Forward

[PROTOTYPE] 

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Try to reach the end of the line and accumulate every possible success. It's okay to get it wrong sometimes, just try again and correct your mistakes on the way back over.

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How to play :

- Tap (or click) and hold to move forward
   (you can also press space of the right arrow key)
- Release to stop
- Alt-F4 to quit the game (if you downloaded the game on Windows)

Each obstacle has its own rules for success :

- Some require to stop at their position
- Some require you not to stop at their position
- Some require you not to stop for a specified length
- Some require waiting a certain amount of time while stopped
- Some require a certain amount of taps while stopped
- Some require waiting and taps

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"A game about going forward, or not"

I made this game with the intention to explore the design space of a game that only takes place on a straight line. The player and their interaction with the game are encapsulated in a circle that can only move forward on this very line. 

The main pillar of this game is ultra-linearity. The player is only allowed movement in one dimension and in one direction. The design is then allowed movement in only one dimension as well. In order to respect that intention as strictly as possible, I made the effort to only design mechanics and challenges that are completely divorced from the second dimension. 

The result is a game whose control is singular. Either you provide the only input it can receive (touch the screen, click the mouse, press the button) or you don’t. Either the player moves or they don’t. Control, in this game, is completely binary. However, the output and the experience it provides are more than binary. 

From this experiment, I have found that playing and designing in one dimension can provide meaningful interactions that are rich and complex, even though the environment and mechanics they emerge from are extremely simple.