Welcome

We are only at week 2 but it feels as if a lot has already happened during the last two weeks and specifically this week. Today we’ll look at what our vision is, what has happened and where we’re headed.

So without further ado, let’s begin.

The Game

Ideation

We don’t really have a name for the game yet, so i’ll refer to it as either „the game“ or by genre. During the ideation process, the subject of ruins frequently turned up, as well as another idea. The plant preservation program (ppp). Essentially, you collect plants, which represent healthy organisms in a post-apocalyptic world. That world is full of different kinds of dangerous mutations and other threats.

After the ideation process, we agreed on combining these two elements and settled on developing a metroidvania in a 2.5D perspective. So a 2D game in 3D space.

Vision

In our small explorable area, we want the player to be able to collect power-ups as well as the plants. In a complete game, the plants will serve as the incentive for the player to explore the world, while the power-ups are abilities the player finds in order unlock previously inaccesible area’s.

Right now, we settled on developing a maximum of four powerups:

• Double Jump
• Charged Shot
• Dash
• Wall Climb

We believe that these power-ups are as nice rewards for players to expand their arsenal of actions and abilities. Additionally, these power-ups helps us in the creation of making natural-looking „Power-up Locking“-Spots; Places that require one of those powerups to progress.

Atmosphere

We like the aesthetic of overgrown ruins and the idea of mother nature taking over. With the context of a hostile post-apocalyptic world, our imagination for mutations and other parts of nature taking over a destroyed world, with organisms that threaten the player is seemingly endless. We believe this setting and our imagination helps tremendously in capturing that metroidvania feeling. Personally, i think it’s also a cool setting in general.

The apocalyptic event is left ambiguous. It is something that has happened a long time ago. We are also leaving the exact „date“ relatively ambiguous. We don’t want to focus on that apocalyptic event at all, but rather how the world, its organisms and its inhabitants evolved, in such a setting.

This open-ended but still relatively defined world and the vision board we did, gives us quite a lot of artistic freedom while also make sure that everyone has a unified vision of look and feel.

Character Art

Our talented concept artists are giving us a sneak peek (woah!) and are allowing us to see what they did!

If you are terrified of spiders, the inspiration behind this enemy design WILL make you more terrified! You see, on our planet, there exists a parasitic fungus that infects ants in order to control it for its own (the fungus‘) reproduction.

Scientifically called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, commonly known as the zombie fungus; they alter the infected ants‘ brain, compelling the ant to leave their colony and attach themselves to vegetation, where the fungus eventually kills them and releases spores to infect more ants. Quite a fungus. Don’t google it, if you didn’t yet.

Last but not least, we have our amazing main character. Equipped with a protective suit, a gun and a hopelessly rude attitude, nothing will stop them getting to the bottom of things. In this unknown, hostile world, they’re on their on. We plan on giving some slight insides into their lore and personality through monologues that appear, when you interact with things found in the environment.

Venture forth and explore the hostile environment, uncover the mysteries hidden within the ruins, and definitely kick some ass in the game we don’t have a name for, yet.

The Group

I mentioned „we“ a lot of times. Yes, „we“ are a group. Let me introduce you to our members.

• Jana: Our lead enemy designer. Set on 3D modelling, rigging, and animating the enemy.
• Mira: Our lead character designer. Models, rigs and animates the main character with motion capture.
• Noah: I’m the coder. Focused on solving problems that commonly arise in game development like saving and loading save files.
• Tam: Our lead environment artist and level designer. Makes sure that the level works and that the environment is top-notch
• Zhi Qhi: Our Lead UI Designer. Every UI Element and User flow is crafted by her.

Together, we believe we can come far and make an awesome experience. But for now you’ll have to wait, just a little bit longer.

See you next time.