FALL 2010 – BREAKTHRU 2 (Platform game)
School project – Fall term, first year of university

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Breakthru 2 is the not-so-long (and not much) awaited sequel to my previous platform title, Breakthru.

This too is a school assignment finished in one week and it once again stars average man Shen finding himself in a place of surreal construct and peculiar foes. This time, however, Shen knows how to move and knows his goal; to navigate to the darkest confines of his tormented mind to, once and for all, defeat the dark, evil memories that have had his mind troubled for so long.

This sequel introduces some new moves and a few new enemies with altered behaviour and looks. Overall, it’s more of a complete game aesthetically, but it’s still a bit short and not nearly as rich in content as I would like it to be (extended versions of both games are on their way though, so be on the lookout for them!)

One of the most important additions is that Shen can now attack his foes. He can also run, which is mostly useful for making a quicker escape from a potential horde of foes.

As with the first game, we had to have something special incorporated into our idea, this time in the form of a feeling. Although my assigned word was perhaps not so much a feeling, it was something that was very interesting to work with. I got ‘serendipity’, which Wikipedia does a pretty good job at explaining, so I’ll quote the first line from the english article;

“Serendipity is a propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated.” – Wikipedia

I do wish that I could’ve incorporated it in a more interesting way into the game, or at least made its current form a bit more apparent and visually interesting. Right now, serendipity is in the game in form of an alternate, hidden ending, which is not that hard to find. I’ll let you find out for yourself, with the download link below!

SCREENSHOTS
Here are some screenshots from the game. Click on them to show them in their full size (640×480).
In some screenshots, parts of the graphics appear slightly skewed in places. This is due to a graphics bug which seems to occur on some systems when running Game Maker games (happens on my ATI-powered laptop, but not on my nVidia-powered desktop.)

If you’re looking for a download link, then you’ve come to the right part of the page!
Keep in mind these few points though;

• Again, this game is also short, like its predecessor. Don’t expect entertainment for several hours.
• I am in no way reliable for any issues that running this game may cause. It has been tested on several systems and seems to work fine, but should it not run properly, then report to me either via the contact page, or via the comments field on this page.
• Once again, the game is pretty tough at times. You have 3 health points, which are regenerated at the end of the level/when you die and start the level over. Good luck!

DOWNLOAD
Breakthru 2 – Original Version

Also, if you’d like to give some general feedback, just leave a comment at this page. I appreciate general feedback and/or constructive criticism, it’ll help when I eventually extend upon the game!