Gift Zowa.
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FLIPSIDE poster with the name of the developer
Split-screen puzzle platformer

FLIPSIDE

One mind. Two worlds. Only one can move at a time.

My roleSolo developer: design, code and levels
Made inA 3-day game jam
EngineUnity 6 (6000.0.44f1)
Year2026
Download the game Watch the demoSource code

Windows build on itch.io. Unzip and run FLIPSIDE.exe.

Synopsis

The game

The screen is split in two. ARC lives in a bright, clean world at the top. ECHO lives in its dark mirror below. Only one of them can move at a time. Press Tab and the other one freezes while you take over. A switch hit by ARC can raise a platform for ECHO, and ECHO can switch off a hazard in ARC's path. Neither can finish alone.

Single-player 2D puzzle platformer for Windows PC. Each character has a countdown timer. The active one drains at full speed and the frozen one at a quarter speed, so every switch is a decision. 7 levels.

Project brief

The brief

A solo three-day game jam for Game Design 3A, on the theme "Switch".

Credits

  • Gift Zowa · Design, programming and level design
My role and contribution
  • Came up with the concept and changed the core mechanic after playtesting. The first version had both characters move at once with mirrored input. It sounded good on paper but felt frustrating to play, so I switched to one character at a time with Tab.
  • Designed the theme on three levels: you hit switches, you switch characters, and each world is a switched version of the other.
  • Built the dual timer system, the Boost Orbs (one character collects, the other gets the boost) and the switches that change the other world.
  • Designed and built all 7 levels in the Tilemap editor, from a flat tutorial to a final level that uses every mechanic under timer pressure.
  • Found and fixed a bug in the Boost Orb code through playtesting (see below).
Technology

What I used on this project.

  • Unity 6 (6000.0.44f1)
  • C#
  • URP 2D
  • Tilemap
  • New Input System
  • TextMesh Pro
  • Git and GitHub

Why this project

I picked FLIPSIDE because it shows a different side of me than my other two projects. Cold Room and Tower Defense are about systems. This one is about making design calls fast. It was a three-day game jam, and the jam rules said we had to build the game with AI tools. So a big part of my job was judging what the AI gave me and keeping what worked. The biggest call was the core mechanic. The AI suggested mirrored controls. They sounded good on paper but felt bad to play, so I dropped them after playtesting and went with Tab. It also shows how I handle a theme. "Switch" is in the controls, the levels and the two worlds.

In the game

Screenshots

The main menu with ARC and ECHO
The main menu with ARC and ECHO
Level 1: you start as ARC in the top world
Level 1: you start as ARC in the top world
On-screen prompts teach the controls
On-screen prompts teach the controls
Tab hands control to ECHO
Tab hands control to ECHO
Level complete once both reach their exits
Level complete once both reach their exits
The start of Level 2
The start of Level 2
Process

How it was made

Process: the high concept doc, the three-day plan and the levels in Unity
From the high concept doc and three-day plan to the levels in Unity.
Process: the Boost Orb fix in PlayerController.cs
The Boost Orb bug. The timer ran on the orb, so when the orb was destroyed on pickup the boost never ended. I moved the timer onto the character, so it always finishes.