Hello, I’m Ryan (SoulSoph).

This document is going to describe how I built my entry to the NOKIA 3310 GAME JAM.

In case you don’t know or haven’t played it yet, My submission is a game entitled WELCOME CHALLENGER or THE CHALLENGER. Yes, at the time of me writing this, the banner is misspelled.

The first idea I had was a simple snake game, mostly for practice before making the game I really wanted to make. An exponentially difficult snake game. So I got started with the basic snake game I wanted to produce for practice. The game engine of choice this time was Construct 2.  I made some sprites, a little square for the snake’s head, and the background. However, as I continued, I found that the events I was using weren’t working. I would hit up, it would go right. Every direction sent the snake right. So I looked for simple snake tutorials, but the only one I found for Construct 2 was too large of a project for my free account. So I scrapped this idea. So I went back to the drawing board.

The idea I ended up with was simple, a platformer with obviously bad mechanics. So I got started, I made a simple character with one animation, and added the platformer behavior. I made a platform, with solid behaviors. I made the background follow the camera, and the camera follows the player. Up next, I got started making a level. The first level, “STARTING EASY” has no major glitches. It’s designed to give you the impression that this will be a standard platformer. The second level, “IT’S MOVING” proceeds to add a new mechanic AND a new glitch/bug, the “level end skip” glitch. This glitch allows the player to jump over the end of the level, the player then falls past the Killzone, and doesn’t die, leaving them with only one option: restarting.

The third level, “GOING UP”, adds another glitch, and makes the level vertical rather than horizontal. The glitch in this level is the “Killzone pass” glitch. In this glitch, there is a single hole in the Killzone, which has nothing under it, basically ending similar to the “level end skip” glitch.

The fourth level improves on the third, with no new glitches or mechanics. The 5th level includes all the glitches and mechanics in one level.

I also included a loading screen for no reason other than delaying the player.

In future versions of this game, I want to add more levels and more mechanics, maybe a side-to-side moving platform. I also want to flesh out the story. But For now, I think WELCOME CHALLENGER is good enough to submit to the game jam. So I have uploaded and released it on itch.io. It plays in the browser and supports the controller and keyboard. I’ve left a link in the description of my podcast, so if you haven’t played it yet it would be greatly appreciated.