Mouthy's Adventure

Development Thoughts:

When I first read the jam's themes, "Fresh Breath, Here We Come" stuck out to me. "Here We Come" made me want to make a game with a sense of speed to it. From there I thought it would be interesting to combine the aesthetic of a certain era of shareware game with smooth, fast movement. I envisioned Mouthy, as they are now called, to have a gravity to them and I wanted to be able to whip around corners which I feel I've accomplished. From there I came up with the character of Mouthy and the primary pickup, feeling that the idea of chowing down of a tube of toothpaste was sufficiently cursed for the jam. Of the things I think could be improved, I feel I could have leaned farther into the imagery.

Things That Went Well:

I think Mouthy as a character both controls how I wanted and looks how I envisioned. I like the idea of having a grid based world but a character that breaks free of the grid, from animation to movement.

The UI came together quite nicely, I gained understanding of Godot's layout system and created the vibe I was looking for.

Things That Could've Gone Better:

Despite noble intentions of using the game jam as a vector to study procedural generation, I ended up with an excruciatingly simple level generation algorithm. While in some ways I think the final result is suited to the aesthetic sensibility of the game, a la Chip's Challenge, I wish more intentional level design was taking place. If anything I think the gameplay is let down by failures of level design.

While the sound design of Mouthy's Adventure is serviceable, I am discontent with my understanding of working with Godot's sound engine. I never scope audio properly within the scene and it shows.