Escape is an atmospheric top down game where you must explore a mysterious forest to find a way out. You’re not alone out here, and something is coming for you from the shadows. You must follow the campfires, their light will keep you safe (but not for long) and find a way to the exit. Your only light is a pulsing glow keeping in rhythm with your heartbeat. You panic, your heartbeat races and your vision fades. Remain calm. Keep one step ahead of the shadows. Find safety in the light and escape the Forest.

I was the Designer for this game and created it with Jenny Bartle, Alistair Lynn, Sam Phippen and Chris Raadjes for the 2013 Global Games Jam (where the challenge was to create a game from scratch in 48 hours sticking to a given theme). The theme for this year’s jam, was the sound of a Heartbeat.

Overall I’m really happy with the game we created. It was a challenge for me to design a game based around horror, atmosphere and suspense. Giving the player no tools to defend themselves, making them feel utterly at the mercy of the forest and the sinister being in pursuit were our key design goals, and once I feel we accomplished successfully.

As with every game jam there are a lot of lessons to be learned from it and this one is no exception. Ideally I would have set aside more time for play testing and included multiple paths which the player has to explore to collect multiple items they need to escape. I also would have liked to explore some subtle dialog in the form of faded text on the screen, symbolizing the character’s inner thought process. Overall however I think we all did a great job and I’m very proud of the finished product.

You can download and play the game here. (Must have the latest version of java installed)