Sticky Climber started in March 2019 as my week 5 individual prototype based on the prompt “physics comedy” for my experimental gameplay studio class at Carnegie Mellon. The game was then iterated on for the second half of the class, where each person polished and developed their most promising prototype.

Week 1

With the prompt of “physics comedy” and only a week to work, I settled quickly on using some kind of web physics for movement. The idea of tapping to make a web and dragging to cut unneeded webs was the core mechanic to be tested. At this stage, I wasn’t sure what the character was, or what the environment would be, but focused only on proving out the mechanic.

The gameplay took the form of an endless climber with water pursuing the player’s avatar.

Showcase

At the halfway point of the semester, we needed to select one of our projects to iterate and polish for the final showcase. Sticky Climber was my most promising concept, so that’s what I went to.

The iteration elements included moving to mobile and utilizing taps for web spawn and drags for web cuts, adding sound, integrating art from a friend, and screen pauses for impacts. Design changes included making wall contact the lose state, adding different platform types, and shortening the screen width.