Battle identical robotic prototypes in procedurally generated arenas to prove you are the "Magnum Opus". 

The more damage you and your rivals take, the more "mods" become unlocked, creating a risk/reward mechanic where everyone is at their most powerful on the brink of death.

Prototype game made for the Game Maker's Toolkit Game Jam 2019! #GMTKJam

Controls

• "C" KEY: Fire shot.
• Arrow Keys: Movement.
• "Up" Arrow (while grounded): Boost into the sky, engaging Jetpack and expending Jetpack Fuel.
• "Down" arrow (while hovering over ground): Land, conserving Jetpack Fuel.

Gameplay

An action-arcade platformer. You drop into a procedurally generated cave and must scour the tunnels using your Jetpack for fights with other Prototypes. Manage your Jetpack Fuel by grounding yourself by pressing the "down" arrow into the ground.

When you find a Prototype, you'll be locked into combat with them in a fight to the death. As you and your rival take damage, powerful Mods will come online, ramping up the tension until the final blow.

Once you defeat a Prototype, go searching for the next one. There are 6 total in this demo. While your Score ticks down every second, defeating Prototypes will grant you increasingly valuable "bounties" that reward you with more points. Compete for the High Score!

How "Magnum Opus" Fits the "Only One" Theme

The theme for GMTKJam 2019 was "Only One". I wanted to focus on the idea of "only one" enemy with complex AI - instead of the default for most games, where are many enemies with simple AI. Of course, this presented a number of challenges I wanted to solve with the design:

• Learning an enemy with complex AI is challenging! Part of the draw of simple enemies is that the player can easily understand the enemy behavior and develop strategies to overcome them. Throwing an enemy with dozens of capabilities at a player would be overwhelming. Instead, I want to ramp the player up to the full ability set by having them fight many prototypes of the same enemy, with each encounter introducing a new "mod". This goal is further realized by the "damage unlocks mods" system that ensures the pace of a fight mechanically is on the player's terms.
• A single enemy could get boring to fight! Originally I was thinking a single instance of an enemy that stalks you, common in horror games. But fighting the same enemy over and over again would arguably get boring. To improve this feeling, I wanted players to fight increasingly powerful prototypes, and make sure that each engagement felt fresh across multiple sessions because the order of mods is randomized each time, along with the shape of the arena.

How I'm Going to Improve "Magnum Opus" Going Forward

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to put everything into the game. I'm going to continue working on it though, now that the jam is done, and here's a rough idea of some additional features that will come online over the next few weeks:

1. "Mods" Logic: Unfortunately, most of the mods don't actually work in-game; only the UI elements are working properly. Getting the "mods/damage" system working properly will be my first goal.
2. "Mods" skill tree customization: The original plan was the player would only start with 3 Mods, then have a progression system over multiple plays where the player could unlock additional mods, customizing the order in which they are slotted (and therefore the order in which they would come online upon taking damage).
3. Highlight the Risk/Reward Mechanic: I really like the risk/reward mechanic of keeping your health low to keep most of your Mods unlocked. Going forward, I'll add health pickups and other situations in the game where you can really feel the decision weight of maintaining your health at a level where you won't risk dying, but you have the right Mods active.
4. Improved Level Design: There's not much going on with the procedural levels. From an art standpoint, I'll have more interesting art assets to make each room feel totally fresh, with a combination of nature and mechanical assets and different biomes. From a gameplay standpoint, I want each biome to have more hazards and interact-able objects that can influence gameplay: geysers to blow you around, icicles that fall when you're under them, fuel pools to quickly juice up, explosive crates, etc.

Thank you so much for playing! I'm bummed I didn't get to fully realize the vision for this, but I hope you like this "prototype" and will be willing to play the final version of "Magnum Opus" in the future!