Polar

Polar is a side-scrolling, 2 player co-op platformer game, where the two robot siblings must work together in order to make their way up the mountain/spaceship wreck to watch the Aurora Borealis one last time. with gameplay that revolves around ice-climbing game mechanics.

The players are tasked to solve a series of platforming puzzles, while being able to tether to each other to get up the mountain in an ice-climbing fashion.

The design team worked together from conceptualization to polish and came up with the player interactions and puzzle systems. We wanted to focus on the cooperative aspect of our mechanics as much as possible making sure all puzzles had to be solved through cooperation and communication.

The base Tethering mechanic underwent a series of changes. In the beginning, it was conceptualized as a rope, following the more literal ice climbing inspiration, but changed into a laser-like magnetic beam.

The players have specific objects on which they can grab onto in order to stabilize themselves as their sibling swings around.

Here are some basic examples of a level I illustrated to show how the mechanic would work.

The players can extend and retract their tether in order to pull up or lower each other along their path.

By taking turns in grabbing onto platforms and swinging, the players make their way around the level.

After the concept phase, I worked primarily as a level designer, teaching and testing the player’s knowledge of the mechanics through 3 levels, each containing about 4 puzzles, I also populated each level with our environment art.

Level 1 introduced the basic platforming and tether mechanics, Level 2 introduced player specific magnetic fields, which were obstacles for only one of the two players according to their color.

Level 3 in its turn, tested the players on all previous knowledge and introduced individual tethering.

Here are some samples of progress made on level 3 over a couple of weeks.

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