Escape Your Grave is my first-ever finished game. It is basically Doodle Jump, but horizontally. However, there are some game design elements to consider.

The famous “high jump” platforms from Doodle Jump (white in this game) do not serve the same purpose as in the original game. In standard Doodle Jump, going higher means going further, but that is not the case when moving horizontally. Therefore, the high jump platforms are placed only at the bottom, allowing the player to save themselves by jumping back to the top.

Why would a player need that? Because if you continue only on the lower platforms, the more likely it becomes, statistically, that you will have no platform to continue your journey on.

There are also enemies that move either up and down or left to right. The up-and-down enemies attack horizontally, while the left-to-right enemies attack upwards. Both can be used as platforms too, by jumping on their heads.

The last type of platform is the one that breaks. Note: this platform does not give you a jump. This was a requirement from my lecturer at the time, which I heavily disagreed with. It shows that the person demanding this change had no idea how the “ice” platforms in Doodle Jump were actually meant to be one-way tickets. Now, they are just traps that the player mistakes for regular platforms. This is why I let the player “slide” across the platforms, so they at least gain horizontal momentum, which, in a sense, helps to increase their score.

Nonetheless, there is one final mechanic, and that is THE BOSS: a giant wall that starts chasing you once you reach a score of 300 units or higher.

The wall starts off slowly but gets faster the further you go. It doesn't really become a threat unless you aim to beat the 1,000+ mark. In fact, it pushes the player to play less safely, since I noticed that players would patiently reach scores of 2,000+ just by taking their time. Now, they try to speedrun, and they have fun.