Breadbound

Roles

Designer (Mechanics and Narrative),

Writer, Project Manager

Team

5 People

Time

8 weeks

Tools Used

GameMaker 2, Aseprite, Word

Download on Itch.io

Genre:

2D Platformer Adventure

BreadBound was my first university project and completed game. It's a pixel art narrative-driven 2D platformer. Though the story is comedic, the themes revolve around moral choices and the idea of giving people another chance, even if they've wronged you.

You start off in a peaceful little town with some townsfolk you get to know as you speak with them. After checking in on the local scientist's project, things go horribly wrong, and now, everything you know and love has been corrupted and destroyed. Your task is to get the Bread as soon as you can whilst helping your fellow neighbors fight the corruption from within. In the end, the Divine Bread judges your actions and you transcend to a higher plane of existence, survive, or suffer condemnation.

My Contributions

Wrote the entire script and the character cards
Played a significant role in creating the concept and general story
Managed the project and kept the team organized using Scrum/Agile methodologies
Assisted with level design

Assisted the programmers by implementing certain gameplay mechanics
Worked closely with the artists when designing the characters visually
Developed all the saveable NPCs' personalities based on a set theme (seven deadly sins)

Process

In the first half of the game, where the town is peaceful, the player interacts with all the townsfolk and gets to know about them both via their character cards and by engaging in varied conversations.

Each character has some quips you can listen to if you talk to them again after the main plot-related dialogues.

A lot of the gameplay is about consequences, giving people a chance, and paying attention to your conversations. This can affect whether you can eventually save people from corruption and the ending you receive.

Here is an example of how things can go wrong when you didn't pay enough attention.

The timer in the second half of the game is actually not relevant to the player's performance. What matters is what kinds of decisions they make toward other people, even under pressure. Most negative choices are the first options you can choose, so if you blast through the game and take the quick 'n' easy way out (not helping anyone) you ultimately face the consequential guilt.

Immersion is created by allowing the player to make choices that impact the world around them. However, most of the dialogue branching is an illusion of choice. In the end, a lot of the options lead to the same things and the real choices boil down to one or two lines. But, this was hidden in the gameplay, so players get to feel more powerful than they actually are.

Ultimately, there are only three endings: ultimate, neutral, and bad. The neutral one is varied, as it accustoms to each specific playthrough.