This Is The Only Level
This is a game that, as the title says, only has a single level.
Well, "level" as in a stage with platforms and spikes and a button and a start and finish. But the game had different "levels" in the sense that each time you completed the stage, some game mechanic would change. And this change would also change the whole dynamic for solving the stage.
For example, the game starts off straightforward: hop across some platforms, hit a button to open a door, and then exit the stage.
In the next stage, though, the game would reverse the controls on you. The player, naturally hitting right, would end up heading left into the spikes. This essentially signals to the player, "hey, we're messing with you now."
It was pretty interesting to see how a change in mechanics can greatly alter the player's view on the level. In one stage, the player can only jump using the spikes, which changes the dynamic from avoiding spikes into having to seek out spikes.
Well, "level" as in a stage with platforms and spikes and a button and a start and finish. But the game had different "levels" in the sense that each time you completed the stage, some game mechanic would change. And this change would also change the whole dynamic for solving the stage.
For example, the game starts off straightforward: hop across some platforms, hit a button to open a door, and then exit the stage.
In the next stage, though, the game would reverse the controls on you. The player, naturally hitting right, would end up heading left into the spikes. This essentially signals to the player, "hey, we're messing with you now."
It was pretty interesting to see how a change in mechanics can greatly alter the player's view on the level. In one stage, the player can only jump using the spikes, which changes the dynamic from avoiding spikes into having to seek out spikes.
Canabalt
The mechanics for this game were pretty straightforward: jump. Just jump. you don't even have to move, the game does that for you. You automatically run, you just need to jump to avoid the obstacles.
One interesting mechanic is that the longer you can dodge obstacles, the faster you speed up. One dynamic that I've seen develop out of this is that the player will intentionally hit obstacles in order to slow themselves down, giving them more time to react to harder jumps.
When my partner played this game, one thing I noticed is that the game is so fast-paced that those just starting out might not be able to pick up on everything happening on screen. For example, at one point a robot landed right in front of my partner, but it was really hard to catch, so she ran right into it. The game designer seems to understand this difficulty, because every time you die the game over screen will tell you why you died.Super Puzzle Platformer
This game had interesting mechanics. It took the traditional Tetris / tile-matching style game and blended it with 2D platformer controls. An interesting dynamic the game had was the balance between line-clearing and staying alive. Since your character is standing on those blocks, and underneath those blocks are spikes, clearing a block you're standing on drops you into the spikes. So players had to make sure that the block they're shooting is not one that will clear underneath them -- creating another layer of strategy.
Jurassic Heart
This game was a pretty straightforward dating sim mechanics-wise, except the target of your affections happens to be a T-Rex. Most of the enjoyment we got was just from the absurdity of the situation. However, we got a bad end early on and moved on to the next game.
QWOP
This is one of those styles of games where the challenge is entirely created by crappy physics controls. There are just 4 keys: Q, W, O, and P, hence the name. Each key is assigned to a section of the leg; Q and W control the thighs, while O and P control the calves. The main challenge is finding the right rhythm with which to press them. After that, the challenge becomes keeping that rhythm and yourself upright.
