Liminal Space

A 2D puzzle platformer game, Liminal Space follows the story of Echo, a space naval commander who is stranded on a distant planet and left blind from a spaceship crash. To progress through the levels, the player must use their seismic sense ability to reveal the surrounding area and a push mechanic to move platforms and rubble to form a safe passage.

Echo and their crew are sent out on a mission to respond to a distress call from J-43, a planet that has yet to be thoroughly explored. As they enter the atmosphere, they lose control of their craft and crash. Echo emerges, the lone survivor, from the wreckage and falls into a puddle of acidic liquid which causes them to lose their sight. Disoriented and lost in their new surroundings, they struggle to find their radio and attempt to contact their home base. 

As you progress through the different levels, you discover more information about the various environments and wreckages across the planet. With unique gameplay mechanics and a minimal art style, Liminal Space will challenge players to think of clever solutions to this puzzle platformer and ultimately find a way back home.

What went right in our eyes while working on this project is that, for a team of four, we were able to work together well to put this game together. With one programmer and three other artists, the game mechanics work and the game runs smoothly. Orion brought to our group impeccable talent with coding along with Avery providing the art and overall aesthetic of the game; accompanied by Cynthia's storyboard and Meghan's music.

We are proud that the art and aesthetic of the game pull together and immerse the player in the environment. From the cutscenes to the backgrounds, to the pause menus, the art stays consistent and never strays from the theme. Also, because this is a platformer game, the code we used was different from the code we learned in class. So being able to incorporate details like menu selections and fluid jump mechanics worked out well. 

What surprised us in development, that worked out well is that within such a close time frame, dealing with bugs, we managed to create two levels with exceptional mechanics. We can provide the player with moving backgrounds as they jump and move around on their adventure through the terrain. The game exceeded our expectations on how well it flowed.

There were a few issues that developed as we worked on Liminal Space, stemming from the fact we initially focused on the narrative and art aspect more than the actual mechanics of the game. This resulted in: The number of levels reduced from a seven-level game to five, to two as time passed. The storyline and animations could not be incorporated as intended, and we had to remove enemies/combat from the game due to time constraints and bugs. We needed at least a second programmer, as we underestimated the technicalities that we would confront during our limited time on this project.

We had to overcome many problems including communication with individuals in our group and making sure we all understood our assignments and finding different programs or tutorials to make our game run.

Due to time constraints, we had to shorten our game and general use of the storyline animation. We wanted to make the game in a specific genre, so unfortunately the length of the current game cannot show the full effect we were going for. 

We learned a lot about time management and how to divide our work evenly amongst ourselves. We spent too much time focused on art before we looked at the mechanics, however, As we went along with our project we learned what to prioritize in game development.

In conclusion, Liminal Space was a learning experience and we were not sure what to expect, as this was our first time. We learned how to prioritize certain aspects of game development while ensuring quality players will enjoy. We are all very proud of what we made, this is a big accomplishment for us.

CONCEPT ART