Remember VHS tapes, cassettes and the like? You had to rewind them before you could use them again.

What if old video games were the same? I thought this would be a fun concept to play with for a jam with the theme "Rewind", so I ran with it.

The Concept

The game has been completed, the player has won, the loot has been collected, and the puzzles solved. Now the player must go back through the game returning their loot and resetting the puzzles, effectively rewinding the game.

Each of the levels is played through in reverse. The player starts in the 'victory room' and must return a piece of equipment, skill, or character upgrade in order to enter the level.

Boss Fight

The first level, when rewinding, is the boss fight. The boss will be in its final, most dangerous, stage. The player must reset puzzles and return items to the boss in order to bring them back to full health, stepping back through the attack stages of this boss.

Once the boss has been returned to its starting state, the entrance will unlock and the player will be able to leave the level, moving on to the next.

Tutorial

The final level, when rewinding, is the tutorial level, where the player learns to play the game. At this point all upgrades, skills, and equipment has been returned to "the game". The game has been successfully rewound, and is ready to be played again.

The Implementation

Unfortunately, as is the case for many of us, planning and time management were left on the back burner. This, along with working during the week, and travelling on the final 2 days of the jam meant I didn't have as much time as I initially thought.

I had a lot of fun playing with the concepts of this game, and I'll definitely be taking it further after the jam is complete. I think there's a fun game in there somewhere and I'd like to see it through.

In any case, I've attached a build that you can play. I set up character controls, a couple of weapons, an enemy and some basic AI. It was my first time working in 2D, and I'm pretty impressed by Unity's tools, it was all fairly easy to pick up.

Big thank you to Brackeys, itch.io and everyone that helped to make this game jam possible.