The Mask Platformer

Development:

The Mask Platformer is a 2D Platformer game developed for the 2026 Global Game Jam, following the theme of “Mask”. In this game, you control a little cube with the ability to view two different words by switching different coloured masks to reach a final goal, whilst trying to get the best time on the global leaderboard. This was a solo project, and my first in the Godot Engine, where I programmed and designed the overall game.

Following on from Tony’s Pizza, I joined the 2026 Global Game Jam with the intention of learning Godot for myself. Having already considered the choice of learning Godot, I didn’t want this to hold back other people who were taking part in the Jam, so I decided to run this project solo. I also chose to make this game in Godot because of how heavily we learned Unreal Engine through our assignments. Likewise, several lecturers had mentioned how significant and important it would be to familiarise ourselves with not just one engine, but several other public engines, so considering how user-friendly and simple the Godot Engine is, this felt like an easy choice. Similarly, to the Dink Jam, this took place across a 48-hour period, with a theme of “Mask”.

Following on from this, I decided to use an asset pack from a website (https://kenney.nl/) that we were shown, which offers free 2D assets. From this, I was able to begin developing a very simple level layout for the player to move around the environment. With the idea of “Mask”, I wanted the level to have sections that the player could always stand on, but could switch between two different versions of the world to complete the game. To begin with, this started off as a very simple platformer where the player simply had to get from the starting location to a door to end the game.

With the basics nailed very early on, I began to think of a more general direction for the game, leading me to pivot towards making the game more of a competitive speed-running game. I first implemented a timer to show the player the current time they were on, and implemented the ability to reset their run to try to get the best time possible. However, I also wanted to allow people to easily compare their times to those of other people who played the game. This led me to the Godot Plugin Silent Wolf, which comes with a premade leaderboard to implement straight into the game. This did come with the issue of the slowest time appearing on top, but I managed to create a workaround.

By this point, I was pretty satisfied with this project, struggling to come up with additional developments. I did add collectables that give the player a speed boost to help skip jumps, and overall help them try to achieve the fastest time possible. I also made the level slightly longer to add more challenge, as well as adding music and sounds to really finish the game off.

Being a global jam, my project was only really shown off amongst other students. From my own observations, people seemed intrigued by the game. I do think this is a very underrated project of mine, being my first dip into a new game engine, but overall, ticking the boxes I wanted to develop on from Tony’s Pizza.

The big takeaway from this project is definitely developing this whole project inside of Godot. I had never touched another engine since starting in Unreal Engine back in 2023, but considering that Game Jams are an opportunity to try and test out new experiences and ideas, I took this as a prime moment to expand this skill. As a designer, but also as someone who has only done visual scripting since the end of my first year of college, switching back to a text-based system was quite daunting at first, but once you get into the swing of the basics, everything becomes a lot easier.

Reflection:

On reflection on using the Godot Game Engine, I’m actually really happy I did; it’s very user-friendly, straightforward to use, and genuinely a fun contrast to Unreal Engine. Other students and people who took part in this jam, they have always used Unreal Engine, which is primarily the engine for assignments. I think for a group project, suggesting the use of an entirely new game engine to develop a game within can be quite a shock and stressful, especially if you haven’t used it before. As much as I would like to work more with others, I was more than happy to work solo and experiment alone, especially since convincing a group of people in 48-hours of your idea and the engine of choice would have been a tricky task itself.

An element of the game I enjoyed implementing was the scoreboard feature for players to showcase the times they were achieving. As mentioned, this was accomplished by the Silent Wolf Plug-in, something I’d discovered through a bit of research. Having not really programmed much for a long time, and being on a tight time restriction, I didn’t have the capacity to actually develop my own leaderboard system, and certainly not one that actually maintained every players score and compared it against the top 10, so this feature was really useful and saved a big headache on my part, especially with how easy to implement it actually is.

Reflection:

On reflection, I was satisfied with how this plug-in saved a good chunk of time, but it did come with some headaches of its own. The plug-in is very simple, with limited room for you to customise its purpose, apart from messing with its code. This meant that all times would have to be saved in seconds, and originally, the longest times would be at the top of the board. I did alter the code for the placement orders by switching some greater-than/less-than parameters, but even that was a difficult conclusion to come to. I also find the actual leaderboard screen to be a little detached from the overall aesthetic that I wanted for the game, but with the lack of personal knowledge on designing these in any way or modifying the pre-existing style, I just settled for how it looked. So to really improve on this aspect, I’d definitely consider developing my own version in the future, to include the appropriate direction of scores, a better design, and the correct layout for timings.

Another element that I’m happy with is the improvement in the overall player experience of The Mask Platformer at Tony’s Pizza. One of my main gripes with Tony’s Pizza is the lack of direction, especially considering how linear an experience it is. So with The Mask Platformer, I made sure that every button was detailed on the screen, and put the responsibility of actually grasping the game onto the player themself. I also made sure to include background music that very much fits the overall tone and fast-paced nature of the game.