Overview

Rogue Roles was my submission to the 2023 GMTK Game Jam, a two day game making marathon where you are tasked with producing a game that fits the theme 'Roles Reversed'. I decided to build a top-down arena shooter roguelike, where the enemies and props in the dungeon constantly swapped roles with each other. So one moment you could be chasing down a treasure chest for coins, and the next it could be gunning for you and the skeleton enemies now contain those precious coins.

I found a pixel art dungeon asset pack by 0x72 and used JSFXR for sound effects, leaving me to implement the complex, constantly swapping behaviour of the various enemies and objects.

Before implementing any gameplay ideas, I always consider "how might this lead to interesting gameplay". I did not want to have objects simply swap behaviours entirely, since this limits the amount of unique functionality that can arise from the idea. I decided I wanted objects to retain their basic function, even when swapped...
So, skeletons always chase the player and skulls always try to create distance for their ranged attacks. To implement this, I gave each object a fixed primary function and then a secondary function which is generic, and can be applied to any object. This led to the interesting scenarios I was after, where all of a sudden you would have to dodge a hoard of skeletons to get to the skulls behind, which now acted as coins. Or, you could decimate a pack of skeletons because their function was swapped with chests. Or, worst of all, coins would suddenly become ruthless explosives chaisng you down meaning you should stop shooting enemies until they swap back.

Once this was working, I threw together a shop with basic upgrades, a menu and a bestiary to explain what each object does. The final result is very difficult and could definitely have done with a balance pass, but I was happy to see that it received positive feedback and placed fairly highly.