So I had the unfortunate happening of passing out an hour after the constraints were announced, and I didn’t wake up until about 30 minutes ago.  In any case, I think that was a good thing because as soon as I woke up, my mind was fresh with ideas given the constraints of this MiniLD (yay!).

My biggest hurdle so far was coming up with a fun game idea that could use the input constraints well.  I thought it’d be fun to use the number keys at the top of the keyboard and situate your hands with one finger on each key (as if you had your hands on home row, just shifted up two rows).  Then each finger pretty much is a single trigger or button, and so the challenge then became what can I do with 8 push buttons? And that’s when ideas started coming.

I should note here that I also wanted to avoid mapping four of the keys to the directional motions left/down/up/right (which I’m sure you vi/vim users out there would’ve loved ;)).  So with that in mind, I started discarding a lot of ideas and typical gameplay mechanics.  And then as I was staring at my VCR, it kind of hit me: it would be cool to make a game the used some sort of tape transport control scheme would be cool, you know, have a rewind, fast forward, play/pause, and a “record” button.

So from there, this idea formed: you’re a runner.  I don’t know what kind of runner, maybe the world’s fastest runner, who knows?  But you’re a runner who runs at a constant speed but can also affect the time and space of things around you.  Your main time controls are:

• Slow down – Everything around you moves at a reduced speed.
• Play/Pause – Actually stop everything around you from moving.
• Record snapshot – Remember the player’s current location and other physics state (velocity, direction, etc).
• Speed up – Everything around you moves at a faster speed.

Of course, manipulating the time-space continuum is a tiring feat!  So for that reason you have kind of a “time stamina” you have to manage, and if you don’t have enough energy, mashing your transport controls aren’t going to do a thing.

As for your other hand, it’ll be used to activate various “abilities” your player learns in the form of pickups/powerups.  I have four slots to play with, and I’m thinking of reserving one to always be jump.  I might continue running (no pun intended) with the track runner theme and have other pickups be like a pole from a pole vault (so you can make it over higher obstacles) or a shot put (use as a projectile weapon).

Enough rambling. I need breakfast.