Normal human

Can you and your Unstable Alien mind manage to pass as a normal human, and discover the secrets in their halls of learning?

Looking back, this has to be one of my favorite projects of all my Ludum Dare Entries, and the scores show people seem to agree. As soon as the theme of “Unstable” was announced, we immediately knew we wanted to avoid ‘obvious’ concepts like insanity or shaking/collapsing objects. A quick prototype (A first for us in a jam, we usually just commit and go) solidified the idea of building sentences out of flying words in your head, and the foundation for Normal Humans gameplay was born!

Of course, it couldn’t be quite that simple - This is another concept that would have benefited from an extra day in the oven. The tutorial desperately needed an unaffiliated party to pass over it to identify what is in retrospect, an unclear mechanic with the timer and random word additions. Some players also found plucking the flying words out very difficult as its pixel-perfect for grabbing them, and there’s no protections to make sure the ‘right’ words spawn frequently, giving some players only one or two fleeting chances to grab the words they need. I also neglected to attempt to skin the UI well, leading to a very basic interface outside the minigame.

On the rest of the design side, huge inspiration was drawn from Invader Zim here, with the school and inquisitive kid stalking about trying to catch you out. Since the theme felt like it leaned dark, we knew from the outset we wanted to have a bright, cheery and fun game, and even complimented it with an “easy mode” that grants additional time in the minigame, to ensure more players could make it to the end of the little narrative. That right there was something we took away from our earlier games - difficulty isn’t just about challenge, but a defense against overbalanced design, guaranteeing a completion avenue if a player needs it.