Creator’s Focus: Temple of Dum-Dum (Trial 3)

A behind the scenes look into the creation of Dr. Bomkus’ Trials

Creator’s Focus is a six-part series focused on the game creation process of Dr. Bomkus’ Trials and its unique gameplay features.

Temple of Dum-Dum:

Temple of Dum-Dum is the third challenge in Dr. Bomkus’ Trials, a series of six experiences designed to test your skills: Speed, dexterity, agility, and more. The journey takes you through a temple packed with traps and mysteries around every corner. This installment was created to put all the new mechanics to the test in one wild adventure!

Insights from the Level Design Team:

One of the first things I aimed for when designing the “Verdant Temple” map, now known as the “Temple of Dum-Dum,” was to utilize the whole verticality of a 1x1 land. I wanted to show creators and players how much room there is to create and play in just a 1x1 space.

With the new features in Game Maker 0.8, players can crouch, crawl, swim, and slide. This was a great opportunity to add some new ideas to the platforming mechanics we previously offered. My first thought when seeing these features was to create an old and mysterious abandoned temple where players would find many different rooms, each with different challenges they’d want to explore.

The primary objective of the experience is to compete against other players while striving to achieve the best time at your own pace. One of the fundamental design principles was to evaluate the player’s skill over an extended racing period, assessing their timing and jumping consistency throughout the entire race. This is why most parts of the experience are divided into distinct sections, each with its theme, to prevent significant progress loss if the player falls.

Oh, and before I forget! Look out for some secrets inside the temple. Do you think you can solve what lies within?

After Dr. Bomkus’ Trials, you will be able to find the experience templates in the Game Maker! Make them your own, test out the new features and publish your own challenges.

Download the Game Maker here