Red's Daring Rescue Devlog

Red’s Daring Rescue

Do you ever get tired of the feeling of being good at a game? Have you ever wanted to play a game that specifically tries to use your experience and skill as a downside? If so, congratulations, Red’s Daring Rescue is here. If not, it’s still here so play anyway. Red’s Daring Rescue is a two-dimensional (2D), side scrolling, platformer aimed to be harder for more experienced players. In Red’s Daring Rescue the player, or players, travel from their home to the end of the spooky marsh to save their friends from the evil bad guys.  

I thought of an idea similar to Red’s Daring Rescue when I tried to think of a game that is harder the more games you have played, one that exploits tendencies players have built up. Red’s Daring Rescue came to me specifically when introducing a new player to the Original Super Mario Bros. and watching the first thing they do be intentionally jump down a hole to their death to see where it led. The final concept came partially through subtractive design in the fact that vertical wrap around is the main distinctive feature, and partially being an anti-game in the fact that it’s ok to jump down holes that lead to a restart in other games. 

Red’s Daring Rescue will be aimed towards newer gamers as they will not have the experience telling themselves not to try certain things; Red’s Daring Rescue will reward creative thinking and trying lots of ideas. It is also aimed towards casual gamers looking to try platformer with a slight twist. Veteran platformers might enjoy it too as Red’s Daring Rescue will be focused on shedding expectations most 2D-platformers stick to. Red’s Daring Rescue will be somewhat puzzle focused mixed with some hard platforming. This will ideally lessen the gap between new players and experienced ones.

Story 
The players will be small, coloured blobs, the first player being the titular Red and the second being Blue. The game begins with a second or third, depending on single or two players, blob being kidnapped by the bad guys of the game and taking them to the end of the creepy marsh. The players will then make their beyond the green hilly area they live in and through the marsh to save their friend.

Design
I plan to create the sound effects and background music for Red’s Daring Rescue. The background music will differ between the two levels and are detail with the descriptions of said levels.

Overall, the art style will be hand-drawn and cartoonish. The exact feeling and colour scheme will also differ between the two levels but will be cohesive with each other. The levels themselves will be made using a tile map made from sprite I create hopefully. The game will be split into two different levels. The first will be in the hills where the characters are from and the second is the marsh. Picture 1 is the beginnings of my design planning. The inspiration for this style is the mobile game Doodle jump, picture 2

Levels            
             -The First Level (Green Hill Zone)  The first level will be inspired by the first world New Super Mario Bros. The first level will introduce players to the primary distinctive feature of Reds Daring Rescue, vertical wrap around. This will be what the puzzles in the game will be designed around and will, in the first level, make the player begin to think beyond the boundaries of the screen edges to solve platforming challenges they come across. Mostly, the first level will play like a tutorial for the second; it will introduce the controls, the unique mechanics and provide hints as to how to use them and it will be shorter. The art style and colour scheme will be bright and cheerful like World 1 in New Super Mario Bros; picture 3 is an example. The music will aim to be heroic and/or inspiring but still fitting for the cartoon style, similar to Nymbasa City by Kunning Fox from Pokémon Black and White 2.

            -The Second Level (Mirkwood) 

The second level will be darker and aim for a feeling similar to the Luigi’s Mansion race from Mario Kart 7 combined with the forest at night in Kingdom: New Lands, pictures 4 and 5 respectively. The music and art style will evoke this too with deep sounds and more greys and purples. The background music will be somewhat similar to a lo-fi version of Cradles by Sub Urban. This level won’t provide as many clues as the first leaving the player or players to try and utilise what they have learnt in the first level on their own and to try new things.

Additional Features
There will be a help option for the players to be able to consult if they get stuck at any part. This will provide a clue based on what section the players are up to. The help menu will also provide a run-down of the controls in case players forget. As mentioned earlier, there will be a local multiplayer option, however, the levels will be identical for the most part. The players, though basic in design, will be slightly animated based on the direction they are moving.

Time Based Features
If there is not enough time to implement everything above then, in the hopes having a properly functioning game, the background music will cut. The slight animation on the player and their custom sprites will be cut too if there is still not enough time. Beyond just general polishing, if there is enough time upon completion another level will be added. It will be after the marsh and so another step up in difficulty but beyond this there is no design ideas yet.

References:

Gipp, S. (2019) New Super Mario Bros. Wii is now Old Super Mario Bros. Wii. Available at:https://retronauts.com/article/1372/new-super-mario-bros-wii-is-now-old-super-mario-bros-wii (Accessed 17th of August 2022).

Kingdom Wiki. (2021) Forest. Available at: https://kingdomthegame.fandom.com/wiki/Forest (Accessed 18th of August 2022).

Luigi’s Mansion Wiki. (2020) Mario Kart (Series). Available at: https://luigi-mansion.fandom.com/wiki/Mario_Kart_(Series)#articleComments  (Accessed 18th of August 2022).

Velasquez, S. (2019) Retro Review: Doodle Jump. Available at: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/08/02/retro-review-doodle-jump/ (Accessed 21st of August 2022).