I this game made in a solo team during a 72-hour game jam held by my university.

The prompt was “Alone”, so I came up with a game mechanic where player create their own obstacles. The player moves between screens and leaves footprints behind, but only on snow, not on other surfaces.

After a few introductory screens, the player gets familiar with the movement and encounters some sparkles. When he enters these sparkles, his footprints unstick from the game world and get transferred to the next screen, where they become spikes. When the player goes backwards after activating the sparkles, nothing breaks. The footprints stay there and wait for the player to move to the intended room.

I only have two examples here but I’m sure it could be developed further. It’s really just a prototype. There’s no story or end screen, one just has to get to the end of the map. Nevertheless, this could be used in an RPG or as a smaller puzzle element. It’s very connected to the level design.