Theme : Roll of the Dice

I immediatly had the idea of a puzzle game using a die that could roll around, but I figured it would be way too common. As I couldn't find any other idea I really liked, I instead tried to go a bit further with the idea of rolling a die in a puzzle game, and added powers instead of numbers on the faces of the die. The player would play a character that has to push a die around, to avoid having a cube-character (which I always found very bland).

Art Style

As dice are used for games, I decided to use toon shading for this game. I gave some small elements like trees and the character a plastic look to make them looks like toys. Since the game is based on pushing a die, I desgined squared tiles. This both make the level building faster, and also create a stong look for the game.

For the enemies, I tried to think about dice related entities. I thought about the "Jeu des petits chevaux", where you roll dice to move horses (that look like chess horses).

Level Design

The game starts with a simple part where the player can only push the die in a single way. They get used to pushing the dice around. They quickly get the power of the key, which can open nearby doors if the die land on the correct face. To showcase this, another part where the player can only do a single action ensue. This leads them in from of a door they can't open at first, then a door they can open. After this first open door, the puzzles start.

Other powers are introduced all along the game, each time with a part the player can't mess up, followed by a puzzle using the ne power.

I thought of reusing the closed door of the tutorial for the end. This would create a cool surprise effect, and would add a bit of a Metroidvania dimension to the game in some way. After the player completed all puzzles, it leads them back to the beginning part, but this time with the powers needed to open the door they couldn't open at the beginning.

Results

The game scored 133rd out of 6157. It's a really good results given that most games of this jam are done by a full team.