As promised in my last blog post, I’m here to show you the two projects that I’m working on over the summer. I am extremely excited to continue working in my time away from classes, and these two projects interest me highly. I think they’re far enough along that I can show them off a bit.

Gas Mask Lounge

Gas Mask Lounge is a project I’ve decided to work on as the sole designer and programmer until I get it into a state where I can show it off and ask for help from an artist, as well as a project to keep me busy.

Designed as a mix between Papers, Please and VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, Gas Mask Lounge tasks the player with working at a gas mask lounge in an arena, making performance-altering gas packs for competitors in an attempt to win as much money off of bets by fixing the matches. The core gameplay loop will involve the player talking to the customer, gaining information about them that will help them figure out who they are and what they want, and then they will need to figure out whether they should bet on this competitor and give them the mix they ask for or bet on their opponent and sabotage them with an incorrect mix. The player will be motivated to try and make the most money possible to continue playing, but there will also be characters that are written in ways that the player will want to help them even at the sacrifice of some money. The goal is to mix the characters and bartending of VA-11 HALL-A with the fast action and multitasking of Papers, Please in an interestingly-designed world. I really want to craft a world that shows how a world like this would be from the perspective of many different everyday people.

So far, I’ve created the most basic of prototypes to show off my concept. The game randomly creates a schedule of fighters for the day and lets them talk to you with randomized dialogue and desires. You can then look at the Ingredients book to determine what ingredients will create the desired pack, mix the pack, and serve it to the customer with it recognizing if it’s what they wanted or not. You can also check the odds of them winning their match and you can bet money on the matches.

GML_Gif_1

GML_Gif_2

I’ve set up a lot of the groundwork to keep going on this project, but in the future of this basic prototype, I’d like to include two more things:

Characters that are guaranteed to show up and will return and develop
A system like in Papers, Please that has the player pay off bills at the end of each day to incentivize them to make as much money as possible

I’m extremely excited with this project and I hope to keep working on it to the point that I could add it to my portfolio! Stay tuned for updates!

Wizards: Battle Royale

My other project for the summer is a team game that a bunch of classmates/friends have decided to work on. Currently codenamed Untitled Wizards Fighting Game, the game is a platform fighter in the same vein of Super Smash Bros. but with a cast of original characters that are magic users participating in a modern wizard battle tournament. The cast is meant to cover all types of magic, from practical tricks to mages.

Progress on the game is underway, with a very, very early prototype being built and early concepting of two characters by the designers and artists. The two characters are a stage magician and a street magician, as we wanted to start small with practical stuff and then let our imaginations run wild with the more magical characters.

I asked to take the lead with the street performer as I had a lot of ideas with how to make a fun, aggressive, and mobile character that is magical but not overtly so. My designs brought me to Lottie, a foster child from New York who used her magical ability to learn simple talents quickly to become a street performer in the subway system. She utilizes many classic street performer talents like dancing, juggling, and illusions to move around the stage and take down her opponents. Below is the concept art for her and the stage magician, Arturo.