Dev Log 4,5 and 6 - Dev Week, Gameloop, The Hand

Sorry for no dev logs last month I’ll do better I plomise. We’re excited to share what we’ve been up to since the last one and we will share that with you now:

Devlog 4 - Dev Week

We met irl and rented an air bnb for a dev week where we cranked the AC to 64 degrees and locked-in. No one was allowed to leave or go to the beach until we finalized our games various systems and game loop. By the end of the gruelingly cold week we emerged from the freeze-maxxed air bnb with a game design document that we’re extremely proud of (GOTY). We’re working hard to bring this idea to life as fast as possible, and aiming to release a demo for y’all by the end of August! Here’s some cute pics of us and our process:

Devlog 5 - On Game Loop

Since dev week, we’ve been single-mindedly working to implement the features that will be most impactful in creating a fun/repeatable game loop. Something I’ve learned is that there’s a difference between “problems” and “dilemmas” in books/ games/ movies. A problem on its own generally isn't interesting enough to drive a narrative, but rather it’s the dilemmas that emerge from the problem, and how the character responds to these dilemmas that makes for an interesting story. I learned this from 90 Day Novel by Alan Watt, not to be confused with Alan Watts lol. Anyways, this idea feels useful to me and pretty transferable to video games.

Problem

Our games central problem is that there’s these monsters trying to kill you and the more that players die, the stronger this enemy we’re calling “the entity” becomes. 

Overview of resurrection mechanics:

To revive someone, players can pick up the “soul stone” of their dead friend and chuck it in a firepit-a few being located somewhere in each area. Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSDayUdFT2s&ab_channel=VirtualBuddies

When a player is revived through their soul stone, the entity will become stronger. If players choose not to go back for their teammates soulstone then that player will be automatically revived at the “safe room” at the end of each area, but strengthening the entity much more so than if they had been rezzed by soulstone. Overall we don’t want dead players to be spectating for too long, and we want to encourage people to go the extra mile of heroically retrieving teammates soul stones, or actively trying to prevent the death of a teammate entirely. If the entity becomes too empowered the game will become extremely difficult and the team will likely die. The game only ends if all 4 players are dead simultaneously.

Dilemmas

The idea of players vs hostile world is to create fun dilemmas of a PVE variety, but that’s true of any game with baddies. What we feel will be most unique in this game will be the dilemmas that emerge from this idea of a one-way economy built around player death and its effect through “the entity”.

The outcome we want is for players to cooperate less as a tactical monster killing squad and more as a group of people actively participating in each others well-being. We want players to want to carry each other to the finish line despite being battered and bruised themselves. Misfit band of brothers type vibes.

A few dilemmas that will be able to occur in the demo: 

• Teammate is bleeding, help them find a bandage

• Teammate got their leg run over by a rat king, someone has to carry them.

• Teammate has fallen ill with a contagious disease, try to get them help but don’t get too close to them. (Illnesses are going to be a really cool part of the game but I’ll save it for it’s own dev-log)

• We also have detailed plans for a bunch of items/weapons that will useful to the PVE element but are prone to creating friendly-fire type dilemmas, which we think will be really funny

Thinking of this game as a real-time Oregon Trail would probably be apt. These kinds of dilemmas will be of a more social/ interpersonal nature which is where we feel the heart of the game lies. 

Devlog 6: The Hand:

The hand is one of the forms that "the entity" can take on. It spawns a distance away from players and will extend its arm around corners and even open closed doors in an attempt to grab a player. After it does, it’ll pull the player back to its lair and bind them until help arrives.

Video of hand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRcaPJEU8hI&ab_channel=VirtualBuddies

Unlike other enemies, the entity and its various forms can only be slain with objects that emit light. If you’re quick and well prepared you’ll be able to stop it in its tracks through the use of a flare gun, fireworks or some well placed glow sticks. If you don’t stop it before it reaches its target, you can follow its trail back to your teammate, but who knows what kind of state they’ll be in. How many hands, their speed, and rate of spawn will be dependent on the team death counter mentioned in the last dev log. The hand has some implications in that it tells players that they can’t survive long on their own and that they’ll have to largely stay with the group. Also it creates the dilemma of being forcibly separated from your team which is always a fun moment.

We hope you guys dig it, and thank you for your continued support.

Bye