THE SPARK

This time, I wanted to share a couple of screenshots of how my mind works. When I see a jam topic, I start brainstorming ideas that might be interesting. The hardest part is finding the spark, the seed of what I want to express.

This time, “strange cravings” was the topic. I didn’t want to focus on the obvious connection to food, but rather on the psychological aspect, so I went to the dictionary to look up the meaning (in Spanish) of “craving”: “An urgent and fleeting desire, usually capricious and uncontrollable.” The duality of “control” and “craving” immediately came to mind, and of course, the series Dexter. The spark was ignited. The key phrase was: “Strange cravings haunt you. Do you gather them or avoid them?”

TIME AND MECHANICS

I have little programming knowledge (but I have done some games with GDevelop 5), let alone design or art. In three hours, I couldn’t focus on creating art and wanted to do something conceptual, so I focused on creating basic shapes (boxes, spheres, etc.) and adding particle and lighting effects. I wanted to tell a story from the perspective of a predator with strong cravings (Hunger). In that duality, either he followed the path of containment (blue spheres) or he succumbed to his desires… The desires had to be more attractive, easier to obtain (they are attracted to the player), which translates into red spheres that increase their attraction speed with each level. It becomes increasingly difficult for the protagonist to stay on the right path. He does so only for the only person he has ever loved in his twisted mind, who has been his mother figure.

The countdown, with its annoying noise (which decreases with each level), symbolizes the imperative need to make a decision. And the obstacles that take time away are the conventional daily routine of each person.

Lastly, the movement with a lot of sliding and momentum symbolizes the difficulty of maintaining control in moments of intense stress. I was clear that this movement should be like this.

PROTAGONIST OR PLAYER? THE STORY

Finally, I had the story in mind. It was going to be longer, with many more mechanics and twists, but it was impossible in 3 hours. So, I adapted the lines to what I was designing with the time I had. The great thing about each level is that I only had to change lines and design the puzzles, so I only needed about 10 minutes for each level.

The protagonist of the story seems to be the player. But in the penultimate and final level, it is revealed that the protagonist is addressing the player to give them the chance to be one of their victims or to “escape” a fatal fate. Although, in the mind of a psychopath, even good endings are twisted endings…