Ink & Echoes
Author: Fedir Kyrychenko
Game for: The Healthy Gamer Game Jam
Theme: The game is based on a fictional member of the Healthy Gamer community named Morgan (with apologies to anyone actually named Morgan). Morgan can appear directly as a character in the game, represent the player, or simply inspire the design of the experience.
Several ideas shape the theme:
- Time behaves strangely for Morgan – hours may pass in what feels like minutes, and deadlines seem to appear out of nowhere (time dilation)
- Morgan has many half-finished projects that once felt extremely important when they were started (project hopping)
- Morgan often connects ideas in unusual ways, discovering insights through nonlinear thinking paths
My interpretation: In my interpretation, Morgana is a scientist with ADHD who accidentally falls into the world of her own work diary.
Inside this strange space, time flows unpredictably: hours compress into minutes and deadlines suddenly emerge. The world itself is formed from living sketches of her past ideas – unfinished projects, chaotic notes, and experimental concepts.
These fragments create a labyrinth of puzzles that Morgana must navigate in order to find her way back to herself.
Genre: Puzzle, Pixel Art, Top-Down
Already implemented in Godot (2025): During the initial development period the following systems and mechanics were implemented:
- Tile-based top-down grid system
- Grid-based character movement
- Box pushing mechanics
- Environmental traps
- Basic enemy with pathfinding AI
- Time-freeze mechanic with cooldown and visual indicator
- Key and door interaction system
- Electric plasma line trap implemented using a custom shader and raycast collision detection
- Rope hook mechanic for interacting with boxes and enemies
- Player death animation and death screen
- Sound effects for traps, plasma, enemies, doors, and abilities
- Level selection menu and first UI implementation
- HTML5 build exported from Godot and deployed on itch.io
- Initial set of game levels
- Cookie-based level progression system for unlocking completed levels
Milestone 1 (09.03)
- Feature 1: Comprehensive rework of the collision system by introducing a separate configuration file that stores collision rules between objects (as well as a rework of all movement functions in the game). (3 hours)
- Feature 2: Added a new gameplay object – a teleporter/portal that can move both the player and boxes. Including new SE (3 hours)
And its password:f-3R=aJCi_)nLK_
Milestone 2 (23.03)
- Continuation of the previous milestone: implemented two new portal objects – a green portal and a red portal – each with different properties. One allows the hook to pass through it, while the other does not. (3 hours)
- Debugging and bug fixing related to the new portal mechanics and their integration into gameplay. (2 hours)
- Fixed issues related to the save system. (1 hour)
I fixed a fairly large number of bugs related to hook length and collision handling when the hook passes through a portal. However, there are still several serious issues remaining with portal behavior when either the player is standing directly on the portal or a box is placed directly on it. I will demonstrate these problems in more detail during the class.
Milestone 3 (06.04)
- Fixed an issue where a box standing on the green portal could not be hooked from the other end of the portal, as the hook was ignoring it. (2 hours)
- Fixed a bug where, if the player was standing on the green portal, the hook passed through all colliders. (1.5 hours)
- Fixed incorrect hook behavior when the player was standing directly next to a portal and used the hook through it, causing the box to appear behind the player. (1.5 hours)
- Fixed an issue where a box standing on a portal would fly behind the player after being hooked, greatly exceeding the intended hook length. (1 hour)
Milestone 4 (20.04)
- 5-6 new levels with portals (2-3 hours)
- portal redesign, shader and new shape (2-3 hours)
- extra: door code fix, set up should be not manual; dialogue system for story telling (2-3 hours)