Storm Hughes
Game Developer | Tech Artist
Sneak: (Prototype)
Game Info
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Single Player
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Systemic RPG meets a Dungeon Crawler
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Experimental input and interaction system
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Development Info
Role: Lead Designer, Developer, Artist
Team Size: 1
Genre: Top-Down\Dungeon Crawler\Stealth Game
Engine: GameMaker Studio 2
Development Time: In Development
Game Synopsis
Sneak is a single player exploration stealth game with heavy systems rpg inspiration. Focused around a joy-stick controlled Arm with full 360 degrees of freedom.
Responsibilities
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Created systems to manage the Numeric Springing and Inverse Kinematics on the moveable arm
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Designed systems to manage item's creation, storage, manipulation and interaction with both players and each other.
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Designed feedback systems and visual effect
Game Breakdown
Sneak was initially concepted during The Society of Play Cartridge Jam as a simple doodle. During the following months I saw potential in the concept and decided to create a prototype to test the viability of the idea.
The Arm
The Core fantasy of the concept was both a stealth game but also the "sneak hand" that would be used to interact with the world and steal items. One of the first goals in development was to create the arm in which the entire play experience would rely on both mechanically and aesthetically.
One of the first GIFs recording, demonstrating the first iteration of the arm.
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Adding an joint in the center of the arm and simple LERP easings to add delay to the movement.
Much later in development I implemented Inverse Kinematics for the elbow joint and a large amount of Numeric Springing for Rotation and Arm Length
Learning how to implement Inverse Kinematics within GameMaker took some time but the most difficult hurdle I experienced was the tuning. I went through many iterations and heavily tested my results to ensure usability and intuitive action. The desired goal was to give the player a single method of interacting with the world that could be considered an extension of themselves. I ended up with a pseudo-gestural input system which created some really interested and emergent results from players.
A player throwing items around the environment by rotating the controlling joystick in circular motions. This uses the same mechanics to pick up and move items but adds layers of possibility without systemic complexity.
The Inventory System And Combat
After successfully implementing the arm the next step in the games development was Item interaction, and as an extension of that Enemies and combat. Keeping focus on interacting with the world with a single arm and maintaining the stealthy fantasy of the main character, I designed combat to have phases in which you must defend from enemies, knock them unconscious, and then eliminate them. This causes players to constantly switch between items and collect the necessary items inside their inventory to progress.
The Player breaking a handful of pots, picking up the and then retrieves them from their inventory.
The first iteration of combat that displays the full loop.
A fully developed combat loop that involves retrieving the proper items, defence, knocking out the enemy, killing them, and finally disposing of the remains to not alert other guards.
Sneak is a a game I still enjoy developing and while I've run into some IDE based issues I intend to continue development so please stay tuned to both this site and my twitter for updates.