Welcome to A Hop in Dimensions: Tea Party Edition, a fast-paced, 8-bit platformer where players follow the White Rabbit on his mad dash through strange dimensions– after all, he has to make it to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party on time! Drawing inspiration from the tale of Alice in Wonderland, the game’s premise is simple: you must guide the Rabbit as he hops, dodges, and fights through each dimension he travels through to get to his final destination. As the White Rabbit, your job is to fend for yourself as you go, using combat mechanisms such as kicks, and the occasional magic spell to fend off enemies. But the real test, in all of this, lies in how quickly you find the white rabbit’s time pieces while remaining unscathed, to unlock your path through to the next dimension. The only way you can heal is by drinking cups of tea, mysteriously left behind by the Mad Hatter to lead the way! The pixel art design within each level brings a quirky, almost nostalgic feel to the gameplay, with fun, interactive elements for the gameplay to come alive. Levels can be played and replayed, and even viewed after the rabbit has reached the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party! This parkour based platformer will be a fresh experience for every new player, with tricky parkour, and puzzles that will require quick thinking to obtain the time pieces to get to the next level. So, will you help the White Rabbit reach the Mad Hatter’s tea party on time?

How to Play:

• W/Space: Jump
• A/D: Left/Right Movement
• A/D + Space: Wall Jump (Order matters!)
• Space + A/D: Dash
• E: Interact with doors, levers, and portals

Attacks: Use your mouse to aim!

• K/Left Click: Short Range Attack
• Ate cake? You get a long range power-up! Right Click to use!

Post Mortem:

From the start, we had a clear vision of the type of game we wanted to make, which allowed us to conceptualize the necessary player mechanics and types of levels we wanted to make. We are especially proud of the jump mechanics and the level design. The jump mechanics took longer than we expected to implement and perfect, and the level design turned out much better than we had expected. The cohesiveness of our parkour elements (wall jumps, timepiece placement, moving platforms) worked out better than expected. We also love how our art turned out to be for the game. 

Despite our successes, we encountered several challenges. Debugging the wall jump mechanics proved to be particularly complex, as it required more adjustments with every element we added into our environment. Level design was also more challenging than we had initially anticipated. Designing levels that intuitively guide the player to the end without explicit instructions required countless iterations. Balancing player abilities, such as preventing them from becoming overpowered, also added another layer of complexity– one example of this was our fireball. Initially, this mechanic was one that was default assigned to the player, but it was so overpowered that it became difficult to not just nerf all the enemies at the beginning of the level before hopping through it with ease. One of our enemies, the alien, also had an overpowered attack– the player had no chance to react. Our art style also was not cohesive at all in the beginning. From over-rendered backgrounds to assets that were just shy of the pixel style we were going for, we needed to find a middle ground so that our game assets harmonized to create an environment that maintained player retention. 

We overcame these issues through perseverance and iteration. The wall jump mechanics underwent numerous rounds of debugging, testing, and refinement until we were confident in their reliability and responsiveness. Similarly, for level design, we repeatedly tested and iterated on layouts, experimenting and refined our maps as we went. As for art resources, we did a lot of research trying to find the art we needed; and what we couldn’t find, we hand made. We made the players long-range attack a power up to ensure that it remained the special attack that we knew it to be. As for the alien, we made sure to reduce the power and speed of its attacks so the player had a fair shot at avoiding them. 

This process taught us the importance of iteration and adaptability in game development. Challenges such as debugging mechanics and refining level design helped us understand the importance of failing and reiterating to perfect our project. We also learned the significance of designing around the player—ensuring that the mechanics and environment work together to provide an enjoyable experience.