Game concept: Gravity Boy – A gravity well platformer

6th November, 2022

So this is an idea that came to me a few weeks ago, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.

The premise is simple: Create gravity wells and use them to “slingshot” your player character across the level, allowing them to traverse gaps.

It’s roughly inspired by a game jam I took part in last year, for which the theme was “Gravity”.

For my jam submission, I made a game called Gravity Golf, in which you’d take a single shot, and then use a series of player-placed gravity wells to guide that shot around a number of obstacles, to make it through the course.

With Gravity Boy, you’re effectively doing the same thing in real-time, to target your jumps.

Anyway, that’s the gist. Give the summary below a read and let me know what you think.

I think there’s a pretty good chance I’ll want to make a prototype of this as well, so stay tuned for that!

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    Game identity / mantra

    Summarise the idea in one sentence

    A physics-bending platformer in which you use gravity wells to "slingshot" yourself to unreachable heights.

    Design pillars

    Describe the game in 3 words

    • Hard to master
    • Vast
    • Elegant

    What should players think/feel when playing?

    "That jump was so satisfying to finally pull off!"

    What makes it fun?

    The game combines platforming mechanics with real-time gravity manipulation. To successfully traverse the map, you'll need to get the combination of the two just right.

    Game format

    Genre

    Platformer

    Platform

    PC / WebGL

    Game detail

    Story / setting

    TBD, but my current angle is something along the lines of the following: You wake up abandoned in a space station and need to head off in search of your people, or answers.

    Strapped to your back is your standard issue gravity well generator, with it, you can manipulate the laws of physics, to create gravity wells that can be used to slingshot yourself to greater heights.

    I specifically want it to feel vast, expansive, and equally bleak yet beautiful. So space is a natural setting, especially given the gravity theme.

    Core mechanic

    The core mechanic for this game is all about gravity wells.

    Essentially, you will use the left thumbstick and A button to move and jump, as you would in any platformer. But then, using your right thumbstick, you can position a gravity well somewhere in close proximity to yourself and then "lock it in-place", by holding the right trigger down.

    With the right trigger still held down, you can then jump and make use of the gravitational pull of the well to launch yourself upwards or downwards, or possibly straight into a wall of spikes.

    Features

    • Platforming gameplay
    • Physics puzzles, including moving the player or objects through challenging obstacles
    • Increasing complexity may introduce features like multiple gravity wells, pending gameplay testing

    Interface

    Input device

    Gamepad

    Controls

    • Left thumbstick - Move
    • Right thumbstick - Position gravity well
    • A button - Jump
    • Right trigger - Lock-in and activate gravity well
    • Left trigger - Lock-in and activate second gravity well (TBD)

    Art & design

    Art direction summary

    • Experiment with simple lo-fi illustration, rather than pixel art.
    • Muted desaturated colours.
    • Potentially some fancy lighting/glow effects on the gravity wells.

    Art influences

    • The Swapper (in terms of vibe and setting)
    • Alto's adventure (in terms of lo-fi 2D artwork)

    Concept art

    Prototype

    What does a 'minimum viable product' prototype look like?

    A series of 5 simple levels to demonstrate the gravity well mechanic.

    No other mechanics in-place, just 5 levels of increasing complexity.