Agartadasm
'Agartadasm' is an acronym. It's 'A Game About Running Through A Dark And Scary Maze'.
It's a 2d top-down game where the objective is simply to get to an exit, there's no combat involved. It's partially inspired by the 'weeping angels' from Dr Who, who cannot move if you can see them. The map contains 'safe areas' at the start and exit, and others inbetween. While the player is not in a safe area, the screen goes dark and any mobs on the map can move. You have to plan your route while in a safe area, and then run for it. It uses visual clues for sounds, otherwise you're staring at a black screen for most of the game! You'll see the sound of footsteps, and a visual indication of vaguely where the sounds of mobs are coming from.
Later levels will involve more complex challenges, such as needing to get to one safe area to open a doorway, or close one to trap a mob, then progressing to the exit, that sort of thing.
It's my first real attempt at making a game in C++, using SDL2.
The screenshot shows the player bottom left having just taken a few steps down, and a mob above right following, somewhere around that area; it's supposed to be vague and faint, but I haven't put randomness in yet. The placeholder graphics are shockingly bad, getting it playable's was my first priority.
30th August 2016 - Hit a brick wall :(
Ok, there's one down side to getting a game playable- you get to find out whether or not it's worth playing, and sometimes the answer to that is a resounding 'no'. I guess this is the main reason I was aiming for a build I could try the game out without going into too much effort to do nice graphics, sound effects or optimization just yet, there's little point doing that only to find out it's probably not worth continuing. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'll have a flash of inspiration or a new direction I can take it that might work, but right now I can't see a way to make the game enjoyable. There isn't really a challenge to it, the correct way to complete each level is very easy to work out, and it boils down to either just going through the motions, with a bit of blind luck thrown in that you don't really have any control over.
I hate the idea of giving up on a game, but then I'm also not enamoured with the idea of putting effort into something that's just not going to work. On the up side however, I got some familiarity with C++ and SDL which will help significantly in other projects. Also, I actually got motivated enough to make some progress in the first place, which is always a confidence booster. I'm not going to completely scrap it, but I can't see a way forward with this at the moment, so it's getting shelved.
21st August 2016 - Hit a milestone!
Well, I got it playable. Barely. It's hardly much of a playable game at the moment, but the core structure's there, from here on it's mostly adding new features and new mob types, adding content, and of course, bug fixing. The avatar IS animated.. but there's only 2 animatiom frames for each direction, and they're all identical until I can do some real art. Here's the video: [Link]
Right now, there's only a single image for each of the floor, wall, safe area and exit, and one for the mob. Obviously polish can and probably will include a variety of textures for each that are functionality identical.
The only mob currently in the game has a simple 'head straight for the player' logic. Pathfinding's the obvious enhancement, but I think I'll actually make that a different type of mob for later levels.
As you can see in the video, the first level is a straight forward 'just run for it'. I've set up the mob's starting position so that you can only make it if you cling to the bottom wall. The second level's a bit more of a challenge. You can't just run round one way, you have to lure both mobs to one side, then run back round the other without luring them close enough to block your path. In the video you can see me sneaking closer to the corner, then as soon the sound effects get brighter (i.e. louder), I start running back. Can't really see how close I was! I'm going to add in a 'playtesting' mode that allows you to see the map while playing, which I'll also use for recording videos.
18th August 2016
Agartadasm has progressed considerably in the last few weeks, from little more than a C++/SDL 'Hello World' project courtesy of Lazy Foo' with the title changed, to a fully function game, even though it's a bit basic at the moment.
A large part of what got the motivation going for this was thanks to Stugan. I'm not formally a part of Stugan in any way other than perhaps keeping the numbers up in the audience of the occasional live stream, but merely keeping up with what's going on, soaking up the vibes and the atmosphere, it's helped considerably. I guess it's a bit like when you get really into a good book or a movie, you can start to feel involved in the plot and imagine or feel what it's like being a part of what's going on. There's a curious psychological side effect- even though the date Stugan ends will come and go without any impact on my life whatsoever, I still feel a compulsion to hit a milestone by that date.
There are few critical elements to the game I still need to get done before hitting that point:
- Better collision handling. Right now, it's very crude- if you can't move to where you want to, it simply stops you moving altogether. This prevents wall sliding, which is fairly critical to the mobs behavior.
- Multiple levels. Right now, there isn't even a way to finish a level. I need to add that end goal, and then implement multiple levels.
- With that done, I need to design a few levels, enough to demonstrate where the challenge in the game is, and how it can progress in difficulty/complexity.
- Graphics. There's no animation at all on the player avatar, and most of the graphics needs a lot of improvement.
Other items on the 'to-do' list, after I get a playable game working:
- Better effects when you die. My original concept involved it frequently being genuinely surprising if a mob catches you while running, I'd like to add a big enough effect that the player actually jumps if they get caught unexpectedly.
- Improve on the intro screen. Something more detailed than just the name and 'press space to play' is probably a good idea.
- Better AI on mobs.. maybe generally, but more likely I'll add different types of mobs, and some of the later ones start to use pathfinding or other tactics. I'd like to have mobs sneaking up to the player if possible.
And I've got a few ideas of things I hope to implement:
- Safe areas that need to be enabled at a different safe area, possibly disabling others in the process- so you can't just run to the exit, you have to actually create your escape route.
- Doors that can be opened/closed from safe areas, maybe trapping mobs
- Breakable walls that mobs can burst through.
- Different terrain types that make different sound effects.. for example running through a carpeted area you might not be able to hear mobs at all.
I'm sure there's many other possibilities that could come out of playtesting/feedback in the future.