JUMPY JUMPTIME
Hi guys and welcome to my new game Jumpy Jumptime!
Some of you will know me from the “Moonstone Remake” project.
While the Moonstone Remake is waiting for it’s further development, I’m gaining experience in coding& blueprinting inside Unreal Engine and this time I’m doing everything on my own. My coder buddy Luis helped me this time only with things I couldn’t do myself as a blueprint novice. So with the more difficult functions like the build mode.
The graphics are reminiscent of Minecraft and are driven by the new Unreal Engine 5.2. And yes, the blades of grass were placed on each floating island as a patch by hand. I wanted to exclude that single blades of grass intersect. That was the reason why I didn’t do this task with the Foliage Tool.
To clarify in advance why the name has similarities with the game “Poppy Playtime.” There is a simple reason for that. It is neither the graphics, nor the story, nor the atmosphere. As a solo developer you should focus on creating something small but nice. “Skyrim only better” is just not in it. And since Poppy Playtime was and is a short but successful game, I thought to name my game in this style. The game is planned to be about one to two hours long.
What is it about?
In Jumpy Jumptime you play a cute little alien, named Jumpy, who crashed with his UFO somewhere between heaven and earth and now has the task to find his UFO ship parts, repair the UFO and fly back to his home planet. The whole thing is thus a combination of precise jump and run interludes, easy to moderately difficult puzzles and platforms.
“Jumping my way through the level, I quickly realize that Jumpy would also make a good speedrunning game.”
Since Jumpy Jumptime is played from the first person, you will hardly or rarely get to see Jumpy. Nevertheless, there is a fixed vision of his appearance and sidescroller inserts would also be possible, which is why Jumpy already exists as a 3D model
Sometimes Jumpy has to rely on the help of others.
Is that all?
Roughly described, yes!
But please don’t imagine the game to be too easy. The graphics may be deceiving. But the jump and run interludes get more difficult from platform to platform. If you don’t have the right touch, you’ll quickly end up under an island and start the level all over again. Only collected items and completed conversations with NPCs are saved, the player’s position is not saved. This has an advantage: Every time you fall down, you get better and more ambitious
The behavior of the platforms becomes more difficult as the level progresses. For example, they start to rotate or move. Correct landings must be practiced.
Ah, here’s a switch…that’s bound to get us somewhere…
Is there more than just the shovel?
The shovel is the elementary item of the game. With it, you can find “earth”, dig it up and use it to build a path to the next platform. Besides the shovel, other tools are already implemented in the game. For example, a metal detector.
The metal detector is used to hunt for coins, among other things.
Here it goes on only with a key…good that we have found this already.
The game sometimes gives you valuable tips.
Some islands host mechanics to advance further in the game.
And to make it even more difficult, it also gets dark in the course of the game. Don’t worry: I’ve thought about fireflies, too, only I haven’t incorporated them into the level yet.
A few final words…
My goal is definitely to register a trade and sell the game on Itch, Steam and the Epic Store. I’m currently just wondering if it should be an Early Access title or if I should completely finish the game and then release it. My hope is that it will get hyped and then I can go completely independent with a studio. Because I have always worked on it after my full time job, on weekends and holidays.
Finally, here’s a video with a few minutes of gameplay. Please subscribe to the channel, leave a like, comment and spread the word about Jumpy Jumptime.
Thank you so much!
And yes, I did the background loop myself as well. I used Reason for it and got inspired by Sykrim’s Secunda and Minecraft music 
) that elevates it for me. Beyond the visuals, the gameplay mechanics of getting abilities from flowers and using “build mode” to get across a fallen bridge are kind of brilliant.
Can’t wait to see what your fresh set of eyes can come up with!