I’M MAKING MY FIRST GAME!!
It’s been a year since I dropped out of university to pursue my dream of becoming a game developer, and I am excited to announce that I’m making my first game! FINALLY! I’ve always dreamed of building massive open world RPGs with beautifully animated combat; stunning triple A Graphics, and HA! Those are still dreams because that is not the kind of game I’m making…yet.
To achieve such a vision, I require a team. I could attempt such an ambitious task myself; however, I am no concept artist, nor a 3D modeller, or level designer, or animator, and even if I learnt all these skills myself, we would be on IPhone 21 and Playstation 6 before I’m even halfway through the game’s development!
Therefore, those ambitious game ideas will have to remain in my head a while longer. I must begin small by developing a game that I can handle alone. Hopefully, as I begin to build an audience with these smaller projects, I can connect with others who would be interested in forming a team to aid in the development of my passion project.
So, I’m beginning with my smaller game ideas, and the first one I’m working on is my current project: a comedy survival horror game!
What?!
Wait…that’s quite different to the open world Action RPGs that I’ve dreamt of developing. Well yes, but no. I’m going to take the elements that I love most from my favourite RPGs and incorporate them into my horror game.
What I love most about games like The Witcher 3, Persona 5, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Divinity: Original Sin II is the story! I absolutely adore games with engaging stories; particularly ones where your decisions affect the narrative. Those are the type of games I wish to make. No matter the genre, so long that my game has an intriguing story, narrative-spawning decisions, and charming characters, then it’s a game I’m happy to call my own.
I suppose it’s now evident that my current project has all these elements. But what is my current project? I bet you’re dying to know! Well…
Who Killed The Dinner?
I am working on a project called: ARGHH there’s killer chasing me which is a demo of a future game titled Who Killed The Dinner?
The game is set in a mansion where a family dinner turns sour as a result of the main character uncovering their uncle’s decapitated head under a dome lid. Throughout the story, the player assumes control of multiple characters who they must keep alive whilst trying to expose the identity of the masked maniac trying to butcher them like meat!
The inspiration
Initially, I envisioned this game as a… movie! Before game development, I was a web developer running a movie website. I became so in awe with movies that I even considered studying film at university. From web developer to script writer, that is a bizarre jump. But I adored writing and watching stories that much to even consider such a risky manoeuvre. Fast forward a few years, and I found my calling: game development. Through the medium of games, I could combine my passion for writing stories with my enjoyment for programming. Now I “work” as a game developer who writes their own games.
Now that this movie is to be a game, I had to consider the gameplay. I took heavy inspiration from Until Dawn; I liked the decisions and fatal consequences it had, and decided that Who Killed The Dinner? would be my own version of that with a “Curly Fries” Twist. (I go by the gaming username Curlyfries709)
What is this Twist? Well, it’s my ridiculous sense of humour! I always envisioned Who Killed The Dinner? to be a comedy horror. I think the humour is what makes it charming and unique from other survival horrors and murder mysteries. I think it’s necessary for the game to have a standout feature especially when the gameplay isn’t really doing anything new. The humour of the game was inspired by season 1 of TV Series “Scream Queens”. That sort of ridiculous, modern, nihilistic, crude humour is what I’m going for.
I could yammer on about my vision for Who Killed The Dinner? But its development is still quite a while off as my focus is on its demo: ARGHH, there’s a killer chasing me! A silly name for a silly little game as I like to say, and I think it suits it. A blunt goofy title for a game that definitely doesn’t take itself seriously.
Gameplay Elements
The demo is set in a forest environment where you control Adam who is not the most likeable character. Truthfully, he’s a dick and you’re not surprised he ended up in such a dreadful situation. Regardless, you have to help Adam escape the forest while evading a masked killer who hates his gut so much that they want to gut them out!
On paper that sounds quite simple, however, there are various ways to evade this killer:
- Combat — This will not be a walking simulator horror game. You do have the option to fight back. There are even abandoned items in the environment that could make an effective emergency weapon, like an umbrella! Great for rainy days, and days where you’re being stalked by a murderous maniac! But if you need something stronger, there is the option to craft, if you have the required components.
- Stealth — You could sneak pass them, and evade their line of sight by jumping into the numerous hiding spots scattered across the environment. You’re going to be using the toilets a lot…for hiding and not because you made a massive mess in your pants because there’s a murderous fiend chasing you! Ok, probably for that too.
- Good Ol’ reliable Running — And as always you could just RUNNNNN! But watch your stamina…and your step. Yes, you can trip while running in this game. Be sure to jump if you see a TRAPPPP!
Stats
The effectiveness of these various tactics is determined by your stats. Similar to RPGs your characters have stats. The Six Stats are:
- Strength: Determines the damage of your attacks and how much longer you can last in a struggle. (A struggle is a minigame that occurs when the Killer grabs you)
- Speed: Determines how fast you can run.
- Cunning: Determines your effectiveness when Sneaking and hiding making you harder to spot.
- Endurance: Determines your max health, max stamina and time it takes to fully recover your Stamina.
- Resourcefulness: Unlocks smarter options when interacting and allows you to craft more advanced weapons.
- Luck: Determines the possibility of a miracle to occur allowing you to survive after making an otherwise fatal decision.
Though, in this game, stats cannot be improved, but they can be temporarily altered by status effects. (E.g. being drunk reduces cunning, but it will send your luck through the roof.) Each Stat has a value from 1 (Lowest) to 5 (highest). Every character has different stat values. Therefore, you will have to change your tactics depending on which character you’re controlling.
Investigation
The demo, also, has an optional mystery that can be solved. I mean you wake up, as Adam, in the woods and, all of a sudden, a masked killer is chasing you…Why? Well, that’s certainly something to investigate.
The forest is littered with corpses who unfortunately fell victim to the killer’s knife. In this day and age, what is the best way to learn about someone? No, obviously not talking to them, corpses can’t talk but you can stalk- I mean investigate their social media activity after looting the phone from their body. By doing this you could uncover clues that aid in solving the mystery of the masked killer.
I confess I had a lot of fun making app designs for the phones in this game. I created a Twitter parody, YouTube parody, WhatsApp parody and even an Onlyfans Parody. Definitely don’t open the Onlyfans parody at work.
Once you think you have gathered enough clues, it’s up to you to determine the identity of the culprit by analysing your uncovered clues. I like this part a lot; it makes you feel like a mini detective trying to solve a case. This is where your decisions will have an effect in the demo; yes, the demo will have multiple endings and your decisions will decide which ending you unlock. Pretty cool, I think.
The End!
Well, that’s everything I wanted to discuss about my game. You can follow its development here, and Oh! here’s a little sneak peek of the demo’s environment below.
If you made it this far, here’s a virtual cookie! Thank you for reading! :)
