Entrenched

Entrenched is a short 2D sidescroller where you play as two 6-year-olds in a trench coat on top of a 12-year-old, all in a trench coat, making their way to a movie theater. Manage your Suspicion and Stability by conversing with adults and playing microgames,  to not reveal that you're actually three kids! Entrenched is a game about confidence, masking, maturity, and how really, we're all just kids in trench coats trying to look like adults.

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How to play: Your stack of kids will automatically walk. While walking, your stability meter constantly decreases. At any point, you can press the re-stabilize button underneath the stack to initiate a metaphorical, box-stacking microgame. Completing it refills part of your stability meter. 

Walking by adults, they'll ask you questions to try and figure out if you're really an 8 foot tall man, or just kids in a trench coat. You need to give the right answer, with confidence. 

To give the right answer, each kid will have a different idea of what to say -- choose the option that sounds the least suspicious! 

To say it confidently, you'll then play one of several microgames representing actions the kids take to make sure they're all on the same page -- either the reaction test Nose-Goes, or a DDR-inspired microgame where the kids are tapping each others' shoulders to pass the message along. 

If you either make the wrong dialogue choice or fail the microgame, you'll take a hit to your stability meter. If you fail both, you'll arouse suspicion, in the form of a suspicion strike. If your stability meter hits zero, or you get 3 suspicion strikes, your stack will collapse and the world will see you're actually 3 kids in 2 trench coats.

Controls: Select dialogue options and move boxes with the mouse. Use the arrow keys for DDR. Press the space bar to react for Nose-Goes. 

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Theming: This game was made in 72 hours for the UGD Winter 2024 Game Jam, by Team 15 Kids In 10 Trench Coats. For the theme of X Inside an X, we made the main character, the resulting microgame-focused gameplay, and the narrative thematic implications recursive. 

Of course, we're playing on "2 Kids In A Trench Coat" by putting "2 Kids In A Trench Coat" inside "2 Kids In A Trench Coat." The kids, inspired by a detective movie starring a kid, don trench coats themselves to try to get into this PG-13 film, despite being only 6 or 12.

Thematically, the game is about layers of maturity and confidence. 6-year-olds, too insecure to do it alone, feign maturity to a 12 year old, so that together they can feign 24 year-old adulthood... and the kids you're playing as aren't the only ones, either!

There are even self-referential and representational aspects to the music. For example, pay attention to how the instrumentation changes when you're playing as 2 or 3 kids, and what those parts are playing. 

Enjoy!

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Credits

Alec: Lead programmer

Braden: Music, sound design

Jenn: Writing, programming

Shayla: UI design

Silvia: Art

The following fonts were used: 

Unicorn Fold: https://www.1001fonts.com/unicorn-fold-display-personal-font.html#license

KG Primary Whimsy: https://www.1001fonts.com/kg-primary-whimsy-font.html

No other external audio or visual assets were used.