1.Analysis the theme

When I see the theme, (My first thought is...masturbation :laughing: ?? That is really abnormal.) I begin to think intuitively, the ori's silver tree level, type or die, survival game... Well, these ideas, like endless zombies and unstoppable flood are intuitive, but they seems to be very generic. So I begin to focus on the evitable part, and try to think something new that is evitable. The explosion of sun, human's age, the explosion of bubbles, the gravity, the pinching wall, spending money, food decay , camp fire...

Then the bomb level of mario party comes to my mind. In a 2-split screen, P1 and P2 jump and strike the burning lead of a giant bomb to stop the bomb from explosion. So, I think use a time bomb to build the evitable part is really good.

2.Build the game

To make something new, I decide the player is the bomb itself, and you can delay your explosion by collecting lead.

Then, the game lacks a strong and narrow target(I dont want endless level), since you are going to explode, the explosion must be the end of the game, so, firstly, I thought the target should be a escaping person(which provides some shortcut game depth like the chasing flag level in mario3D.)

But there are problems. The chasing experince and collecting experience is a little controversial,and, most importantly the collecting part is the core loop and features "delay", which is not very attracting.

So I give up the chasing idea. I dont know why, but it suddenly comes to my mind, what if the enemy is a timebomb too? That sounds like a good idea. Player and enemies are all time bombs and they should pick item and fight for time resources, and the fighting experience could be something messy like smash bros.

And the last problem, what kind of props should be on the ground? Are they also bombs with giant knockback or some melee weapons like smash bros? I was very confusing at that part. But after several hours, I realize that the game is all about time rather than force and suddenDeath(in smash) or money(in RTS or MOBA), so the item should be some delay items. Webs that slows character down, baseball that dizzy characters, traps that blocks the way and lock characters, etc.

3.Summary

At the end, due to the lack of time, I really dont think the game reached the desired effect. If I have a little more time to build a tighter moving and attacking feel, add BGM and several items, some movable terrains, the game could be better.

Thanks for reading such long things :smiley: . You can check my game at:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/do-not-explode