True Self is a first-person narrative platformer about conflicting thoughts and mental states.
It was created for the 2022 Global Game Jam and was inspired by the 'duality' theme of this year's GGJ.
I had three goals with True Self:
1. Have a creative break and test my game making skills in Unreal Engine.
2. Promote the 'duality' theme through an interesting mechanic.
3. Make something genuine and allow myself to be vulnerable through art.
The game contains deeply personal and political references. It takes less than 5 minutes to complete.
1. Have a creative break and test my game making skills in Unreal Engine.
2. Promote the 'duality' theme through an interesting mechanic.
3. Make something genuine and allow myself to be vulnerable through art.
The game contains deeply personal and political references. It takes less than 5 minutes to complete.
The basic gameplay idea is simple: every time the player jumps, the whole world changes 'state'. Each state is visually distinct from the other, and some things only appear in one of the two states.
I used a variety of Blueprints on this project. The main Blueprint that controls most of the functionality is the Character Blueprint, which is set up like this on a high level:
In more detail, these are the main changes that are happening every time the player jumps:
These are two high overviews of the game level as it appears in its 'blue' and 'red' states:
