Cacophony (YGD Edition)

General Description:

Cacophony is a puzzle-platformer where you are given some degree of control over what platforms are active. The player character has a strong connection with the music they listen to that changes their perception of the world around them, depending on what instruments are playing. This is reflected in the background music of the level changing when you enable or disable a button that controls a platform.

The goal is to get to the end of a given level. You will not be able to exit a level until you have all possible buttons active in that level. If there are no buttons available for activation, the exit will be open at all times.

I submitted this prototype to the 2018 Young Game Design BAFTA Game Making category after building it in the span of ten weeks, and it was nominated. I'm uploading this to here in the same state it was in when I submitted it to the competition.

Features:

• Control the platforms you jump on and the music you listen to throughout the levels
• 10 levels - 4 "easy" difficulty, 3 "medium" difficulty, and 3 "hard" difficulty
• 4 background music tracks - all of which I created
• Designated dance button - because why not
• Protagonist is a stick person with radical shades and headphones
• I finally show everyone that my High School Music qualification isn't a COMPLETE waste

Controls:

All of this is shown on the main menu of the game as well, but just in case:

• WASD/Arrow Keys - Move around
• 1/2/3/4/5 - Activate/deactivate buttons that control platforms/instruments
  • Note - Number pad hotkeys are not currently implemented, sorry; only the number keys on the top rows of keyboards work for now
• Spacebar - Dance
  • Note - Currently, this is functionally useless; I added it just for fun
• R - Restart level
• Escape - Quit game (exits to desktop)
• F4 - Toggle full-screen

Development Status:

10/07/18: I only got back from the YGD ceremony two days ago. For now, I'm leaving this prototype as it is. The code is messy, so I'd have to rebuild this from the ground up to have any potential to make a proper game with it. I consider this more of a prototype/demo to test out the buttons' functionality and practice designing levels, rather than an actual game.

Credits/Tools Used:

• Developer - Jordan Han

For those that are interested in what I used to create the game, as I made it on a relatively low budget.

• Game Engine - GameMaker Studio 1.4
• Art Software - Aseprite
• Music Software - Bosca Ceoil
• Sound Effects - BFXR
• Sound Editing - Audacity

Contact:

Twitter - @ThatGuyYouDK