Forgotten Paths

Forgotten paths is the second game that I made alongside a friend, this time for the GMTK 2025. "Loop" was the theme for this jam. We incoroproated this through creating a puzzle game where you define a sequence of movement commands that constantly loop until the player is manually stopped or completes the puzzle. You can play the game directly though the embed below, or you can visit the itch.io page.

Once again I learned many things through making of this game with my partner. One of my main focuses during this jam was the UI design and implementation. It was difficult to try and make a UI that conveyed all of the information that was necessary while also being simple and easy to use and understand.

One thing I feel like we did a lot better this jam was adding in a lot of the essentials first before we started. This included simple things like a settings menu, a way to close the game, etc. Our last jam entry we didn't get to these in time and it made the game feel very unpolished and lacking. One of the reasons this worked is that it also gave us time to focus on and plan out our ideas and concepts before starting them. This approach of doing some of the non-gameplay impactful things worked great for us.

At it's core, the game is quite simple. You select a few movement commands and then click play. These will repeatedly loop until you either win or stop it manually. To complete a level, all of the enemies there must be slain.

Though it may sound easy, it get's pretty difficult! Especially on the levels that require rotations. Give it a chance! If you're truly stuck, there is a hints & solutions cheat sheet on the itch.io.

Overall, we did quite well for ourselves in this game. When you stop and consider that over 9,500 games were submitted to this jam, it is quite amazing to see our game rank so highly.

It also feels amazing that this the second time I've ever made a game. It really motivates me to keep going and makes be believe I'm on a good path.

We've had some great feedback and support from players, which has been incredibly encouraging. There has been some repeated suggestions for improvements, and we're taking them to heart for future updates.