Twisted is a simple platform game demo created using the Windows API.
As with most platformers, your aim is to defeat enemies and grab pickups to reach the end of each level. The twist however is that the game world is split into two horizontal realms, which can be travelled between using a series of portals. You will have to spend time in either realm to reach your goal, the lower of these being an inverted, upside down version of the first.


To successfully travel through the world you will need to defeat many of the enemies standing in your path. This can be done either by jumping on them or using lightening magic. Whilst this demo features only a limited variety of enemies, the game is written in a such a way that this set could be greatly expanded and altered, adding far more bizarre and deadly creatures into play.

It should be noted that this is a very limited game – many areas could easily be expanded with more time, for example by adding additional levels (there is currently only one), enemies, spells and pickups. However, given that I am neither a designer nor an artist and that this was a piece of coursework, focussing on varied gameplay over programming wasn’t an option. I would like to further improve the game in future, and in particular to experiement with multiplayer gameplay, and to create a Linux version using Qt.

If you want to give Twisted a go, you can download the file here.
Currently, it is only available for Windows XP (though it hasn’t been tested using Windows Vista – if you’re able to do so please let me know whether it worked).
If you download the game please share your thoughts and opinions below – bear in mind however that the game is far from complete or polished.

Controls:

A+D – move right and left.
W – jump.
L – cast magic.
P – travel through a portal.

Pickups:

Heart – health pickup.
Star – points pickup.
Circle – magic pickup.