"Reversal" - ZHDK 2023

       For my assignment, I decided to attempt a project most relevant to my course, which was developing a short video game in time for the hand in.We were given the theme of “Reversal”, and so I thought a fitting video game could have something to do with either a reversal of expectation, whether through the art of surprise, a clever spin or through interesting movement mechanics


With “Frogletics” I hoped to combine all of these ideas into a 2D Platformer.Originally, the game began as a simple rope swing simulator on GameMaker. The idea was that a frog, instead of pulling his prey towards him, would instead use his tongue to navigate towards the prey.

Though the gross idea has changed since, this original idea of a frog pulling itself towards its enemies spurred me to include a rope swinging mechanic in the early stages of this project, where the level was empty, and Herbibert (the protagonist) was swinging and jumping from the left to the right of the screen, attempting to catch as many flies as possible, before gaining weight which simultaneously made him slower, and eventually, depending on his weight, thrown to be cooked in a pot.

However, after some playing around, I realized the game was much too dull on its own, and without a plot or an incentive to play again, it wasn’t really much of a game rather than an interactive screen saver.

To further encourage players to make time-sensitive decisions, and give some weight to the different "Tricks" Herbibert can do, I have made it possibly for Herbibert to "fail" his landings should he manage to fail a roll or not finish a trick in time ( such as spinning into a forward roll )

I thought it would add an element of surprise and be especially "clear" to the player if Herbibert's failures would be reflected on his body. Initially, it also affected his movement speed, but this proved boring and was removed, whereas now the more damage he takes, the more certain movements are affected. It would be interesting to expand upon the build of Herbibert as to make it particular to each body part. This would require a small redesign of the character

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However, after some playing around, I realized the game was much too dull on its own, and without a plot or an incentive to play again, it wasn’t really much of a game rather than an interactive screen saver.


So I decided to flesh out the world in which Herbibert lived in.
As I named the project Frogletics because of the “acrobatic” nature of Herbibert’s movements, I decided he would be taking part in the olympics.


Due to the frog’s naturally strong legs and incredible leaping ability, I figured the only way to rightfully judge a “Froglympics” was through style. Since then, time was spent developing special spins and landings, which would award the player points on their duration and combination.


Though I was able to achieve this, I feel like the overall game is severely lacking in content and, if it were to be judged at a “Game Jam”, would have failed.

Since it’s conception, “Reversal” has come to mean something else in Frogletics. Instead of reversing the concept of a frog’s natural behavior, I instead allowed him to roll forwards and backwards, opening up a world of dynamic direction changes which make for some exciting gameplay due to the sense of unpredictability and fluidity to the character’s movements.