Laranja Mecânica

Project overview

Laranja Mecânica is a 2D action game developed in Godot during a university game jam.

The project was built by a team of five people within a short development window. It was also my first practical experience creating a game in Godot, which made the project especially useful for learning a new engine through direct production.

In the game, a fruit-themed utopia has been destroyed by a powerful fungus. The player controls an orange that needs to fight enemies, survive, collect items, and move through a short action-focused level.

My role

I worked on the project as a gameplay programmer, game designer, and level designer.

My responsibilities included:

• implementing the player movement;
• creating the dodge mechanic;
• implementing basic attacks and combat behavior;
• adding healing collectibles and temporary bonuses;
• helping structure enemy behavior;
• organizing parts of the level;
• adjusting pacing and difficulty;
• supporting the gameplay UI;
• testing the web build;
• helping publish the game on Itch.io.

Project goals

The goal of Laranja Mecânica was to create a complete and playable game within the time limits of the jam.

The project focused on a short action loop with movement, dodging, attacking, collecting items, and surviving enemy encounters. Because the scope was small, the main challenge was making each mechanic clear enough to support the experience without overcomplicating the implementation.

What I learned

This project helped me learn the basics of Godot in a practical way. I had to quickly understand scene organization, scripting, input handling, collisions, and how to export a playable web build.

It also reinforced the importance of scope control during game jams. Since the development time was limited, we had to prioritize the mechanics that mattered most for the experience and keep the game focused.

Result

The final result is a short 2D action game published on Itch.io and playable in the browser.

The project became an important first step in my experience with Godot and gave me more confidence working with fast prototypes, jam constraints, and web publishing.