Here’s the first ever post about my game, PIT. This will be a long journey. As I teach myself C# coding, learn Unity Game Engine, start winging-it on game design, and dive into the medium of pixel art, this page will be proof of my struggle.
Since this is my first project, I want to keep things simple, but I’ve set up a few challenges for myself to make this real. First of all, everything in the game needs to come from me. That means I do everything. All the code, art, animation, music and sound effects come from me. Easier said than done. My next little challenge is to tackle all the basic mechanics of video games. I have to add the essentials like; health, enemies, combat, items, HUD & a boss. Lastly, my final challenge is simply the fact that I’m working on my ASUS gaming laptop from 2011 that turns off if you unplug it. It takes me about 8 minutes to open Unity every day! 🙂
Here I’ll explain my general concept for the game. In PIT, you play as a prisoner who is forced into The Pit, a dungeon filled with demons and other terrible things. You will most likely survive the fall, and be forced to fight for survival through the hellish caverns below. The game will be an action platformer with controls very similar to Zelda II.
For my first game, there’s no way I’ll be able to make a massive open world, or a storyline that lasts multiple hours. Why not just make one level and see where it takes me? Then I had a thought, what if my entire game was just one level? What if that one level was completely packed with secrets, alternate paths, and hidden rooms? A game like this could have very high replay-value, and it would be enjoyable for the player to discover new things on their own.
Take this starting room for example, it’s currently all I have so far. The character on the right is the player, and the character with the spear is a guard. When the game begins, the player is instructed to jump into The Pit. Most players will simply follow the instruction and jump in without a second thought. However, here’s where the secrets would come in. If the player hesitates, maybe the guard gets mad and pushes you in! I think including alternate scenarios like this that play out without the player expecting them, will make the game feel very alive. I hope this mechanic will also motivate the player to inspect the game more closely. When the player knows there are secrets around, they won’t mindlessly charge through the game.
These “scenarios” as I’ve been calling them, could seriously impact gameplay. In PIT, the player starts without a weapon, they can knock enemies away with a punch, but cannot deal damage directly. So, if you just jump in right away, you will enter The Pit unarmed. However, for one of the secrets in the starting room, I want to include a way to knock the guard into The Pit instead and steal his weapon. Now you can enter The Pit with a starting weapon! An experimental and curious player will be rewarded through scenarios like this.
I plan to get extremely creative and weird with these scenarios. I want to use them in many different ways to constantly surprise and confuse the player. Here’s a few ideas that I love, but seriously who knows if I can program this stuff:
- Hidden human NPCs who have lost their minds in The Pit, they give you items, info, or just say creepy things to you.
- If you speak to three insane people, you go insane, some enemies will not attack you.
- Potentially I might make it so the player dies and restarts when they land inside The Pit, should they have to perform an action in order to survive the fall each time they start the game? I don’t have a reason to include this other than it being funny and unforgiving. Everyone will die on their first playthrough.
- I plan to seriously hide three horned skulls around the game. If the player finds all three of them in one playthrough, they will transform into a demon themselves, able to fly and shoot.
In terms of programming, I have only created a basic movement script and collision bodies. These allow the player to walk, jump, and bump into walls/ground. I have completed all the frames for the player’s movement animations, and will be importing them into Unity as my next step.
THOMAS MAZZAFERRO 