainly memories of happiness and joy. After she recalls them, she remembers that there are still many interesting things in this world and she doesn't want to give up, she hasn't played enough.

Most of the illustrations that appear in the game are derived from my real-life experiences, I will write another article to share them if I have the opportunity.

Level Design

Because I am not very good at designing the levels of action games, I decided to keep the number of levels as little as possible.

There are 3 levels in "Fragments of Memory", corresponding to 3 chapters.

Level 1

The first level is designed to be very simple. Like a child unfamiliar with the world and trying everything with curiosity, players will learn in this one level that platforms is unstable and that the goal is to reach the point of light.

Level 2

The second level is designed very difficult to play, and it is the most difficult part in the whole game. The fragments are designed to be as heavy as the hero's memories, and the whole design of this level is to express that she is trapped in these heavy memories which makes it difficult to move forward.

There is a large fragment of debris blocking the hero's way ahead, it is quite heavy and difficult to push and rotate, the hero needs to hit it back and forth until it rotates an opening, so that the hero can jump to the next area.

This level also has an area made up of a lot of small fragments, and the hero needs to jump back and forth in this area to squeeze through the fragments to move forward.

The overall shape of this level is a winding road loop, although the hero needs to reach the place close to her, but she still has to make a detour, the loop represents the process like a cycle.

In addition, the fragments with memories of the illustration, when the hero stepped on it direction will shake slightly, symbolizing that these heavy memories make it feel uneasy and difficult to correctly grasp the direction of progress.

Level 3

The third level is again designed to be very simple, and it forms a sharp contrast with the atmosphere of the second level. On this level, the fragments are very light, and also giving the hero the strength and security to move forward. They accompany the hero, as long as she steps on them, there is nothing to fear.

The third level is again designed to be very simple, and it forms a sharp contrast with the atmosphere of the second level. On this level, the fragments are very light, and also giving the hero the strength and security to move forward. They accompany the hero, as long as she steps on them, there is nothing to fear.

At last, I decided to make the third level simpler, or at least not to get the player stuck. This level has a lot of large fragments of debris at the edge of the space, is to reduce the possibility of players accidentally jumping out of the space.

The difficulty curve of the 3 levels is inversely proportional to the emotion curve, first very easy, corresponding to a relaxed mood, then very difficult, corresponding to a heavy mood, and finally very easy again, back to a relaxed mood.

Deficiencies, bad point

Not well expressed

From the feedback, it seems that the expressions I made are too abstract, and there are many more direct expressions that are not used.

Not interesting

Although the game was made, it wasn't fun enough and didn't make good use of the gameplay.

Wrong English was used

Despite the initial decision to avoid using text as much as possible, some of the hero's inner monologue was left at the beginning of the level and between levels, and unfortunately it was put into the game without proofreading, which seriously ruined the atmosphere.

Wrong expression

After the release of the game I realized that the expression "heavy memories" may only be used in Eastern languages (such as "重い思い出" in Japanese and "沉重的回忆" in Chinese), but there may not be or not often used in the English, so it is difficult to resonate with the design around "heavy memories".

Thanks for reading!

There will be more and more units that need to be control. One more keyword: defense.