The challenge.
Building a complete game by bringing together the entity engine, graphics, sound, art and player behaviour within one team.
My contribution.
I worked on the entity engine, mechanics and gameplay, as well as game and level design. My contribution had to integrate with the graphics, sound, AI and art developed by the rest of the team.
- Entity engine development.
- Gameplay and mechanics programming.
- Contribution to game and level design.
What we built.
A game with Windows and Linux versions, published on itch.io with its code available on GitHub. Exploration and the use of light shape the experience.
An architecture earns its place when it helps the different disciplines on a team build on top of it.
Development decisions.
Light as a mechanic and as information
The lantern accompanies the player through the cornfield and protects against corruption. Its interaction connects input, position, light and sound. It provides a concrete example of a gameplay action crossing several systems to produce a response the player can see and hear.
An entity engine for a shared world
The manager creates entities, attaches components and selects matching sets to process. Position, collision, health, light and sound have separate representations. This provides integration points between player mechanics and the team’s graphics, audio and AI contributions.
Building as a team in C++
OpenGL and FMOD provide graphics and sound layers while the project brings together the systems needed to form the game. My responsibilities centred on the entity engine, gameplay and design; the credits identify the rest of the team’s specialities.
The project in use.
- Enter the rural setting and navigate with the lantern: visibility and lighting are part of exploration.
- Follow the route through the cornfield, house and church, observing how the environment supports the horror atmosphere.
- Compare screenshots and source to connect inventory, movement and light with the engine’s components.
What to explore.
A way into the project through its screens, supporting material and, where available, its source code.
- The lantern interaction and its connections to light and sound components.
- Component creation and lookup in the entity manager.
- How scenery, lighting and audio complement one another during exploration.