Eusébio
Game for Mad Game Jam
Old Eusébio is a very friendly gentleman with an obsession for organization. There's just one problem—he suffers from short-term memory loss and keeps forgetting things, which then cease to exist. Help the old man navigate the house before he forgets everything and goes back to sleep.
Its core mechanic is based on its narrative, where parts of the environment disappear over time. The player can walk, jump, and drag objects to progress.
This game was made for the Mad Game Jam, held in Portugal. Creating Eusébio was a fantastic experience for me and a amazing challenger make all the level design. The levels are designed so that the player can't beat them on the first try. Instead, they encourage trial and error, allowing the player to learn how the game works.
I had the opportunity to work with amazing professionals and contribute significantly to the game's vision. I was responsible for:
- Game Design
- Level Design
- Concept
- Narrative Design
The theme of the Jam was "Déjà Vu", so I wanted to create a game that made the player and the character feel like they had already experienced that moment before. The idea was to use narrative to reinforce this sensation: the protagonist, Eusébio, has the constant feeling that he’s been in that house before. He forgets where the items are and often thinks he’s already completed his tasks, creating a loop of confusion and familiarity.
The game featured 4 levels and 3 types of obstacles:
-
Disappearing object
-
Object that pushes the player
-
Pushable object that disappears
In the first level, I introduced the obstacles gradually so the player could get used to the basic mechanics of jumping and pushing. I also tried to make it clear that any object could disappear and that just because something vanishes doesn't mean it's essential to complete the level as you can see in the image below.
For the following levels, I worked on scaling the difficulty by increasing the number of disappearing objects and shifting the dynamics the player might have initially imagined to solve the level. I also increased the number of interactable objects and expanded the size of the stages.
If I had more time, I’d like to implement more obstacle types to create new gameplay dynamics and strategies, allowing players to find multiple ways to progress through each level.
Since it was a game jam, all the documentation was created in Miro to make it more dynamic and easily accessible. I designed the levels on paper and blocked them out directly in Unity.
(Link)
🏆 The game was selected by the jury as the 3rd best game of the Jam.
