PONCHO - A 2D Open World Puzzle Platformer, Exploration by Shifting Between Parallax Layers

Hi, I'm Jack Odell, Composer and Co-Designer on Poncho.

Poncho is a project myself and Danny Hayes have been working on for some time now, that plays around with the idea of shifting between platforms in the Z space as a means of creating environmental puzzles.

With Poncho, we're trying to create a world that rewards exploration, each time you play you may decide to set off in a different direction and we nuzzle little bits of story in each location, so that you can experience the story through exploring it. The way the levels are laid out, in parallax layers, means that we can create varied and interesting areas to play around in. It also makes stumbling into secret areas are a ton of fun!


Synopsis

Waking up in a post apocalyptic world of overgrown ruins filled with life, a robot named Poncho begins a journey to find his Maker.

Humanity has been extinct for centuries, leaving their robotic creations behind to fend for themselves. These robots have formed tribes and communities of their own, trying to make a way of life without purpose now their masters are gone.

On your journey, you will have to make some hard choices and ultimately decide the fate of humankind. With multiple areas and paths to explore, you'll never be able to see everything in a single play through. Poncho is about making you feel like a kid again, exploring outside and looking under rocks to see what you find. There's treasure in every nook and cranny in this world, and nothing is quite as it seems... There's always more than one way to accomplish your goals.



Demo

We have an alpha demo available for anyone who's interested in trying it out. You can play it on GameJolt (http://gamejolt.com/games/platformer/poncho-alpha/34159/) or download a PC/MAC version here (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12190188/Poncho - Alpha Demo.zip).

Kickstarter

We're currently running a Kickstarter campaign at the moment. We need funding in order to continue to keep making the game full-time. We're planning on releasing on Playstation platforms, as well as PC/MAC/LINUX/OUYA. If you're interested in our game, please consider pledging to our Kickstarter, it would mean the world to us.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1971413574/poncho-an-open-world-puzzle-platformer

EGX

So just to finish off this post, I'd just like to share my excitement that we're going to be at EGX London this year. If any of you are attending, please come say hello, we'd love to chat and talk about our game.

Thanks!

 

looks great! love the music in that first video

 

Thanks Mister D!

 

Congrats @JackOdell, you've officially just claimed a customer here I love the trailer and if the game is like the trailer the whole game through, then i will definitely buy it (i can also see this gem become greenlit ) Keep up the awesome work on Poncho Cheers.

 

Thank you so much Davem250! You have our utmost appreciation!

 

@JackOdell you're very welcome just pledged the biggest amount i could on your kickstarted you can read in the comments on the campaign why i respect your work and really hope to see this game in online stores like steam etc...

 

Excellent control, has a good feel to it. Very much alive stages with the multiple actively playable parallax levels. Graphics and animation are cool too. Reminds me of some of the final generation Genesis games.

 

Really Nice idea, we just need to see if this is fun and easy to play with the depth. But the overall idea is great.
Congratz again!

I wish you good luck with your project

 

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback.

 

For anyone interested, I've put up a small teaser EP for Poncho on bandcamp, showing off a couple of tracks from the game.

https://jackodell.bandcamp.com/album/p-o-n-c-h-o-ep

 

really like your music jack

 

Thanks very much Mister D!

 

Hey guys, our Kickstarter only has a couple of days left and we're far from reaching our goal. It'd be great if we could drum up some attention on the Unity forums!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1971413574/poncho-an-open-world-puzzle-platformer



Here's our latest update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1971413574/poncho-an-open-world-puzzle-platformer/posts/1000993

 

Based on the video it looks like the game is already about done? Maybe people seeing it wonder why so much money is needed to release the game at this point? I think if you list what the money is actually needed for it may help.

 

Parallax layers should be differentiated by some fog color or sort blurring for inactive layer, it is confusing to know what are the front and background layers.