Gomu

WISHLIST GOMU ON STEAM : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1828490/Gomu/

A pixel platformer where you control a cute little gum that use his elastic body to travel through levels. You can also build and share your own levels

The concept of Gomu come from the idea to make a "platformer game with a grapplin hook" I wanted to make in 2016 at the end of my studies

I had no graphism skills at that time, that's why the first version is pretty simple (made with MS Paint) and the little character was named Cubey. Despite the poor graphism, the platformer and grapplin hook gameplay was successfully implemented.

 

I let the prototype as is at the end of my studies . It is only in November 2020 that I quit my job to work at 100% on my games and with the skills I built up during my free time developing games.

I kept the original shape and improved the design and aniamtions  of the character and the quality of the environment. As the character has more a shape of gum than a cube, I used this visual identity to imagine new gameplay ideas with the gum/rubber properties and that is how Cubey became Gomu, which mean "gum" in japanese

I worked on a demo that contains a tutorial and a first level to show the potential of the game I want to make. The level is more a technical demo than a true first level (with a low difficulty), as I designed the level specifically to show some features using the the grab and bounce and I am not a great level designer.

That is why I worked on a level editor to allow players to create challenging levels well designed. For now the levels are saved and loaded locally, but I plan to save and load levels from a server.

I also prepared a mapping in the options to let the player choose more confortable configuration. I also manage Playstation and Xbox controllers and display the right buttons based on the used controller

I recently wrote a roadmap to know exactly what I want to put in my game and make updates later if I have more ideas.

For the first version of Gomu, I have plan to do the following tasks:

• Create more tutorials
  • Grab cooldown tutorial
  • Minimap tutorial
  • Collectible letters tutorial
  • Bounce acceleration tutorial
  • Mud tutorial
  • Moss tutorial
  • Level editor tutorial
• Add options in the mapping
• Potentially adding difficulty
• Add a story in Gomu 
• Add new biomes
  • Plain
  • Ice/Snow
  • Caverns
  • Lava
  • Desert
• Add levels of the main campaign
  • 2 tutorial levels in plain
  • 3 true levels in plain
  • 5 levels for each other biomes
• Add new level editor features
  • Prepare new biomes blocks
  • Hide grid and add clouds
  • Improve the save and load system from a server
    • Add an custom interface
    • Add a preview of the level
    • Add a database
• Add gameplay features
  • Dark environments
  • Vertical levels
  • Pursuit levels with horizontal scrolling
  • Avoid projectiles while being grabed to a moving platform
  • Going down in snow
  • Puzzle level with light in caverns
  • Solidify lava with water
  • Mirage in desert when too warm
  • Slow speed when too cold
  • Sliding ice
  • Cactus in desert
• Adding more interactions like this one