This game was designed solo for the 2D game design class, where I devised an idea for reverse horror game about a giant centipede. There is obvious design inspiration from games such as Phobia Studio’s Carrion, which subvert the normal roles that players inhabit during play.
Planning
These are the original drafts for the main mechanic and level designs.
The initial concept art for the central mechanic behind the game design – the lunge. Break walls, chomp people, all achieved through winding up and springing forward. There are also planned for an integrated health system shown via damage to the segments, though I didn’t have the time to implement this mechanic.
In the planned first level, the player can only escape the confines of the starting position by using the main mechanic – the lunge – to break the glass container, giving the player the knowledge that obstacles are breakable, which would allow the player to experiment with different solutions to normal problems by literally bashing their heads against a wall.
First Prototype
This is the first prototype build I made for this project. Originally made in Godot, my primary objective was to set up how I wanted the centipede to move, with each segment individually propelled, but still following the path of the head.
And being the forward-thinking man that I am, the centipede was constructed by a script. With just a little tweak to a value in the editor, I could create truly marvelous thing…
Second Prototype
After the first prototype, I switched to Unity for the powerful physics components built into the engine which I wanted to utilize. After rebuilding the construction and movement scripts in unity, I was left with a much more fluid-feeling centipede capable of lunging.
In addition, I had begun to develop the destruction physics. I used open-source unity code for the fragmenting of a primitive object, then tweaked it to work in 2D and have fragments remain stuck to others. However, it seemed that the objects designed to shatter had other plans.
Third Prototype
By this point, the wall breaks to my satisfaction and I switch to developing AI for enemies.
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