My game tentatively titled “Down and Out” is about a human woman named Kaira who lives in post-apocalyptic Florida and has amnesia. She is trying to regain her memories and help the friends she makes along the way. Down and Out is radical in that while it is in a post-apocalyptic setting I don’t want the entire world to seem hostile. The game takes place after a sense of normalcy has returned to the world. The swamp Kaira lives in is her and her generation’s normal.
I was inspired to create this game several years ago when I wanted to explore a water-based post-apocalyptic setting as nearly all the post-apocalyptic media I have seen has been largely based on arid/desert conditions. It has since become much more than just the concept of a swamp with talking animals in it. The protagonist Kaira has come alive over this past year in ways I hadn’t foreseen when I started doodling her in my notebooks as a first year.
Development has hit a few unexpected snags and roadblocks along the way but overall I’m holding my own when it comes to coding and creating sprites is relaxing for me.If I could’ve done anything differently I would’ve developed the Tavern map more and filled it out more. As it is the map is quite barren and has no real interactions within. This map is one of my favorite places in the game so far so I really wish I had worked on it more than I did this semester. It is also a location that introduces another major NPC to the narrative who I didn’t have time to properly implement into the game.
My game hasn’t changed significantly over the course of the semester. It has changed since I first got the idea three years ago but over the semester Down and Out has remained largely the same. I’d say the biggest change was scrapping Zhis’s follow script and possibly changing the title from “Down” to “Down and out”. The character Zhis has remained largely unchanged since her original inception. If anything this semester has cemented her role as “The Companion” more than before. While Zhis is a character with her own motives and goals as will be seen at a later point in the game right now she is like a protector for Kaira. Kaira has lost all her memories and Zhis thankfully is there when she wakes up and is her friend. As she reintroduces Kaira to the world she’s lived in all her life she also guides the player into the world that is familiar yet foreign to them.
Getting a follower script running on Zhis turned out to be a challenge I couldn’t quite overcome this semester. This is unfortunate but not completely surprising. This is, however, something I intend to work on in the future. Time management was very important to this project and I wish my time management had been better so I could’ve accomplished even more with my game. For now, however, paired with what I accomplished last semester I am proud of how far I’ve come since starting game design.
While I had a few struggles while designing this game I also had some very pleasant surprises. Such as discovering that not only did I enjoy composing music but I was fairly good at it considering that I have never composed music before. It went over well in play-testing and set the mood I was hoping for so that was a pleasant surprise. I have gotten a good handle on LMMS (the audio program I used) and I plan on making more sounds for my game in the coming months.
