WARNING: HARDHAT AREA
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Working Title: Newton's Third
Save One Bullet
Made in two weeks for the Experimental Game Design class at RPI, this game was sparked by the question "What is real?" The player moves throughout a maze armed with only a flashlight, a gun with a limited number of bullets, and a magical compass that points towards the exit.
The maze is inhabited by deadly wraiths, only some of which are any more than mere illusions. If the player shines the flashlight on a wraith that is only an illusion, it will discorporate--but if it's real, it will become enraged and attack the player. Using the gun will cause a wraith to discorporate regardless of whether or not it is real, but it can only be used so many times. |
One of my biggest challenges with this project was getting the maze to generate procedurally while also being able to dynamically change the positions of the walls. Because I wanted the walls to change in a way that would push the player towards the exit (and, subsequently, into encounters with the wraiths), I used the A* algorithm to search from the player's current position away from the exit to find a wall to re-enable. Every time the program places a wall, it also removes one, and ensures that there is always at least one path to the exit. It tries to remove walls in such a way that the player always has multiple escape options in the event of a wraith encounter, and keeps all paths relatively equidistant from the exit.
Transcendence
Transcendence is a short game exploring many different interpretations of the afterlife. We wanted to design the levels and mechanics to be representative of each interpretation.
For instance, in the "Nirvana" level, you can become one with the level itself, and rotate it to change the direction of gravity; the "Purgatory" level is a giant, endless ring which you can keep walking through ad infinitum until you find the exit; the level for "Torment" has many false exits and treacherous platforming, etc. |
At the end of the game, you reach the top of the tower shown above, where the first person to successfully return from the afterlife waits. He tells you that all of the interpretations you experienced within the other rooms of the tower are partially correct, but the real truth is more complicated than that, and offers to teach you everything he has learned--though he warns that you may not be ready to receive said knowledge.