SideScroller

What it is

A solo narrative platformer where the player guides a small character through a journey framed as redemption. The premise is framed in the opening dialogue: "Welcome, Mortal. You are here to shed your soul of the original sins and to redeem yourself through the ups and downs of this adventure." The game uses three distinct visual moods that progress with the story, golden dawn, daylight twilight, and night, each with its own enemies, environmental motifs, and emotional tone.

Opening scene. Golden dawn. Inverted floating cliff in the upper right hints at the world's instability.

Mid-game. Twilight palette, lighter platforms, the character in motion with a particle dust trail on jump.

Late game. Night scene. A small pink salamander enemy introduces the player to a new threat category.

What's mine, what's the framework

I want to be specific about this:

• Built on Unity's 2D Game Kit. The underlying character controller, basic platforming systems, and enemy AI scaffolding came from the kit. This is normal and is how a lot of shipped indie work is built.
• My contribution: level design (where platforms go, where enemies appear, what the player sees and when), narrative framing and dialogue, visual direction (the three-mood progression, palette choices, particle and lighting decisions), art-direction-level asset selection.
• Today, five years later, I do not need 2D Game Kit. I can and do write character controllers, physics, AI behaviours, and platforming systems from scratch. The boat game and Zombita are the proof. SideScroller stands as evidence of design and narrative taste, not engineering depth.

Shared universe

The protagonist of SideScroller, a small figure in a blue cap with floppy grey hair, also appears in my MA point-and-click adventure (Final Project), where he is named Jimmy. Same character, two completely different game styles (3D-rendered platformer; hand-illustrated point-and-click), same universe.

Stack

What this project demonstrates

• Project completion. Solo authored, end-to-end, ships and still runs on current hardware five years later.
• Visual direction. Three coherent moods across one game.
• Narrative framing. Player journey wrapped in story rather than levels.
• Character continuity. Shared protagonist with Final Project, game design as world-building, not asset-shipping.