A mini prototype for Banned Together, developed for the Just Play Jam in 2023
Built using Bitsy Color 3D (v7.2) & Bitsy Savior
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Empty template: A large, empty space with a front door, windows, and a roof over your head. Includes convenient tiles for bookshelves (with and without books), an elevator, and alternate floor & ceiling styles. What more could you need? 🤷🏻♀️
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Basic library: A two-floor structure built using the elements provided in the empty template. It provides some simple narrative interaction, in the form of a thought bubble, a love letter, and a missing book that can be discovered.
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Staircases: Similar to the basic library, but explores using staircases, instead of an elevator, to travel up & down among three floors.
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Infinite hallway: A first test of using invisible exits to create seamless transitions between spaces, resulting in impossible geometries and surreal gameplay. Unfortunately, I had trouble making these transitions truly seamless in this context. You can fake it with a dialog, but otherwise there's a small hickup when teleporting during linear motion. (Relatedly, this was also my first test of invisible items as dialog triggers for internal thoughts!)
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Impossible corner: It turns out that impossible corners (ie turns with more than four 90° angles) work much better! Since forward movement stops briefly when turning, the transitions are actually seamless. For this simple setup, I only provided one-directional movement, so things will break a little bit if you try backtracking.
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Impossible courtyard: Building on the impossible corner experiment, this setup supports bidirectional movement around a central courtyard, which "magically" changes appearance to match the color of the floor you were last walking on. I think this could help drive some powerful effects for our game (eg time travel mechanics)!
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Lost Woods: The culmination of my experiments, this complete, playable puzzle uses corner transitions to create an impossible space akin to the "Lost Woods" from the Zelda series! I had to tweak some settings to smooth the transition effect when using multiple rooms, but I think it worked out alright in the end. (I also took inspiration from Nat's Dewey Decimal idea, providing clues through wall signs 😉) Whether or not we use this mechanic, the file also includes some improved, 16x16 bit textures, which I'm pretty pleased with and would consider reusing! 🎨
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Large library
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Storytelling with the Dewey Decimal System