Sweet Dreams, Alice
A pixel-art descent from day dreams to nightmares inspired by Alice in Wonderland.
We were tasked with creating a 2-D platformer game over the course of two weeks. My favorite 2-D platformer game is the 2017 Valentine’s Day Google Doodle — Pangolin Love. I’ve always admired the way Pangolin Love brings the player into the world. Although the story is simple, it is super effective and cute.
Based on that, our group was inspired to make a 2-D platformer that also had a story component to the gameplay. It was important to me that the levels were designed in a thoughtful and coherent manner. Because of my passion, I was elected to lead the creative vision of our project. To achieve this vision, I learned how to make pixel art on Procreate to create our own sprites. This allowed us to execute our creative vision unburdened by the assets at our disposal. I was inspired by how games are mythical extensions of our reality, not unlike dreams. By centering our game around dreaming, we were able to reimagine a familiar tale (Alice in Wonderland) and bring our MC (and players) to a surreal, fantastical world.
Here are some of the sprites I created for the game. I wanted Alice to “fall” from dreams into nightmares. This led the levels to move towards the ground and darkness. I was inspired by how in my worst nightmares I think I wake up, only to be in another, worse dream than before.
In my role leading the creative side of the project, I also helped execute my vision. I coded the breaking blocks, the enemy water in level 4, and the final smiley enemy in level 5. I also coded the camera switch in level 5. This allowed me to have hands on experience with vectors and object handling in Unity.
I loved working on this project. It was so exciting seeing an original idea develop into a real, playable game. If I was to make this game again, I would pay more attention to contrast between the main character and the background. I think there are times when our main character is too detailed, and I should have prioritized visibility/legibility over anything else.