Untitled Top-Down 2D Horror Exploration Game

pixeltroid

Member
Background: On the 15th of January, I decided to take a break from my main project and started work on a small top down horror game, just to refresh my thinking a bit and give my mind new things to chew on for a while. For some reason, I felt the urge to create an atmospheric horror game inspired by horror films I liked such as "The Shining", "Evil Dead" and "The Beyond" (1981). I originally wanted the game-world to be set in a small town where the player must interact with the townsfolk in order to acquire clues and items. However, after thinking it through, I felt it would be way too vast to complete in a short time and decided to reduce the scope by setting the game in an old run down mansion.

Synopsis: Detectives investigating paranormal events in a small town are led to a seemingly abandoned mansion where they learn of a strange cult and their dark secrets.

Gameplay: In the game, you do not use any weapons, fight any enemies or even take damage. The game places an on emphasis on exploration and discovery. You will have to move around, inspect objects, collect items and keys, and discover secrets in order to make progress in the game.

Here's what has been implemented so far:
  • Movement -- 8 way movement.
  • Object interaction -- Pressing 'L' lets you look at an object, this causes a text box or a picture box to pop up. Pressing 'P' lets you pick up an item. Holding down 'P' lets you perform longer interactions (opening, prying, digging etc).
  • Items -- Keys, tools and objects that will let you access various rooms.
  • HUD -- The HUD displays the following: a) Nearby Items b) Inventory c) Progress bar of long interactions d) Text boxes (recycled from my main project).
  • Level design and layout -- The mansion is divided into 30 something interconnected rooms. Each room is 960 x 540 pixels and contains many objects that the player must patiently investigate and make mental notes of.
  • Door and Lock system -- Some areas are sealed off by doors and gates and can only be accessed if the player has a specific key or item(s) in his inventory.
  • Clues -- Clues to item locations and the backstory will appear throughout the game in the forms of writings, letters and photographs.
  • Locked objects -- Lockers and drawers contain useful items and clues. Some of them can only be opened with keys.
  • Save points -- The entrance to every room has a save point. So you can quit the adventure anywhere and restart anytime in the exact room you were in last, with all your items and progress stored.
As of now, I am quite satisfied with the overall flow of the game but I am still refining it by adding new items and tweaking the level layout.

With the exception of a few tilesets and the HUD icons, all I have are placeholder graphics. On a side note, working with placeholder graphics is helping me focus on the design and flow of the actual game. Once that's done, I plan on creating the visuals and write the text elements of the game and of course, design the "horror" elements of the game.

Screens showcasing Game elements. Mostly Placeholder Graphics!


Demonstration of HUD showing inventory, nearby item, description of item and room name.


Pressing L near a interactive object will show this text box. Here, our hero learns that he needs a key to open the big blue gate!.


Using the crowbar to pry open a jammed door to access to a new room containing an item.


Dismantling a clock to take its batteries to use in the flashlight that is needed elsewhere.
 

Zizka

Member
I think it looks interesting. Having more than one active project at a time can be risky as there’s a chance you won’t go back to your previous project (in my case anyway).

Art wise having four directions will mean more resources as you can’t mirror up and down movement. You’ll need movement animations for all sets.

What size is each tile? Depending on the size and if it’s a






Eating:


Death:


Condition:


Life line:



Inventory:


Screwdriver:


They’re very small but you could x2 them without the pixels looking too bad. This stuff is very old and basic in its animations but it could work. I’d be happy to see them used and you’d save a lot of time not spriting.

The assets are in a dead laptop but I plan to get that from a tech shortly.

I’m offering as your concept seem to fit with what I had in mind back then.
 

pixeltroid

Member
I think it looks interesting. Having more than one active project at a time can be risky as there’s a chance you won’t go back to your previous project (in my case anyway).
I know. That's why I cut down the scope of the project by a LOT. It's presently around 1/20th of what I originally envisioned. I intend to finish this by the end of February.
I think it's doable because I'm around 80% done with the game design and I wont be adding any new mechanics. Should this drag on beyond February, I will stop work on this and go back to my main project!


Art wise having four directions will mean more resources as you can’t mirror up and down movement. You’ll need movement animations for all sets.
I will have up, down and sideways movement. And I'll use the "UP" sprites to show up-left and up-right movement, and "DOWN" sprites for "down-left" and down-right" movement. I'm also not planning to show animations for the player when he's using various tools. So it's going to be a little lo-fi.


They’re very small but you could x2 them without the pixels looking too bad. This stuff is very old and basic in its animations but it could work. I’d be happy to see them used and you’d save a lot of time not spriting.

I’m offering as your concept seem to fit with what I had in mind back then.
Hey thanks I appreciate that. But I already have some decent looking sprites for the objects and the HUD. I've also prototyped a tile set template for walls and floors, which I can easily use as a template for every other area in the game. All that remains are the walking sprite sheet, which I'll get to as soon as I work out the "look" of the hero.
 
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