This certainly was interesting to create! I ended up losing possession of my house keys, so I was unable to work on this for quite some period of time. Due to the unexpected loss of time, a lot that could have fit in (as in I could implement in the next 2 hours) is missing, so it's extremely barebones, although the basic gameplay should work.

BACKSTORY: I wanted to try and have an original take on the theme, and I knew that many were going for ocean and underground targets, so I decided to think a little bit outside of the box. This is your standard platformer, except I have exposed the underlying variables that govern movement, so that you now have control over the mathematics that take place "Beneath The Surface".

GOAL: Simply make it to the Red Square as quickly as possible. Every time that you open up the variable access panel, you incur a 3-second time penalty, as well time continues to move while you're in the panel.

WASD & Arrow Keys: Jump and Move
Q & E: Bring up Variable Panel
Backspace: Instant Level Restart

MISSING FEATURES: The biggest addition that I had planned was to implement character death. If you hit a wall or the ground too fast, your character would die and you'd have to start over. This would balance the available power pretty well, but it's too late for now. Other features that I had planned were: more variables to control, ability to switch out equations, and sound. Assuming I had even more time, I'd implement a level editor, while giving level creators even more control than the players. Perhaps I can recreate the game and put some more time into it.

This was my first Ludum Dare, and it was very fun! I'll definitely be doing this again the next time.