Out Of Oxygen

"Out of Oxygen" is a small project created in 2 weeks by four students at Brassart. I worked as game designer and developer. We were tasked with creating a game based on the theme "Out of Range."

Game concept

The player character crashes on an unknown planet and must search for pieces of their spaceship to repair it and escape. Inspired by Astroneer's oxygen relay system, we designed a mechanic where the player must stay connected to their ship through "relays" that can be placed on the ground to provide oxygen. The player can survive only a few seconds without oxygen, and sometimes they must take the risk of running out in order to gather resources, which are essential for building more relays.

Unlike Astroneer, we opted for a 2D platformer / metroidvania-style game to enhance the backtracking mechanics, which worked well with the relay system and resource-gathering core mechanics.

While testing the game, I found myself holding my breath when outside of an oxygen bubble. That's when I realized the game mechanic was working as intended and creating the right sense of tension.