Stop me
‘Stop Me’ is a puzzle platformer with a dynamic camera on the side where the gameplay basis is the possibility to stop time. The game action takes place in alternative dark Russia of the 00s, the main character is a boy with a unique ability who ran away from home.
The game includes various platform mechanics. The character can move, walk, jump, squat, swing on the rope as well as can act with objects: move the things, push and activate them in various ways.
The main game’s mechanics is the possibility to stop the time. The character can move while all the objects in the world stop. This possibility has a restricting timer and the main game’s puzzles are based on this.
The character can die if the player acts unsafely or fails to cope with danger. Each kind of death is linked to separate animations and sounds. When reviving the player appears at the last passed check-point.
At each game’s level the easter eggs are present — the chips that either could be found in hard accessible places or could be got for a non-standard playthrough.
The game has the system of a rail-tracked camera that follows the player but moves along its own glide path that allows to smoothly zoom in, zoom out and change the viewing angle.
The character can change the animations and the management flexibility depending on his state. For example, when he is wounded, he holds his hip and runs slower. At the same time the animation of the state will work when squatting, when jumping as the main mixing layer. Also the character has a separate animation blueprint on the head for a quick switching between the face animations.
Large attention was paid to sound design. The ambients work to create the atmosphere and some other sounds enhance the player’s feelings. For example, we hear the water splashing when we carry a bucket. Or with one sound we understand that the chosen axe is sharp and heavy. And the cat’s murmuring when being stroked eases the nerves.
Levels
At the moment five game levels with different atmosphere and gaming situations are integrated into the demo version.
Review of all the levels
For detecting the interactive objects the technology of the character’s head watching the object is often used in the game.
In the scene where the player initially needs to stop the time behind there is a graffiti ‘Space’ that reminds on the necessity to click the space.