Computer Game Development and Design 2019/20 fall

Hestia

S. Deviatykh, V. Kupriienko, K. Lashkevich

Itch.io link: https://pokpokpok.itch.io/hestia

Project summary

Hestia is a role play card-based game in space setting.

Year 2030. The protagonist is a spaceman from Earth, which takes part in the newest spaceship engine testing near Pluto on Hestia spacecraft. But the result of the experiment was unpredictable. The engine malfunctioned, as a result, a small anomaly looking like a black hole was created.

The protagonist opens eyes and does not see Pluto anymore, just darkness and coldness. In the next moment, they see a ship, but not from the Earth. Alien spaceship! The light beam pulls them to the ship owned by the rude and mad alien captain - a slave trader - who forces you to work in the mines. After arriving at the planet, one of the slaves, called Thrall, approaches you and offers you to escape. He provides you with basic weapons and teaches you how to use them. The protagonist and Thrall steal a spaceship, which can deliver them to the next planetary system, but no further, not to Earth.

Summary

Aim: Come back home after ending up millions light-years away from Earth.

How do you begin and what do you do. You get captured by slave traders, who force you to work in the mines. One of the slaves, called Thrall, approaches you and offers you to escape. He provides you with basic cards and teaches you how to use them (starts a tutorial fight with a tin can, where you attack using cards from your deck).

How does the game respond to your actions. You discover and explore new locations, interact with other characters and fight enemies in a turn-based card combat, progressing through the story. What changes in game over time or as you progress. Both you and enemies get stronger cards, enemies become tougher, your karma changes depending on your choices.

What must you do to keep up with the game progress. Player has to get better cards and get new spaceships in order to progress through the story (get to another star system, break through the barrier, sneak past patrols etc.)

How does the player fail and succeed. In order to succeed you have to win the fight. If the player wins, they will receive cards and Δ-particles (in-game currency). If the player loses the fight, they have an option to escape from the enemy. If the player does not manage to escape, they will lose cards/Δ or start from the last checkpoint depending on the enemy skill; otherwise, the player will not gain anything, but will safely escape, and the enemy will stay alive.

Milestone 1

UI Mocks

Main Menu

Space Exploration Mode (2D-movement)

Deck Selection

Card Battle

Dialogue Screen

List of features

MVP for the first milestone:

1. Deck selection
2. 5 basic cards - attack, heal, two-way damage card, heal over time (buff), damage over time (debuff)
3. Core battle mechanics
4. Player/enemy turn change
5. Cards dealing/discard pile mechanics
6. Card preview on hover
7. Basic enemy AI
8. Basic art assets
9. Win/Lose condition and screen

Pictures

Milestone 2

List of features

MVP for the second milestone:

1. Added sounds: background music on Deck Selection and Battle scenes, sound effects (cards dragging/playing, dialogs, etc.);
2. Added animations: manually animated Player (idle, win, death), added animations for enemies (idle, death);
3. Improved Deck Selection Scene UI/UX: improved pixel graphics elements, added effects new, fixed bugs, added min/max cards hints;
4. Added neon-style highlighting for card targets on Battle Scene;
5. Implemented new Dialogue Scene and basic dialogue system;
6. Made the development of new content easily scalable and configurable: moved all core gameplay elements to scriptable objects (player, enemies, cards, levels, dialogues, etc.);
7. Added game router class to handle transitions between scenes;
8. Added first equipment cards and Equipment view;
9. Added new level and enemies;
10. Some minor improvements of UI (buff/debuff indicators, fonts, elements scale, etc.), and bug fixes.

Pictures

Milestone 3

Peer review

We have reviewed the "Afraid of the Dark" game. Our thoughts are summarized here.

List of features

New features and improvements:

1. New enemies, levels, dialogues, cards;
2. Implemented and save/load logic;
3. Added in-game tutorials;
4. Added main menu and pause menu;
5. Added more music and sounds to the battle and menu actions;
6. UI polishing and major design improvements: updated all fonts, reworked pixel-art design (cards, items, icons, backgrounds, etc.), added lots of animations to UI and action scene;
7. Reworked item usage logic, made wearable items more diverse;
8. Added random effect cards and items (chance of blocking, damage, healing, etc.);
9. Other improvements and bug fixes.

Pictures