Submission To ArtCenter 2024 Fall Game Jam

Serial Deminer

My puzzle-action de-mining mission built around caution, proximity, and the pressure of making a safe path before a convoy arrives.

You play as a skilled de-miner sent into hazardous terrain with a compact gadget kit: a marking flag, a metal detector, explosives, and a limited-range goggle tool. The whole experience is about reading danger correctly, committing with confidence, and making sure nothing remains hidden when the route needs to be safe.

Play On Itch Open Gameplay Page

Core Breakdown

What Matters Most

Serial Deminer lives or dies on three things: the mission, the tools, and the pressure created by one missed mine.

Overview The player fantasy, stakes, controls, and the overall objective.

Gameplay & Gadgets How each tool creates a different decision: detect, confirm, mark, or detonate.

Jam & Team The 48-hour build context, team roles, and external project links.

Mission Premise

What The Player Is Asked To Do

At the center of Serial Deminer is a direct assignment: hazardous land must be cleared before an incoming convoy can move through safely. That turns every missed signal into a real risk and gives the toolset a concrete purpose.

Player Role

I frame the player as a specialist rather than a generic survivor. That matters because it makes careful procedure feel heroic: scan the ground, confirm what matters, mark the danger, then neutralize it with discipline.

Why The Stakes Work

The convoy objective keeps the game from feeling like abstract cleanup. Even though the mechanics are puzzle-forward, the fiction says every mistake can compromise the route and put others at risk.

Prepare to engage with a world that demands caution, precision, and skill.

This is the tone the itch page builds around the mission, and it fits the project exactly.

Core Loop

How Each Run Reads Moment To Moment

Serial Deminer works best when the tools naturally suggest a sequence. The player is not mashing through interactions; they are building confidence one layer at a time.

Scan

Sweep the terrain with the metal detector and listen for proximity cues.

Confirm

Use judgment or limited-support tools to narrow down exactly where the threat is.

Mark

Drop a flag so the danger stays readable and the route becomes more manageable.

Clear

Place explosives only when in proper detonation range and finish the route safely.

Controls

Simple Inputs, High Consequence

Movement And Interaction

WASD to move
Mouse to look around
Q to switch gadgets
E to pick up a placed explosive
Left Mouse Button to place a flag or explosive

Why The Control Scheme Fits

The controls stay minimal so attention can stay on terrain reading and tool choice. That is the right call for a jam build: keep the input layer light, then let proximity, placement, and uncertainty create the tension.