My take on Death is Just the Beginning for Gamedev.tv Gam Jam 2022

This is a simple platform game about the stages of grieving. These theme is very near to my heart as my sister died of cancer last year. The game is based on my personal experiences and memories. Bargaining didn't really resonate with me and my experiences so I replaced it with regret. Full screen recommended

It is possible to progress through the levels in a linear fashion but much like the real thing, you can get pulled back down to a different level - although when you do, you will start further in than the last time and you will return to the level you were on when you leave it so you're never totally back to the beginning and you're always making progress, even if it doesn't always feel that way.

Depression - basically a slow slog up and down steel hills and the traps slow you down more - for a short time. If you can manage it there are healthy snacks to improve how fast you recover energy (for jumping), there are unhealthy snacks to give an instant energy boost at the cost of health

Denial - everything is rainbows and cupcakes, until you see the wrong word or remember the wrong thing and then it feels like the ground has fallen out from under you. Some memories are good and give you an energy boost and a warm fuzzy feeling

Anger - enemies are formless because in anger there is nothing real to direct your anger at. You feel it but there is nowhere for it to go. Exploding clears the enemies around you but they never stop coming. Having a cathartic cry can be restorative

Regret - these are the thoughts that haunt me, regret can never really be resolved because the target is gone. The barriers represent how I've felt about trying to spend time with her before she passed but not being able to because of the doctors and nurses and she had friends fly in from all over the world and we were told it would be months, so there would always be time for us another day. In the end, she had 2 weeks and 2 days from being told she was terminal

Acceptance - I can't say I'm really there yet but as the final level, I wanted to share a very real memory of something that happened.

I can't say I hope you enjoy the game, its not really that kind of game but I hope you appreciate it and that it makes you feel something.

Death is just the beginning... for those left behind screenshots